By cloelea, Jun 22 2017
“Glass is a liquid that forgot what it was” Kim KototamaLune.
“Synapsis”, an exhibition presented at the galerie d’art Da-End in Paris, displays the works of two artists: the Vietnamese glass sculptor Kim KototamaLune and the Japanese photographer Satoki Nagata.
“In 1897, the British physiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1852-1952) enabled a major advance in the field of neurosciences by introducing the term « synapsis » into the medical lexicon. From the Greek σύναψις (syn = together and haptein = touch, grasp; in the sense of connexion), the synapse designates the junction point between two nerve cells, permitting the transmission of information from one to the other” (www.da-end.com/synapsis/).
Even though this is not directly related to jewellery, I wanted to mention the work of these artists because it relates to my interrogations about what is art. For the anecdote, Kim KototamaLune discovered glass through her father-in-law, a jeweller.
In my opinion, the work presented here is linked to the work of Mari Ishikawa and to the ideas I mentioned in my previous post dedicated to her (http://cloelea.moonfruit.com/blog/4593645380/%E2%80%9CWhere-does-the-parallel-world-exist-%E2%80%9D-Mari-Ishikawa/11173986?). In the sense that this exhibition shows us how art is the lens through which we see the world. It is the creation of other worlds; distortions of the reality make it possible to see beyond what is in front of us.
The glass structures created by Kim KototamaLune could as well be seen: as little worlds up in the air, maybe just dream-like worlds, evanescent and gone the second we are back to reality, as textile-like structures, almost like lace, or as organic structures: botanical images, an unusual kind of skin or representations of the nervous system. ”She creates bridges between the real world of Nature and dreamlike worlds of silence and spirituality” (Thierry Hay, who wrote an interesting article about the exhibition: Les formidables dentelles de verre de Kim KototamaLune à la galerie Da-End).
Glass is a very particular medium: « Matter that borders on the immaterial in a troubling way, thus bringing the invisible out within the visible » (Kim KototamaLune). It has two main characteristics that relate directly to the idea of an imaginary world, delicate, fragile, but also odd and maybe abnormal or deformed.
It is a liquid that turns solid, and her technique involves welding the glass at the liquid stage to form these strange structures). In addition, it has a striking appearance of luminosity and nothingness at the same time, it is almost not there, being see-through. Spaces in-between spaces, empty spaces are as important; they are part of the story.
What is amazing is that although both artists use very different mediums to create, the end result feels connected, like a dialogue between soul mates. The link between reality and another world, a dream, a fantasy or maybe just the inside of our mind (or is it the link between us and what’s around us?), is also visible on the photographs by Satoki Nagata. The luminosity points obtained in his photographs reminds us of the light emerging from the glass structures.
The effect of combining his special techniques of using flashes and long-exposure as well as his subject matter: nocturnal black and white silhouette of people in the city, renders an extraordinary image of the person photographed.
We either feel we can see through the person down to his/her soul and mind, or that we have reached another dimension, a world inside the world of reality. At the same time, the person seems to merge with its surrounding, we feel that the person is an entire part of landscape or is it the other way around, the landscape is part of the person?
Connections are everywhere in the works presented here: connections with other worlds, with our inner-self, with our dreams (conscious or unconscious), with our surrounding, with Nature, with others… It is these connections that, at the same time, create Art and give it a meaning, maybe even a purpose.
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