OCEAN - Dead Sea #01, 2022, 1045×430×50, Unique, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
OCEAN - Marshall Islands #02, 2022, 670×500×50mm, Unique, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
OCEAN - Marshall Islands #01, 2016, 800×600×50mm, Unique, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
OCEAN - Hiroshima #01, 2022, 790×410,×50mm, Unique, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
OCEAN - Nagasaki #01, 2022, 720×390×50mm, Unique, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
OCEAN - Odawara #01, 2015, 1800×900×50mm, Unique, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
OCEAN - Maldives #01, 2016, Unique, 1800×900×50mm, UV-ink print, Acrylic, Varnish, Plaster, Wooden board
The OCEAN series is a conceptual body of work exploring the complex interdependence between human activity and the natural environment. The seascapes, from which all man-made objects have been carefully removed through digital processing, attempt to reconstruct a primordial nature from before human intervention — yet traces of the human remain at the level of the particulate, suggesting that a return to pure nature is impossible.
Into the plaster that forms each work's base, sand from the place of photographing is kneaded, so that the digital image and the memory of a physical site are made one. The deliberate irregularities produced by burning wooden boards symbolize the transformation civilization imposes upon nature, and the technique of transferring a digital image onto plaster expresses a fusion of tradition and the digital age.
Within what we recognize as "pure nature," invisible human traces persist; they cannot be entirely erased. Each work bears the real name of its place of photographing, emphasizing its engagement with an environment that possesses a specific location and history.
The OCEAN series blurs the boundaries between the visible and the invisible, the artificial and the natural, matter and memory, past and present — and offers us the chance to reconsider our relationship with the environment.
