Yūgen Project Series.  

Gaby Oshiro 

The Poetic Sign. MMXXIV

My interest in languages and discovering the etymology of words, made me curious to know the origin of kanji. I have found books about these Chinese signs called Oracle Bone script/Dragon script, that were part of an ancient writing system lost in time, and rediscovered 3000 years later around 1895. These primordial symbols connect us with the past, a visceral connection part of the collective memory. To me they have a lyrical quality belonging to my Japanese roots and it’s the reason why I incorporate them to my visual vocabulary.  A work of art without substance and reasoning it’s only an empty vessel, like a body without a soul.

 

Closer to the sensibility of the Art Informel/Arte Informale, these symbols are reinvented, deconstructed, multiplied, they follow a rhythmic composition following an invisible grid or pattern with variations of color, they create a visual song. These characters are also used as a module and they exist in relation to others, they communicate intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings allowing a universal interpretation of a private language.

 

Painting is a visual language, a way to express and communicate what is under the surface and to reveal the painter’s inner truths, transforming the invisible into visible.  The paintings do not answer completely to the message of the painter, art becomes the catalyst for introspection. Individuals uncover their own significances depending on their experiences and philosophies of life.  A painting as a meditative element, is a visual poem/haiku that invites the interlocutor to isolate from noise and have a one on one conversation.