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Makoto Fujimura’s “The Splendor of the Medium” By Carrie Wong The image of fish swimming peacefully yet undeniably robust in a pond is not one I would associate with war. Yet circumstance and history has chosen to link together the two seemingly antithetical images, where one is of peace, and the other is of violence. Shot on video, “Nagasaki Koi” documents multi-colored Japanese Koi in a pond adjacent to the site where the second atomic bomb detonated in Nagasaki, Japan. This particular film serves as the nucleus of Makoto Fujimura’s most recent exhibition, “The Splendor of the Medium”, and functions as a study from which the other paintings in the exhibition depart. Projected onto a whitewashed brick wall in the cellar of the Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art Gallery, the circularly looped film details both the movement of and the bodies of “koi”, or carp, peacefully swimming inside a pond. Filmed up-close, the markedly docile fish are vibrant and robust with life as they slither pass both the camera, and each other. I see the multicolored metallic scales of the fish glitter through the water, and their beauty and simplicity takes my breath away. In the pond, there were carp in assorted colors, white and orange, gold, and black, rubbing shoulders with and waltzing by one another. I was further riveted by how vivid and almost electric their colors were. Yet the shock of color did not detract from the atmospheric calmness Fujimura creates in “Nagasaki Koi”. The mood of the video remains dominated by a sedated peacefulness. What was most interesting to me about “Nagasaki Koi” was the deliberate slowness of the film. Looking at the fish, my eyes trailing after them, I wonder how different the film would have been if the pace had not been slackened. I do not doubt the movements of the fish would have been much more rigorous. I even picture a watery battleground truced but tense with latent violence, as the fish abrasively brush by one another. Obviously, it would have been quite a very different film from “Nagasaki Koi”, whose languid elegance helps to invoke its viewers into a state of rest and contemplation. And yet, the liveliness of the fish reveals that belying the balmy tranquility is a vigorous dynamism. The other works featured in “The Splendor of the Medium”, similar to “Nagasaki Koi”, exemplifies the same qualities of both peaceful contemplation and visceral energy found woven throughout Fujimura’s extensive body of work. In his work, the dialogue and interplay between these two energies has since become his artistic hallmark. Reflective but dynamic, Fujimura’s latest exhibit contains paintings that quietly stimulate its viewers into a state of meditation. Moreover, his paintings contain the rare ability to simultaneously invite and alienate its viewers by its attractiveness and its intangibility, respectively. By rendering viewers to this state, Fujimura’s paintings are able to illicit emotional responses from its viewers. Both traditional and modern elements characterize Fujimura’s work. Although abstract in appearance, his artwork features the principles of an ancient painting skill. In the traditional technique of Nihonga, which translates to “Japanese painting”, color for the paintings is provided from the pigments of minerals. Some of the common mineral pigments used are cinnabar, malachite, azurite, gold and silver. These colors are chosen with the intent to create a highly attractive image capable of enthralling the viewer. Not an easy task, by all means! The paper on which the art is created on is also significant. A special type, called “kumohada”, literally meaning “cloud skin”, serves as the blank canvas on which the artist paints. Since the essence of Nihonga painting is to draw its viewers out of the present context and into another, more peaceful state, the use of specific materials in this art form is deliberate. It is intentional in its function to transport its viewers away from the conscious reality of staring at a painting, and strives to uplift the viewer into spiritual awareness. In turn, the choice of materials used in Nihonga is crucial toward achieving this end; the use of kumohada paper and minerals in the paintings represents the union of the natural with the celestial, correspondingly taking its viewers to a place where the earthly and the heavenly are at a crossroad. A technique that originated in ancient Japan, Nihonga ultimately seeks to transcend its viewers emotionally and spiritually. This would explain the semblance of spirituality that is so prevalent in Fujimura’s paintings. Of the paintings on display, there was one that especially caught my eye and stood out among the rest. Mounted on one of the gallery’s white walls, the painting appeared fairly large in terms of scale. The image is understated but undeniably elegant. It consists merely of gold stains painted onto an opaque aqua blue piece of paper. This combination of colors, reminded me very much of “Nagasaki Koi”; the gold reflected the color of koi, while the blue brought to my mind water. The painting was simple, but it was not straightforward, and remained abstract. And even though it resembled the video, I felt there was something more I could not put my hands on, something else I could not quite understand. My visit to Fujimura’s exhibition left me contemplating the painting long after I have walked out of the gallery and gone home. “The Splendor of the Medium” is on view at the Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art gallery until December 18, 2004, www.k-f-c-a.com.
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