Five pieces of my artwork were featured at the LIQUID ARSENAL 2022 gallery held from May 28 through June 3 in Milan, Italy by the M.A.D.S. ART GALLERY. I pray that this exhibition could act as a mediator between us and a beautiful future, and provide fortune for coming life amid our rapidly changing day to day lives.
M.A.D.S. ART GALLERYさん主催、イタリアのミラノで開催された LIQUID ARSENAL 2022展に 5点の作品を出展いたしました。何事も急速に移ろい行く日々に於いて、この展示会が未来の美しい世界への架け橋となり、新しい生命への祝福となりますよう、心より祈念いたします。
When I created this work, stores in the city were being replaced one after another or being abandoned due to infectious diseases. I remember walking through the quietly changing and desolate streets as I conceived and silently worked on this artwork. The only thing I can say is that what I sense in the eyes of the characters in this artwork is not negative emotions such as sadness or loneliness, but an eternal and unchanging strength. The human mind has a self-preservation instinct that rejects change anyway and perceives it as stress. But for me, I could only perceive these changes as a positive sign, and I was convinced that the world was in the process of ascending to a higher dimension with pain. At such times, the wish to return to the original world is also present, but I value the adaptability and resilience of human beings. Although the world is still in a difficult situation, when we make the transition to a better world, it is a gradual ascent and descent. I hope that you will not be defeated by the forces that push you backward, and that you will continue to move forward into a new world. I believe in the strength of human beings and the arrival of a peaceful and blessed future.
この作品を制作した当時は、感染症により街中の店舗が次々と入れ替わり、または廃屋となって行きました。静かに変わり行く街、寂れて行く街を歩きながら私はこの作品を構想し、黙々と制作していたのを憶えています。ただ一つ言えることは、この作品の人物の目から感じ取れるのは、哀しさや寂しさなどのネガティブな感情ではなく、永劫不変の強さであるということです。人の心には自己防衛本能があり、変化というものをとにかく拒み、ストレスとして認識します。しかし私にとってそれらの変化は良き兆しであるとしか感じ取れず、世界が痛みと共により高い次元へ上昇するプロセスにあるという確信がありました。そのような時は元の世界へ戻りたいという願望も同時に働くものですが、私は人間の適応力と逞しさを尊く思っています。現在も困難な世界情勢下ではありますが、より良い世界へ移行する時は、上昇と下降を繰り返しながら少しずつ昇って行くものです。どうか後ろへ押し戻す力に負けず、新しい世界へ歩みを進めて行っていただきたい、そのような気持ちがこの作品に込められています。私は人間の持つ強さと、平和で祝福に溢れた未来の到来を信じています。
Entering Nirvana / 入滅
Oct 2020 / 64 x 90 cm (Height x Width)
Oct 2020 / 64 x 90 cm (Height x Width)
Do you remember the joy of your birth, the day you walked on two legs for the first time, the first words you uttered, the blessing you received? Saints and sinners alike were all born equally loved. This artwork was created with a heart of blessing and tribute to all beings.
誕生を喜ぶ声を、初めて二本の足で歩いた日を、初めて発した言葉、その祝福を、あなたは憶えているでしょうか。聖人も罪人も、皆平等に愛されて生まれて来たのです。この作品は、全ての存在への祝福と賛辞の心を込めて制作されました。
Eden / 林檎が落ちた日
Dec 2019 / 36 x 53 cm (Height x Width)
Dec 2019 / 36 x 53 cm (Height x Width)
This artwork was created just before the infection covered the world. I believe that higher-dimensional beings, whom people call God, are watching over people in this way with a heart of compassion. No matter how difficult the world situation is now, it is a pain for the world to be reborn in a better form, and God has never given up on people. I believe that this heart of compassion is eternal and universal, even in the long history of humankind that will continue for thousands of years to come.
この作品は、世界を感染症が覆う直前の時期に制作されました。人々が神と呼ぶ高次元の存在は、このように人々を慈愛の心で見守っているのではないでしょうか。たとえ今がどんな困難な世界情勢であるとしても、それは世界がより良い形に生まれ変わるための痛みであり、神は決して人々を見放していません。その慈愛の心は、この先何千年と続く人類の長い歴史の中でも、永劫普遍のものであると信じています。
Burial at Sea / 水葬
Sep 2020 / 60 x 97 cm (Height x Width)
Sep 2020 / 60 x 97 cm (Height x Width)
Death is creation, reunion with God, and the mystery of the twinkling of an eye. When the soul returns to the original fountain of life with its memories, it will mix with the many memories of various beings and be born again as a drop of water. At that time, the former personality will be gone, and it will become a piece of someone else's soul, whose name will be unknown. Thousands, tens, or hundreds of millions of years from now, when all reincarnations are complete, we will all be welcomed equally into the great light. There will be no loneliness and no suffering. I still believe that if we just keep moving forward silently, even in difficult times, we will someday reach the nirvana of eternity.
死は創造であり、神との再会であり、瞬く間の神秘です。魂が記憶と共に命の原泉へ還った時、様々な存在の数多の記憶と混ざり合い、再び一滴の雫として生を受けるのです。その時、かつての人格は既になく、名も知らぬ誰かの魂の欠片となるでしょう。何千年、何万年、何億年後か、全ての輪廻転生を終えたら、皆等しく大いなる光の元へ迎えられます。そこにはきっと孤独もなければ苦悩もありません。困難な時もただ黙々と前だけを見据え歩みを進めていれば、いつか悠遠の涅槃に至ることができると、私はまだ信じています。
Grounding
Sep 2020 / 100 x 145 cm (Height x Width)
Sep 2020 / 100 x 145 cm (Height x Width)
The best way to unlock a person's potential is through "grounding. When left unchecked, human consciousness tends to immediately jump to the past or future, but by simply focusing on the "now" and this moment, we can maximize our true potential. Even the concept of time, such as the past or the future, is an illusion, and ultimately there is only the present moment. By focusing all our attention on this moment, we free ourselves from the egoic cage of the mind, which brainwashes us with miscellaneous thoughts. The often-used expression " bringing down God" may suggest a method of returning to one's true self. This work expresses the idea that people are constantly receiving blessings not only from the heavens but also from the earth, and that it is important to be grateful for both.
人の潜在能力を開放する最善の方法は「グラウンディング」です。人の意識は放って置くとすぐに過去や未来へ飛びがちですが、「今」この時に意識を向けるだけで、本来の力を最大限に発揮できます。過去や未来など、時間の概念すら幻想であり、究極的には「今」この時しかありません。そこに全神経を集中することで、自らを雑念で洗脳する精神というエゴの檻から解き放つのです。よく用いられる「神を降ろす」という表現は、本来の自分に立ち帰るという一つの方式を示唆しているのかもしれません。人は天だけでなく大地の恩恵も常に受けており、その両方へ感謝することが大事であるという思いがこの作品に込められています。
Introduction written by M. Matilde Della Pina:
Masaki Hirokawa is a renowned Japanese artist whose wide range of activities includes digital artworks, graphic design, smartphone app development, interactive movie production and website development. At “Liquid Arsenal” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Masaki presents five beautiful works with all different deep meanings.
“Astaroth” portrays a total white lady who looks straight at us and whose wings we can see behind her. This work was born from Masaki's reflection on cities abandoned due to infectious diseases: walking alone through the silent and deserted streets, he let himself be inspired by this work which he does not elaborate in negative terms, but on the contrary positive, because change does not it must be seen as a deterioration, but in fact it often gives us the strength to do better things.
“Burial at Sea” depicts a woman who, immersed in the sea, is lifeless and who seems to be letting herself go. As Masaki says, death is creation, reunion with God and the mystery of the twinkling of an eye. When the soul returns to the original fountain of life with its memories, it will be born again as a drop of water. At that time, the former personality will be gone, and it will become a piece of someone else's soul. When all reincarnations are complete, there will be no loneliness or suffering, hoping to reach someday the nirvana of eternity.
"Entering Nirvana" represents a lady in purple, caressed by a clear light that makes her belong to another dimension. This artwork was created with a heart of blessing and tribute to all beings, wanting to remember the joy of the birth, the day we walked on two legs for the first time, the first words we uttered, the blessing we received.
Lastly, "Grounding" portrays two beautiful dancers, captured in the moment they jump into the air making wonderful shapes. Once again, Masaki wants to produce a reflection through hiswork: the best way to unlock a person's potential is through "grounding. When left unchecked, human consciousness tends to immediately jump to the past or future, but by simply focusing on the "now" and this moment, we can maximize our true potential. Even the concept of time, such as the past or the future, is an illusion, and ultimately there is only the present moment. By focusing all our attention on this moment, we free ourselves from the egoic cage of the mind, which brainwashes us with miscellaneous thoughts. This work expresses the idea that people are constantly receiving blessings not only from the heavens but also from the earth, and that it is important to be grateful for both.
Concept by Art Curator Lisa Galletti:
One atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen. H2O, invisible molecule announcer of existence. Water is the mother of the world as we know it, water is the parent of the precious and imperceptible spark of life. From the primordial soup came to light the first unicellular living beings - probably bacteria -, from the amniotic fluid we feel protected until the day we come to light. Water, water and more water. On the other hand, that transparent liquid attracts us, its sight inspires ancestral reminiscences, its fresh and wet nature invites us to immerse ourselves in the dense and clear fluid. The enchanted charm of water bewitches us, enchants and lulls us with its wave motion and, making us resonate in us melodies from the instinctive flavor, evokes innate stimuli of a time that was. And so it is that our whole existence is based on this small molecule, on these imperceptible hydrogen bonds that form, break and reform in milliseconds, making water a "dynamic" substance with unique characteristics and properties. We are attracted to water, we are composed of water, we live with the need to assimilate water. Tasteless, colorless and odorless fluid that carries with it the breath of life and hope.
Water is inside and outside of us and has permeated our lives - and our thinking - since the dawn of civilization. Pantha Rei, is one of the most famous aphorisms attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus and it is no coincidence that, to explain the philosophical maxim, the image of water comes to help. "Everything flows", you can not descend twice in the same river and you can not touch twice a mortal substance in the same state, but because of the impetuosity and speed of change it disperses and collects, comes and goes. The predominance of becoming over solid being is a very dated concept, formulated centuries ago by the thinkers of the very first modernity and the predominance of historicity over contemporaneity is nothing but the sign of a predominance of flowing. The fact that fluidity belongs to the human being is indicated both by our biological composition and by the composition of the very society in which we are immersed. Ours is a magmatic world, elusive in its relationships, postmodern in its total absence of the granitic semblance of an ancient world. It is a society in which the solid era of progress has come to an end, in which everything slips and the flow drowns out all persistence, all permanence, all rigidity. Beliefs and ideals become changeable, social ties become extremely fluid and indefinite, the boundaries and coordinates of space-time disappear. We are in the presence of liquid modernity and all we have to do is immerse ourselves in it, letting ourselves be carried away by the flow of eternal becoming.
Indefinite boundaries, non-existent in their development in the LAN networks of computers; fluid genders and love; a liquid reality that transforms its roots by reflecting itself in unreality, in the "other" real: that of the internet - and of the Metaverse. A new reality that finds and elaborates its nature in the liquid state of things. M.A.D.S. Gallery with Liquid Arsenal stands as a manifestation of the will to reflect on the concept of "liquidity" and, at the same time, is configured as a sort of walkway between reality - solid and tangible - and unreality - virtual, simulated, non-concrete. Let us let ourselves be carried away by the current of the river, let us wet our limbs and liquefy together with the molecules of water. Let us lose our solid and stubborn beliefs and embrace a variable reality that makes uncertainty its wonder. Liquid Arsenal exhorts to an attitude of openness towards all limits, to a way of life that bases its nature in the question, in the discovery and constant assimilation of new elements and new ideas. Art, on the other hand, is perhaps the most suitable language for the achievement of this conduct: not very prone to regulations, excluded from every preconception and every programmed intervention, the artistic epiphany emerges as a magmatic fluid from the inner self of the artist, showing itself to the eyes of the world. Yet, the concept of art has always been correlated with the concept of memory and stability in time, of solid imprint of the human being in the flow of events. How then, can the gestures of artistic elaboration be considered as the preferred alphabet to tell this new reality? Liquidity does not coincide with absolute oblivion and the negation of all forms: there is the Lete, the river of oblivion, but there is also the Eunoè, Dante's torrent that flows close to the Lete. The Eunoè is the river of memory, of the indelible past of a lived experience, fluid trace of the lives that follow one another in our reality. Art, like Eunoè, is a granitic trace of human making and, at the same time, a smoky mirror of the continuous fluidity, of the perpetual flow of our existences and ideals.
Concept by Art Curator Lisa Galletti (Italian):
Un atomo di ossigeno e due atomi di idrogeno. H2O, invisibile molecola annunciatrice di esistenze. L’acqua è madre del mondo come lo conosciamo, l’acqua è genitrice della preziosa e impercettibile scintilla della vita. Dall’atavico brodo primordiale sono venuti alla luce i primi esseri viventi unicellulari - probabilmente batteri -, dal liquido amniotico noi ci sentiamo protetti fino al giorno in cui verremo alla luce. Acqua, acqua e ancora acqua. D’altronde quel liquido trasparente ci attira, la sua vista ci ispira reminiscenze ancestrali, la sua fresca e bagnata natura ci invita a immergerci nel fluido denso e limpido. Il fascino incantato dell’acqua ci ammalia, ci strega e ci culla col suo moto ondoso e, facendo risuonare in noi melodie dal sapore istintivo, rievoca stimoli innati di un tempo che fu. Ed è così che tutta la nostra esistenza viene basata su questa piccola molecola, su questi impercettibili legami idrogeno che si formano, si rompono e si riformano in millisecondi rendendo l’acqua una sostanza “dinamica” e caratterizzata da caratteristiche e proprietà uniche. Siamo attirati dall’acqua, siamo composti d’acqua, viviamo con la necessità di assimilare acqua. Fluido insapore, incolore e inodore che porta con sè l’alito di vita e di speranza.
L’acqua è dentro e fuori di noi e permea le nostre vite - e il nostro pensiero - dagli albori della civiltà. Pantha Rei, è uno dei più famosi aforismi attribuito al filosofo greco Eraclito e non è un caso che, a spiegazione della massima filosofica, viene in aiuto l’immagine dell’acqua. “Tutto scorre”, non si può discendere due volte nel medesimo fiume e non si può toccare due volte una sostanza mortale nel medesimo stato, ma a causa dell'impetuosità e della velocità del mutamento essa si disperde e si raccoglie, viene e va. Il predominio del divenire sull'essere solido è un concetto molto datato, formulato secoli fa dai pensatori della primissima modernità e il predominio della storicità sulla contemporaneità non è altro che il segnale di un predominio del fluire. Il fatto che la fluidità appartenga all'essere umano è indicato sia dalla nostra composizione biologica che dalla composizione della società stessa in cui siamo immersi. Il nostro è un mondo magmatico, sfuggente nelle sue relazioni, postmoderno nella sua totale assenza delle sembianze granitiche di un mondo antico. È una società in cui l'era solida del progresso è giunta al termine, in cui tutto scivola e il flusso annega ogni persistenza, ogni permanenza, ogni rigidità. Le convinzioni e gli ideali diventano nebbiosi e mutevoli, i legami sociali diventano estremamente fluidi e indefiniti, i confini e le coordinate dello spazio-tempo scompaiono. Siamo al cospetto della modernità liquida e non ci resta altro che immergerci, facendoci trasportare dal flusso dell’eterno divenire.
Confini indefiniti, inesistenti nel loro svilupparsi nelle reti LAN dei computer; generi e amore fluido; una realtà liquida che trasforma le sue radici rispecchiandosi nell’irrealtà, nel reale “altro”: quello dell’internet - e del Metaverso-. Una nuova realtà che trova ed elabora la sua natura nello stato liquido delle cose. M.A.D.S. Gallery con Liquid Arsenal si pone come manifestazione di volontà di riflessione rispetto al concetto di “liquidità” e, allo stesso tempo, si configura come sorta di passerella fra realtà - solida e tangibile - e irrealtà - virtuale, simulata, non-concreta. Lasciamoci trasportare dalla corrente del fiume, bagniamo le nostre membra e liquefacciamoci assieme alle molecole di acqua. Perdiamo le nostre convinzioni solide e caparbie e abbracciamo una realtà variabile che fa dell’incertezza la sua meraviglia. Liquid Arsenal esorta all’atteggiamento di apertura verso ogni limite, ad un modo di vivere che fonda la sua natura nella domanda, nella scoperta e nell’assimilazione costante di nuovi elementi e nuove idee. L’arte d’altronde, è forse la lingua più consona al raggiungimento di questa condotta: poco incline alle regolamentazioni, esclusa da ogni preconcetto e da ogni intervento programmato, l’epifania artistica emerge come fluido magmatico dall’interiorità dell’artista, mostrandosi agli occhi del mondo. Eppure, il concetto di arte è sempre stato messo in correlazione con il concetto di memoria e di stabilità nel tempo, di impronta solida dell’essere umano nel fluire degli eventi. Come mai dunque, i gesti dell’elaborazione artistica possono essere considerati come alfabeto prediletto per raccontare questa nuova realtà? La liquidità non coincide con l’oblio assoluto e la negazione di tutte le forme: c’è il Lete, il fiume dell’oblio ma c’è anche l’Eunoè, torrente dantesco che scorre a due passi dal Lete. L’Eunoè è il fiume della memoria, dell’indelebile trascorso di un vissuto, traccia fluida delle vite che si susseguono nella nostra realtà. L’arte, come l’Eunoè, è traccia granitica del fare umano e, allo stesso tempo, specchio fumoso della continua fluidità, del perpetuo scorrere delle nostre esistenze e dei nostri ideali.
