紫舟 SISYU

Dream|Forfeit

Dream|Forfeit

2015
Glass, iron
Illuminant calligraphy, sculpture
H117×W36×D39cm
Private collection


The top letters are made of glass while the bottom ones are made of steel.

The top letters represent light while the bottom ones represent the shadow casted by the same light from the top letters.
If you trace the roots of the Japanese language, you would meet the Yamato language. In this ancient language, each word contains definitions with contradicting meaning.

Dream and Despair, Light and Shadow, Nature and Man,
Dawn and Dusk
At a glance, these pairs of words seem to contradict each other but they cannot exist by itself. Just like how shadows are created from light shining upon an object, the word pairs complement each other, coexists, and our ancestors may have understood this nature’s law and thus created the Yamato language with this characteristic.