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上海日報「日本人アーティストの書は、芸術の限界を超越する」

中国・上海での個展について、現地メディア「上海日報」に取り上げ

Japanese artist Sisyu's solo calligraphy exhibition in Shanghai features 23 works across four series, showcasing the practice of a modern creator who is deeply rooted in Eastern tradition while boldly breaking artistic boundaries.

This marks Sisyu's first large-scale solo exhibition in China, presenting the series "3D Calligraphy," "Reconstructed Ukiyoe," "Calligraphy Without Liubai" (the art of leaving blank space), and "Calligraphy and Painting."

A professor of art science at Osaka University of Arts, Sisyu began learning calligraphy at the age of six. She draws inspiration from traditional culture and thought, creating works infused with deep emotions and philosophical insights.

She was awarded both the Gold Medal and the Jury's Gold Prize at the exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts held in the Louvre underground exhibition hall in Paris.

At the Milan World Expo, she designed the Japan Pavilion, which won her a gold medal — a first for Japan. Her works have been showcased at prestigious venues such as the Venice Biennale, Milan Design Week, and New York's Grand Central Terminal, earning her significant recognition in the art industry.

Her creations encompass traditional calligraphy, as well as forms that challenge flat and cultural frameworks, integrating calligraphy with painting. While she inherits the essence of Eastern culture, Sisyu reconstructs it from a unique perspective, presenting a contemporary artistic language influenced by East Asian culture.

Sisyu views calligraphy as a multifaceted art form. She describes it as "heart painting," a medium that expresses the soul. She blends calligraphy, painting, and sculpture, often treated as separate disciplines, to create a "3D" world rich in emotion and imagery.

The allure of her calligraphy lies in her boundless imagination and strong expressiveness. She showcases the beauty of calligraphy through diverse mediums, including paper, metal, and multimedia animations.

In the Shanghai exhibition, the "3D Calligraphy" series liberates characters from flat forms, transforming them into three-dimensional representations. Inspired by the origin of Chinese characters, Sisyu's exploration of oracle bone inscriptions ignited her artistic investigation into the "3D" essence of characters.

Her goal is to transform paper-based calligraphy into an expression that transcends language and culture. As she wields the brush, the artist perceives the spatial rhythm between the brush tip and the paper, converting calligraphy strokes into cohesive 3D sculptures.

In the "Reconstructed Ukiyoe" series, Sisyu deconstructs the outline constraints of traditional Japanese ukiyoe from a new perspective.

When audiences view from a fixed angle, the painting and sculpture overlap into a complete work; when they shift their perspective slightly, a 3D visual illusion is created, similar to the misalignment of ukiyo-e color blocks. Sisyu reinterprets ukiyo-e using contemporary language, giving it a fresh spatial expression.

The "Calligraphy Without Liubai" display area integrates Western classical painting techniques. While retaining the vitality of calligraphy, the works absorb the rich texture of Western painting, attempting to blend elements of ink, fire, gold (silver), and sulfur, and combine the gold base technique of the European Renaissance with the spiritual core of Eastern calligraphy, creating a unique visual experience that embodies both the richness of Western classics and the charm of Eastern ink.

"In traditional calligraphy, liubai (the art of leaving blank space) is considered a sacred area. I intentionally break this space, converting silence into a 'lingering charm.' To achieve this, I also incorporated the golden background technique of the Italian Renaissance and completed the works through a firing process, endowing the background with a sense of depth and making the works more durable."

The "Calligraphy and Painting" series integrates 3D calligraphy into flat painting, creating an effect of interlaced light and shadow.

"People usually regard characters as 'two-dimensional symbols'; however, when I traced back through history to the origin of Chinese characters — oracle bone inscriptions — I discovered that 'characters are inherently three-dimensional,'" she explained.

"In this exhibition, we visualized the brush pressure during brush writing in three-dimensional space, terming the concept 'Cubism of Calligraphy,' which simultaneously represents both time and space. We have successfully inscribed the unique structures of the Chinese character cultural circle into the space itself, rather than on paper."

At the opening ceremony's calligraphy performance, Sisyu erected a 3-meter-long sheet of paper upright. By employing traditional techniques such as batik and collaborating with musicians from the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, she demonstrated how calligraphy transforms from "stillness" to "movement."

"It is like a resonant frequency shared by sound, color, and brushstrokes, similar to a projection mapped by hand," explained Sisyu.

The integration of calligraphy and painting brings a unique experience to viewers, and it is also an innovation and a challenge for the artist. For Sisyu, each work records the moment of creation and carries all the thoughts and emotions during the creative process.

To find the most suitable character style, she sometimes even wrote 600 pages. Before picking up the brush, she prayed that she could create calligraphy full of blessings, allowing all people to feel the beautiful concepts contained in the characters.

"For over a 1,000 years, calligraphy has always soothed people's hearts, and calligraphy is an 'act of organizing one's inner self,'" she said.

"No matter how advanced the times become, people always harbor anxiety and loneliness in their hearts. Calligraphy allows us to face the voice within ourselves directly, providing healing and guidance. I believe this is the reason why people still do not abandon the brush today."

"Looking back, it appears that I have been searching for what I should do since I was a child. I constantly contemplate what kind of person I want to become in the future, what kind of life I want to live, and what I should do. Ultimately, I found that calligraphy is the best way for me to express myself. In the future, I will continue to refine my path in calligraphy, hoping to convey this sincerity to more people."

上海日報「日本人アーティストの書は、芸術の限界を超越する」

2025.10.18