Natsuyuki Nakanishi Exhibition

Like a horizontally stretched skin of the membrane, this [Earth’s surface] is so easy to break, tremble and tear. That is where we are located.
—Natsuni Nakanishi

“Touching Down on Land and Touching Down on Water XIV: Itsuura Coast” (2013) is Rokkakudo, a small hexagonal temple erected on the edge of Itsuura Coast in Ibaraki prefecture. This minimalist temple designed by Okakura Tenshin had the dimension of roughly 4 and half tatami matts (8.4 square-meters), and Nakanishi’s sculptural work has a foundation of the exact same size with 6 brass rectangular plates hung from above. As the painting stands vertically, it emphasizes the weak and unstable axis of the horizontal plane. Nakanishi finds the perfect horizontal plane in tea ceremony rituals continued since the Muromachi period. Known for its simplicity of fusing Buddhism and the “Way of Tea”, this temple was a place of meditation where one could gaze at the flat water plane in a tea cup, while overlooking the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. The work makes a tribute to the Rokkakudo temple, which was destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, through insinuating subtle references: thin brass plates hung vertically and reflections of small metal balls glitter on sand.
“Touching Down on Land and Touching Down on Water XIV: Itsuura Coast” is conceived from the artist’s profound thoughts about painting. The exhibition aims to reflect the legacy of the artist, who passed away in October last year, and offers an opportunity to reconsider painting, and how it is composed.