From Point of Origin to the Broader World

Yuji Ichikawa is an artist who has continually tried to express the concept of “the world” through his work since his career was launched. The early representative series ‘genetic’ featuring a transparent acrylic board as a main support, and using houkaimatsu (calcite powder) based white paint, pictures life continually on the move never fixed in place relative to the starting point. Next, in ‘World trees’ developed when he was a Gotoh Memorial Foundation sponsored overseas trainee residing in Germany and featuring the apple motif, the viewer can discover a wide variety of contexts in which the various relationships that characterize the world are expressed. In Ichikawa’s unique world, the field of vision expands from a single life to the vast wider world.
The work 《Visible part》, which like ‘World trees’ features apples as a motif but in a multi-colored not monochrome, and three-dimensional not planar format, expresses humans’ mode of existence in the present age. It is also interesting to note how the works further develop the themes of Ichikawa’s previous works and expand his oeuvre from mainly monochrome to variegated color-schemes using the techniques of Japanese painting. As for 《Celestial Spheres Ⅱ》 in which an apple pattern is stamped onto a globe shape simulating a celestial sphere, this is a very ambitious work that attempts to capture the entire world=the globe with this singular motif. I am excited to see what the future has in store for the work of Yuji Ichikawa who depicts our world by vivid movements of visual perspective from the macro to the micro.

Satoshi Koganezawa (Curator / ART MUSEUM & LIBRARY, OTA)