Yutaka Moriguchi
-reaching your heart ...
Mieko Yoshihara
Change of Moriguchi’s works:
Yutaka Moriguchi born in 1960. From the late 1980s through the 90s, she put objects and pictures together and created opportunities for people to think about their own existence. Her intellectual installation was highly acclaimed for depicting a sense of isolation and insecurity in the modern society.
Recently she has been working on video installations, such as “touch”(2006), producing hands held together and tangled threads on the screen to portray how every life needs another life.
I was interested in creating this exhibition with her recent works. Many of her work describe a sense of isolation and insecurity but she never leaves the viewer alone.Her works shed light on the time, experience and memories of the viewer and by that she helps him/her to pay attention to the others and reveal their emotions. Some overome by emotions in front of a work and break down in tears and others bring back their memories and express how they feel now and then. To live, to connect, to be connected and to die... Moriguchi describes the theme of her work as “just simple and serious” but there is no other theme this common to all the people.
Link - the productive darkness:
It may be said that Moriguchi completed “Link”(2011) in this exhibition. In a long dark 300metter passage, wi find the images projected on the walls white hemp strings tangled, twisted and tied up over and over. Then we proceed in the light of the projection. Moriguchi considers this passage as birth canal and intends us to be reborn through the dark passage from the bustle of everyday life.
We proceed further in the darkness, guided by the light of the white strings which indicate the forthcoming relationship with the others. Quiet music and unborn baby’s heart beat accompany us.
While walking through the unlighted room, we feel the fear and expectations for the unknown world, guided by the only sign, the white strings projected on the wall in the darkness. Then we find the darkness productive and familiar to us and discern that it nurtures our lives.
HUG - to hug and to be hugged:
“Hug” was firstly introduced in June 2010 and expressed her deep affection and cherishment for her mother who died in February in the same year. It turned into the simpler, more vibrant and beautiful work. An image, unfocused like an abstract painting, is projected on the large wall and we see a boy jumping into his mother’s arms. The picture reminds us that the “Hug” is one of the most amazing movements of human hands and that it is not merely gentle but also powerful.
The blessing of life -life in the light:
“The blessing of life”(2009) consists of a still image and a flickering light in a dark room. It is a simple work, but it should be considered ans none of Moriguchi’s masterpieces in her later years. This work conveys a positive message “we all dwell in the light”.
I have known no work which clearly represents continuing life in such a vivid and clear way.
Life is brought up in the productive darkness and born in the bright light. It comes to the hands of who waits for it to hug. The flickering light is to bless its birth and illuminated the relay of life.
The feeble light blinks on and off in silence. We are born, and we die. There are life and death just like light and darkness, and life comes from death. This piece is a serene, thoughtful, powerful and beautiful work which shows no ambiguity or tentativeness.
Scenery of Tomorrow -Hope for tomorrow
Moriguchi was thinking to introduce a new piece for this exhibition.
At the beginning, she planned to create a work on the theme of death, which is the opposite of “life”. But her final plan resulted in an entirely-different picture with the influence of the earthquake in Tohoku,Japan, on the 11th of March. A dark room of the original plan was transformed into a white space full of light and it brought the air and landscape outside to produce a rainbow.
It this work, we find hope for the future, where each of out lives moves toward.
While some believe in a land of the dead over the rainbow, others consider that they would find bright hope for the future at the end of the rainbow. In any case, over the rainbow, there is aplace where we have never known, the place which leads up to the present and relates to hour lives. The garden of the museum was in lush green with trees and grass on the first day of the exhibition and becomes filled with Primula flowers in pink before the last day. The “Scenery of Tomorrow” represents our lives in the gentle atmosphere with the seasons, sunshine and nature outside to conclude this show.
Art Project in the Hospital - hug a patient
In this show, we can see part of her activities with art, too. This project was accomplished by Yutaka Moriguchi, the artist, with the cooperation of the medical staff of Osaka City University Hospital in 2010 for about a half year. When I saw the work “HUG”(2010), one of the staff of the hospital told me “we work with a desire to hug a patients as a friend battling against disease together, with medical appliances”. We tend to see that advances in medical technology make the treatment mechanically-operated and the patient and medical staff apart from each other. But Moriguchi researched on the medical staff working on the hospital, including the doctors and nurses, and portrayed how they supported patients and their families, and our lives. Here and there in the hospital, Moriguchi’s works show the people’s bond on trust quietly.
Reaching:
Moriguchi used to focus on uncertain existence. Now she looks straight at firm human existence. Through her works with respect and mercy for life, Moriguchi reaches her hand to the people, who lives to the full in our generation.
(curator, The Tokushima Modern Art Museum)
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Art Project in Osaka City University Hospital |
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LINK |
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HUG |
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touch |
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The blessing of life |
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Scenery of Tomorrow |