Lines

I feel that the things and phenomena that exist inside nature, are formed through an accumulation of substances, qualities and patterns overlapping and reacting with each other. In my work, I use the simple action of drawing a straight line as the language of the screen surface, in order to explore the rhythms and compositions of accumulation that exist in nature – the nature prior to humans perceiving it and replacing it with nouns, putting a lid on perception and processing the information. To make the nameless nature emerge, I attempt to have a dialogue with and reconstruct the languages that exist in nature, through an approach of using straight lines.

Masaki Matsuo’s work is established by the repetition of innumerable short lines. This method of expression was supposedly devised by the author in order to reproduce the landscapes of nature that moved him. However, the origin of this method probably lies in the late 19th Century revolution of painting history; of the impressionist divided brushstrokes, or the neo-impressionist pointillism. These 19th Century painters also applied innumerous brush strokes to encapsulate the natural light, to present the natural scenery they perceived onto the canvas. Many may deem their great work and methodologies to be something of the past; however, Matsuo resurrected them as a new method, sublimating them as a method with both characteristics of the fluidity of divided brushstrokes, and the precise composition of pointillism, by applying expressionless short lines, in order to reproduce the scenery characteristic to Japan, born from conditions like the heavily humid atmosphere.

（Public／Selection Committee Yasuyuki Nakai）