Yuuki Kobayashi Crystal Verse

The Pillars Where the Soul Arises

Each line a calligrapher draws is trained for years like a growing tree.

Kobayashi’s calligraphy is in the form of poetry, so that each line can contain many emotions and may take on innumerable changes and meanings through every new practice.

Just as the soot of burning trees produces the Sumi ink used in Japanese Calligraphy, Kobayashi’s art is the burning traces of his own life.  And because Kobayashi’s calligraphy is born from the soul all at once in a creative outpouring, it therefore has the power to shake the soul of the one experiencing the work.

The rice papers scattered on the floor embody the condition of the chaotic fragments of letters before being crystalized into images and poetry.  The papers are the fragments and evidence of thousands and thousands of practices.  Without these fragments of practiced paper there would be no art.  Each piece becomes the crystals of the soul that burns continually and leads to the next creation and realization.

The fragments of paper are an essential part of his art, and serve to keep the art space constantly evolving and changing moment by moment.   The audience helps to complete the artwork by entering the space and intentionally or accidentally moving the pieces of paper and calligraphy around.  The floor of the space is the blank canvas upon which the crystallization of letters into words, and words into poems is built.

Kobayashi believes genuine calligraphy is the act of passive, not active writing. And he sees himself as a passageway through which the artwork is expressed, rather than someone who is trying to express something.   He intentionally creates his art and his exhibitions with the elements of improvisation and coincidence.  The lines and forms in his art interact with the present moment and are breathed into life to become living things imbibed with Kobayashi’s soul.

The crystals scattered around the space are synthesized along with the art on the pillars. The pillars symbolize the many possible forms and emotions that arise in different viewers minds when they interact with the work.  In them one can see the double helix structure of DNA, the changing and uneven nature of emotions, as well as the many undulations of life.  Perhaps even, the pillar symbolizes the central axis of the universe, upon which all life turns.  Depending on the viewer, life may be seen reflected in many different forms with many different meanings.

As the participant and viewer of the art while being in complete harmony between the pillars, the fragments of crystal verse, and the hieroglyphic poems: you may be inspired to realize how wonderful life is.  How we are living in a beautiful world regardless of the conflicts and sorrows of the world caused by the division of human beings by countries, races, and differing values. There is a feeling in the world today that we are living in an era of harmonic chaos, by expressing gratitude for the existing miraculous world, it benefits us greatly towards attaining a lasting and real peace.

Kobayashi feels that this method, which comes from the ancient times and the origin of art through the tradition that has been handed down, is the most new and are the most necessary expression for the planet now.  It is a universal expression that is simultaneously old and new, ancient yet modern, timely yet timeless.  He hopes that it will be passed down to the future, regardless of the progress of technology and the changings of time.

Creation is woven by the interplay between light and dark, black and white – between that which is written and that which is not written.  Because there is white, there is black, and because there is black, there is white.  All things have a yin aspect and yang aspect.  As things are constantly changing, depending on your consciousness you can end sorrow and find peace at any time.   Both light and shadow are necessary and an irreplaceable aspect of existence.  Kobayashi’s work suggests that the place where emotions are born may be the center of the universe.  The universe exists in each and every consciousness.

The art space is the place in which the contraction and expansion of ideas and emotions allows us to be aware that there are as many centers of the universe as there are human consciousness’s.  And it makes helps us to become aware of the fact that each person is the creator of that harmony.

Works born from words inspired by Kobayashi may melt into you and be transformed to suggest other possibilities.  Your soul, having visited here by chance, may be revealed on the pillar that connects heaven and earth.  Spend time in this space.  Feel, think, be inspired, let your consciousness rise, and you may feel called to allow your own life to shine vividly.

Kobayashi would be glad if his work encourages your soul to take a new step, for more beautiful than any piece of art would be your own beautiful existence.  It is his hope that through his work you may be inspired to live your life with more vitality and wonder.

言葉の結晶　〜魂から立ち昇る柱〜　　Crystal Verse – A Pillar Where the Soul Arises –

書家の引く線は、樹木が成長するように、長い年月をかけて練られる線です。

小林勇輝の作品はそこに自作の詩の要素が加わるので、その一本一本の墨線には様々な感情が盛り込まれ、千変万化しながら紙面が構成されてゆきます。

一気呵成に、魂で引かれた墨線の集合体である作品は、鑑賞者の魂を揺さぶります。墨が、植物が燃えた煤から生成されるように、作品は小林の生命が燃えた跡であると言えます。

散りばめられている墨のついた画仙紙は作品として結晶化する前の状態であり、一千枚近く書き重ねられた過程を細かくちぎったものです。その一枚一枚がなければ壁面の作品は成り立っておらず、それらのひとつひとつはそこに到達するまでに燃え続けた魂のかけらでもあります。

会場に散りばめられた、かけらのインスタレーションは、来場者が会場へ足を踏み入れ、作品を鑑賞することで変化する作品でもあります。かけらが踏まれ、靴底に連れてゆかれることで拡張し、かけらとかけらは融合し地面には、塩などが結晶化する過程と同じように、まるでかけらが結晶化してゆくような様子があらわれます。

墨の画仙紙でできた柱は見るものによって様々な形となって心に立ち昇るかたちをシンボライズしたものです。それは感情の起伏、生命の波打つ様子、受け継がれてゆく二重螺旋構造かもしれません。見る人によって世界は違ったものに映ることを示唆し、混沌とした集合意識の中にいるような感覚にもなります。

私はアートの原点を感じる古代からの手法や受け継がれてきた伝統、それらと、現代的で新しい表現とを融合させた表現が最も新しく地球に必要な表現であると考えています。時代やテクノロジーがどれだけ進んでも変わらない古くて新しい表現です。

書いてあるところと書いていないところから生まれる書特有の間（ま）や、白があるからこそ黒が活き、黒があるからこそ白が活きるという、白と黒の空間が調和する世界観は、全ての事象に陰と陽があり、物事はそれをどのようにとらえるかで絶えず変化していることを表します。光と影は表裏一体でそのどちらもが地球にとってかけがえのない存在であることを感じます。そして詩でできている作品は泣いたり笑ったり感動が生まれる場所こそが宇宙の中心であるかもしれないことも暗示します。ひとりひとりの意識の中にこそ宇宙は存在しているのかもしれません。

凝縮と膨張を繰り返す様子が調和した空間は、人の意識の違いの数だけ宇宙の中心があることを示し、一人一人の想念が世界を生み出しているので、その一人一人の意識が調和を生み出し得る存在であることを気づかせてくれます。

インスピレーションとして湧いてきた言葉の作品が鑑賞者の中に溶け込み咀嚼されることで別の可能性さえも示唆するかもしれません。この柱は偶然ここを訪れた人の魂が天地とつながる瞬間を現しているのかもしれません。

この空間を体験することで、意識が立ち上がり、その人自身の生命が生き生きと輝きたがっていることを感じることがあるかもしれません。展示を通じて、一人一人の魂がもう一歩を踏み出すための勇気となり、どんなに美しい作品より美しい存在として、その命のままに、元気に生きるきっかけとなることを願って創作しています。