Tokihiro Sato
I am simply inspired by the ephemeral, playful, magical quality of Tokihiro Sato’s work.
Tokihiro Sato
He uses the essential qualities of light as a medium –capturing the wavelengths of light with precise timing over long exposures. But I would say that light is itself the subject of his photographs. His photographs are portraits of light. Light is almost a character, each point of light has a presence much like a being. In the photographs where it moves, bouncing or waving in response to objects in its environment, the light has volition. Where it is split by mirrors into the spectrum, it is unclothed, revealing its delicate nature in wavelengths of brilliant color.
Or perhaps the light acts like his avatar, his puppet, his mask.
ON THE FUTURISTS
Giacomo Balla, Speed of a Motorcycle, 1913, Oil on Canvas
The Futurists’ Manifesto seems to boil down to this statement from within the greater reading:
“Our growing need of truth is no longer satisfied with Form and Color as they have been understood hitherto.
The gesture which we would reproduce on canvas shall no longer be a fixed moment in universal dynamism. It shall simply be the dynamic sensation itself.”
It occurs to me that the thematic focus by the Futurists on speed is utterly applicable to our society today–and especially within the context of New York, with its press of humanity and machinery rushing to and fro every hour of every day. Globally, the movement of goods and services is happening at an unprecedented pace, with aviation becoming more ubiquitous and furthermore, with the infinite possibilities posed by the internet.
So that brings me to the question, what does that mean for painting today?
This brings me to recall one of my favorite artists, Julie Mehretu.
Julie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu
Perhaps Mehretu represents the postmodern turn on the Futurists’ influence, as her work is a reflection not only of the movement of technology and architecture but also of her personal human experience of movement in her family’s diaspora from Ethiopia to the United States.
Certainly, her work also reflects the Futurists’ claim that, “our art is intoxicated with spontaneity and power”.