63.75 Kilograms
2022
Video installation (HD video, 4′ 36″)
KAIR 2022 Exhibition, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
A video installation developed as a result of a two-month residency at Kamiyama Artist-in-Residence in Tokushima prefecture. about the “movement” of stone in the spheres of human activity and in nature. Taking center stage is an aoishi, a blue-green stone that occurs naturally in Kamiyama, Japan, where the work originated. Highly prized due to its distinctive color and layered surface, it has been used in Japanese gardens throughout Japan and most notably in the karesansui (Japanese rock garden) of the landscape architect, Mirei Shigemori.
The work consists of a floor piece and a video projection (shown on a large monitor placed on the floor when this is not possible). The floor piece is the result of transforming an aoishi stone weighing 63.75 kilograms into dust and carefully arranging it on the floor. Using a soft brush to “comb” the surface, the resulting effect evokes the visual forms found in Japanese dry gardens. The accompanying video is split into three parts: aoishi in their original environment; the process of moving the aoishi stone from the stone dealer’s, and fragmented scenes showing the process of turning the stone into dust.
Through the process of breaking the aoishi apart and reducing it to powder, I wanted to alter its form and the effects of gravity upon it. This destructive act, conversely, engages the imagination, leading the viewer to contemplate the unfathomable origins of the stone; the smallest of elements compressed over millions of years into a beautiful rock.
