Nobuyuki Osaki and Ken Matsubara

 

Nobuyuki Osaki has engaged with the disappearance of images as a way to reflect on “the uncertain world and its future.” Three years ago, during the lockdown in Stuttgart, he drew enigmatic pictures while working on nearly illegible crossword puzzles. At that time, the thought occurred to him: “Does God exist?” When visiting old religious paintings, he was less interested in the images themselves than in the arabesque patterns of the garments, which he began to collect.

In the course of his research, he thought: “Perhaps the world is woven of threads,” and discovered the kumihimo pattern, whose meaning has shifted in both Western and Eastern religious rites and continues to exist today. Osaki combined more than 100 drawings to reconfigure a fragmented “wall,” representing the theme of universal interconnectedness.

Ken Matsubara creates installations based on film, photography, and antique everyday objects in order to activate collective memory. He sees within them a connection between the first humans and ourselves today, inherited through DNA as transcendent knowledge. Bringing the past into the present makes photography and film his preferred media, where memories find a surface for projection.

Water, glass, candles, paper, and people serve as connecting elements, resonating with meaning for many. Matsubara’s works follow the Japanese aesthetic of mono no aware, which emphasizes grief and acceptance in the face of transience.

From October 31, 2024, Ken Matsubara will present his solo exhibition “Moon is Beautiful” at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne.

https://www.sankt-peter-koeln.de/wp/kunst-station/ubersicht/