From Indian Fabric to The Shore of Science II
I tryed to creat a painting whose starting point was a place.
The place was Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn. It takes about 5 minutes
from my apartment.
There are many black people walking around. And also, we can see white,
Spanish, Asian people walking around.
People who have different backgrounds, racially, religiously and philosophically
are coming across.
When I first went there, I felt, it seemed to be chaos.
I sometimes go to Fulton Mall to buy daily stuffs. And also, I sometimes
come to want to go there. It is because I feel people's energy from the
place. And, I like chaos.
I thought to creat something from Fulton Mall.
And, first of all, I thought to pick up materials from Fulton Mall diretly.
There are four or five fabric stores on Jay Street around Fulton Mall. I
decided to use their fabrics.
When I went into a fabric store, I found a clerk who seemed to come from
India. And, this work's title," FROM INDIAN FABRIC TO THE SHORE OF
SCIENCE..." occured to my head.
But, when I asked to him," Where are you from ? "
He said, " I came from Pakistan." And also," I am not sure.
But, I think, this fabric might be made in U. S. A."
But, that was not so my problem.
And then, I thought about metaphor of people who came from oversea. And,
I went to the South Beach in Staten Island and picked up drifts, although
I thought it was easy metaphor a little bit.
And also, I thought about scientific something. It was because my work's
title including a word, science. And, I wanted to avoid that my work would
be too natural and ethnic.
In Fulton Mall, actually, various types shops stand huddled together. And,
the atmosphere is not natural and not only ethnic. There are many electric
stores, shoe stores, restaurants, nail shops, a reptilian shop and so on.
Anyway, after I thought various things, I decided to use electric wires.
Electric wires also have the feeling of running energy.
I had another impression that I wanted to put into my painting.
There is a new developed area, called " MetroTech " on the North
of Fulton Mall. MetroTech and Fulton Mall are creating a clear edge.
I sometimes come across a place where, I feel, show us a very real aspect
of the world. The edge was one of them.
Fulton Mall seemed to be a little noisy and chaotic. But, MetroTech seemed
to be clean and systematic. And also, People are slightly different in each
area. In Fulton Mall, people's fashion tend to be casual. In MeroTech, People's
fashion tend to be formal.
There is a bank, Chase on the edge between MetroTech and Fulton Mall. And,
at the basement of Chase, there is an installation which is made by hendreds
of TV moniters. And, each TV monitor is rapidly changing like flashing.
Frankly, when I first looked at it, I could not believe it was the basement
of a bank. It seemed to be made in order to rival to the bustling of Fulton
Mall.
While I was watching the hundreds of TV moniter, yuppies coming from Chase
and people walking on Fulton Mall, images were running through my head.
bankers armed with technology, racial showdown and harmony, chance and reversal
of power, memory and history cut up, sampled and remixed, changing human
senses....
The hundreds of TV moniters seemed to be a cross section of electric circuit
covering with the world, which was cut and naked.
A few months later, accidentaly, I found an article about the installation
in an art magazine in a library of my college. The installation's title
was " information wall." And, it was created by a great master,
conceptual and video artist, Nam Jun Paik. I could not know about the work
in detail at that time. But, I understood something.
By the way, it seemed to be very difficult to put these impressions into
my painting. Actuarlly, it was impossible. But, I tryed to pick up one point
and simplify it.
And also, I thought to link with my work, " Memory of History."
At the center of this work, I used the same picture as " Memory of
History." And, although it is oil painting, I gave it effects like
video or flowing film.
And also, I tryed to creat the feeling of past and future.
Depending on angles, we can see the fabric under painting.
And, I plastered the fabric with electric wires around the center painting.
After all, I feel that the center painting is a little moving with getting
energy from electric wires outside.
And also, it is like, if we had stripped the surface of this work, we found
electric wires.
It is also like an obsession of human sense changed by technology.
And, it also seems to be under construction of something.
According to two outside fabric spaces which we can see directly.
Accidentaly, I found an effect that is harder quality like an old wall,
if I put gesso on.
It is one of my pleasure to find an interesting texture, when I creat painting.
Summer 1995
After I wrote this essay. I noticed a matter about this essay's title,"
From Indian Fabric to The Shore of Science ."
Indian, the possesive case of India is the same as the possesive case of
American Indian. And, according to shore, there is a movie whose title's
sound is similar to shore, ' shoah.' The movie is about the Holocaust. And,
shoah means to massacre.
I think, when we think about our society, we need to think not only the
positive side but also the negative side.
Espeically, I attack neither MetroTech nor Fulton Mall.
Although I wrote, " I like chaos," in this essay, that means that
I just like the place where various types of people are mixed together.
And, I think that technology or science itself is neither good nor evil.
It is neutral.
I think that Metro Tech and Fulton Mall are very interesting places. And
also, we might find a similar place anywhere in the modern world. And, if
someone asks me whether I like Metro Tech and Fulton Mall or don't like
, I just answer, " I like there."
1999