JOURNALS

About the work of Kiyonori Shimada

I am faced with a remarkable world, one that leaves a surprising confusion
of associations and imprints on my mind.
Some of it familiar, yet at the same time, there is something new, something
different and unfamiliar.
At first I see this great, rectangular, dark composition comprised of pieces
of fabric, stacked one on top of the other, thus creating a composition.
The repetitions, the effort needed and the mark of the hands that has added
each of these layers: so that one can really see the time taken to create
the work.
It suddenly reminds me of my childhood’s hay-drying racks from the country
side in Sweden where I grew up.
Constructions, where a wooden pole is driven into the ground at set
intervals and steel wire strung between each pole.
On top of the wires hay is layered.
The proportions correspond, in that a child felt tiny next to the hay-drying
racks.
It was both exciting and dangerous to be there.
Stories about the viper hiding in the hay, both frightened and stimulated
the childish imagination.
So far I have only seen pictures of Shimada’s work, but I get that same
feeling I had as a child.
I sense something large, disquieting, monumental and fascinating; abstract,
yet familiar.
Strikingly architectural and monumental where the space around the sculpture
becomes an integral part of the art itself.
I sometimes think that certain kinds of art have their own sound.
And I feel this in Shimada’s art .
It rustles and crackles as of abundance; like kicking autumn leaves in
October.
Yet, I also see a Baroque world and, given my previous perception of
Japanese art as having cleaner and perhaps also, stricter lines, this is a
new experience.
In Shimada’s works I sense a playfulness, while at the same time being aware
of profound gravity. 
They look like soil, clay, leaves and branches bursting out against the
walls of the room from floor to ceiling.
This leads my thoughts further on to a book that has followed me for years;
namely Karl Blossfeldt’s pictorial studies of plants.
Black and white pictures, shot with a camera which he made himself, where
the plants could be magnified up to 30 times.
Blossfeldt’s painstaking studies on this subject, from a time so far removed
from today’s digital technique.
Each element, the connections between them, the details and the
compositions. The geometric, organic and ever repeating forms in nature.
The abstracted forms that Shimada is using for his work also calls to mind
the body. Anatomy. The different areas of the body, the various organs. In a
way, the body has been turned inside out. Some of the colours used; rose,
red and beige, seem to me to support this. I also see veins and intestines,
the structure and textures of the internal organs.
Biology is ever present in his works, I see life at so many different
levels; the associations points both to the human body and to biological
diversity.
This is why I feel that Shimada’s project as an artist touches on universal
questions and problems. 

Gabriella Göransson