[Audio Guide]
Kojima Yuji produced paintings using pigments he made himself by crushing stones. The surface, built up and scraped back repeatedly on coarse linen, has a rugged quality while also conveying depth and a sense of transparency. This large-scale work remained unfinished in the artist’s studio for many years. When he finally completed it in 2008, the most noticeable change was the humanoid figure seated on the left. What had previously been a stark, desolate expanse is now marked by a clearly defined presence, and the scene takes on a cyclical quality, as if formless beings were welling up and returning to the earth. The artist titled this painting Impure Realm (edo, the defiled world full of suffering in Buddhist thought), followed by Origin of Life. This may reflect his sustained effort, from his youth through his final years, to seek out the source and underlying form of life itself.
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