[Audio Guide]
[Audio Guide]
These works are so large that the viewer seems completely enveloped by the visual field. Rieko Hidaka is known for works that employ Nihonga subjects, depicting unique compositions as though looking up from beneath trees. These monochrome paintings are created by staring fixedly at individual tree branches and leaves, painting them laboriously, and repeating the process. The artist has said that the most important thing for her to paint is “the expanse of the sky.” Accordingly, her interest is in the sky and its immeasurable distances and depths, and she turns her attention to the tree branches and leaves that permeate this firmament. Viewing these works, it seems as though our head is turned to look up at the trees, with the sensation that we are spinning. This type of physical reality is deeply embedded into Hidaka’s pictorial spaces.
