How precisely do I memorise what I have seen in my life?
The answer became clear while I was painting. When I found that I couldn’t materialise “what I had seen” – or “what I had perceived visually” – exactly as it was in my paintings, I realised what a shaky world I live in – the world in which I only roughly perceive things around me and call it my own “memory”. The more we depend on our vision as a source of information, the more unreliable the information becomes.
I have also faced them as part of a shaky scenery that cannot be fully reproduced.
In such a shaky condition, I “memorise” everybody equally, including the figure of a yokozuna sumo wrestler whom I watched on TV last night and the face of my school friend whom I haven’t seen for many years.
Statement
これまでの経験の中で、見てきたものについて、どのくらい正確に記憶しているだろう。
絵を描く時、その問いの答えが明確になった。「見てきたもの」＝「視覚的なイメージ」を再現できない事で、自分が、物事をどれだけ大雑把に捉え、それを「記憶」と決めた、揺らいだ世界の中で暮らしているのかを認識した。「視覚」を拠り所にするほど、「記憶」は頼りない。
人に対しても同様に、再現性を持たない、揺らいだ景色として向き合うしかない。
長年会っていない同級生の顔も、昨日テレビで観たヨコヅナの姿も、同じような揺らぎの中で、私は「記憶」している。
How precisely do I memorise what I have seen in my life?
The answer became clear while I was painting. When I found that I couldn’t materialise “what I had seen” – or “what I had perceived visually” – exactly as it was in my paintings, I realised what a shaky world I live in – the world in which I only roughly perceive things around me and call it my own “memory”. The more we depend on our vision as a source of information, the more unreliable the information becomes.
I have also faced them as part of a shaky scenery that cannot be fully reproduced.
In such a shaky condition, I “memorise” everybody equally, including the figure of a yokozuna sumo wrestler whom I watched on TV last night and the face of my school friend whom I haven’t seen for many years.
– 2021.09.15