Sayoko Suwabe

2017.07

While the exhibit lasted for five days, the artist washed this painting on Japanese paper on the third day as a performance. Through the performance of washing the drawing in the water-filled pool, the artist created a setting where a painting exists for three days only. This is a part of a series of drawings that questions what the death of paintings means. Today, the world is full of digital images. We can copy any image easily, and manipulate the impression of artworks at a later time - and this is the generation that the artist belongs to. In such a situation, this work acts as a stage in order to consider the loss of an actual object. This concept was inspired by the episode where a clan of indigenous people in Australia asks museums to dispose of their artworks when the artist passes away. This is to allow a member of the new generation to paint the same story. But if so, why does the painting exist? This is the question that the artist asks.
Even though the artist’s original intention was to destroy my work, she came to realise that the painting only changed in appearance, and did not disappear completely.

五日間の展示のうち、三日目にドローイングを水舟の中で洗うパフォーマンスを行うことで、三日だけ存在する絵画の場を設定した。
これは、絵画の死は何かという問いのためのドローイングの一つである。データ上のイメージが氾濫する現代、作品自体の表情など後々いくらでも操作できるようになってしまった時代で、実物の損失を考えてみるために拵えた舞台である。
このコンセプトは、アボリジニのとある一族が、自分の絵を自分が亡くなった時に廃棄するよう博物館に依頼しているという話から影響を受けている。自分の絵は一族の誰もが描けるストーリーであると彼らは語るが、それではその絵画は何のために存在するのだろうか。
 
Reference: https://www.sayokosuwabes.com/installation/-mementomori