AAWAA "Ni"
| AAWAA, director of COSMIC WONDER and artist, based on an ongoing project that the artist has pursued in the Kyotango, Kyoto since 2022, and Included a collection of works produced there. The following is from the press release for the exhibition “Ni” held at Taka Ishii Gallery in 2025. In ancient times, the great Tango Province sat at the center of the Tango Peninsula. Miyama, where I live, sat to the south of Tango as the neighboring Tanba Province. The character 丹 (“Ni") features in many of the place names in this region. AAWAA, from "Ni" Since 2020, the seaside village of Taiza in Kyoto’s coastal Kyotango has been the site of the local art project TOMORROW FIELD, where the planning of exhibitions led to encounters with ancient tombs and folklore, and other natural and human activities inherited from the past. These encounters overlapped with the time and experiences AAWAA had cultivated in Miyama, an area in the mountains north of Kyoto where he lives and pursues his creative work. In 2023, these inspirations were channeled into works titled Ni that were presented as part of a spatial installation at a local museum in Tango, alongside artifacts from the late Yayoi period nearly 2,000 years ago. Taking their name from a soil known as ni, found at the museum and originally excavated from tombs, these works evolved into a project to trace the history of creation that has connected people across the sea and time. What was the beauty discovered by those who once crossed the sea and arrived on these shores? And now, what beauty do we seek in the unknown world beyond the sea? Could these somehow resonate with one another? That question expanded from individual works to the entire space, connecting to the challenge of viewers and visitors to place themselves in the space, and to create the very time they spend there. Since ancient times, this land wrapped in ni was a beautiful place, where the earth quietly radiated a red glow. The people focused on their spiritual lives and let the light shine gently, until others came from across the sea and the light was swallowed by their immense power. AAWAA creates a living space as he goes along, making use of materials available near the land where he lives—assembling wood, pasting paper, plastering walls, almost like painting a picture or shaping a vessel. Each of these processes has been part of his practice of daily life, and occupies the position he strives for as an artist where the beauty of methods and thinking intersect. Starting from a place of hope that the most authentic human life is actually a series of small acts of everyday creation, the space he has brought into being serves as a wellspring of creation, just as nature itself is to humanity, and is also meant to be a place of deep rest. In 2025, this vision took shape as Taiza Residence, intended as a place where artists of the future can pause, contemplate, and face their work. 155mm x 205mm 71 pages Released on September, 2025 Published by AKAAKA |
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