橋本トモコ / 昼の眠り、夜の瞬き

2018年11月20日(火)～12月2日(日)

手向けの花、祈りの水

樋口昌樹　美術評論家

　3.11から7年半が過ぎた。この間、しばしば震災後美術や震災後文学について語られることがあったが、積極的に震災に向き合うつもりはなくとも、本人も意識しないまま知らず知らずのうちに震災の影響を受けている、という人もいるはずだ。これはアーティストに限らず、鑑賞する側にも起こりうる。自分を引き合いに出すのは気が引けるが、ぼくは震災後、インスタレーションやビデオアートよりも工芸や彫刻に強く惹かれるようになった。自分の住む世界がいかに脆弱かを思い知らされ、確かな実在感のあるものを求める気持ちが高まったからなのだろうと、理由を自己分析している。
　さて、橋本トモコの新作である。
　橋本は一貫して、単色 －のように見えるが実は何層もの色層を持つ－ フラットな地に、省略化された花の図像が浮かぶ作品を制作している。とても日本的な印象を与えるが、本人が意図するところはそこではない。橋本は作品から極力、物語や情緒を排除したいと述べている。物質としての絵画を目指しているのだ、と。叩き筆で叩いてフラットな色面を生み出すという西洋の古典技法を用いるのも、絵の具のてかりや筆触が、感情に働きかけるのを避けるためだ。また花をモチーフにするのも、そこに特別な意味を持たせたくないからだという。いわれてみれば橋本の描く花は、決して名花名木ではない。今回も仏の座、詰草といった、野に咲くありふれた花が選ばれている。
　こうしたストイックともいえる制作スタイルを貫いてきた橋本が、近年少し変わってきた。背景や花弁にグラデーションを用いるようになったのだ。そのため画面全体に豊かな情感が漂うようになった。橋本も今では情緒を認めてもよい、と語っている。この心境の変化をすぐに震災に結びつけるのは、強引すぎると自分でも思う。しかしぼくには橋本が近年描く花々が、死者に手向けられた献花のように思えてならないのだ。川面の作品を2012年より描き始めたことは、さらに意味深い。『方丈記』を引き合いに出すまでもなく、人は川に人生を重ね合わせる。あるいは精霊流しのような、鎮魂の行事もある。作品から物語や情緒を消し去ろうとしてきた橋本が、人の生死と密接に結びつく川をモチーフにするようになったことも、震災による影響なのではないだろうか。このように、工芸品のように堅牢な物質感はそのままに、豊かな情感を漂わせるようになった近年の橋本の作品を、ぼくは優れた震災後美術のひとつに挙げたいと思う。震災後の不確かな時代を生きるぼくたちの、心の拠り所となりうる作品なのだから。

Dozy Daytime, Lively Nighttime

Floral Offerings, The Water of Prayer
Masaki Higuchi, Art Critic

Seven and a half years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011. During those years, people have often discussed the post-earthquake art and literature. There must also be those who have been unconsciously and unknowingly influenced by the quake disasters, despite having no intention of proactively facing the problems involved. Thus, such an influence was not limited to artists but also those on the side of appreciating art. I hesitate to cite how I was personally affected by the quake, but in the aftermath, I became very attracted to craftworks and sculptures, instead of installation and video art. I analyzed the reason for my own change of artistic preference and thought that it was from my growing desire to seek a solid sense of existence, as a result of becoming keenly aware of how vulnerable the world I live in is.
I would now like to refer to the new works of Tomoko Hashimoto.
In her painting, Hashimoto has consistently depicted reductive images of flowers, which seemingly float on a flat ground that appears to be in a single color, but which are in fact created from multi-layered colors. Such an image conveys a very Japanese impression, but the artist has a different idea. She once stated that her aim was to eliminate as many narrative and emotional elements from her work as possible. That is, she aims to create a painting that can be seen as a physical object. She produces a flat color-field through employing the Western classical technique of tapping the surface plane with a dabbing brush. She uses this method to avoid having the shine of paint and visible brushstrokes on the canvas emotionally affect the viewer. Hashimoto also explained that she adopted flowers so as to not add any particular meaning to her motifs. Come to think of it, the flowers she has painted are not celebrated ones; rather, she selects familiar flowers that bloom commonly in fields, such as henbit dead-nettle and red clover.
After having stuck to a rather stoical production style, Hashimoto has slightly changed her expression in recent years. That is, she has begun to utilize color gradations for her backdrops and the flower petals, which have created a deep sense of sentiment across the entire space of the painting. According to Hashimoto, she has come to accept the sentiment inherent in her works. I am well aware that associating her mind to shift her style of expression with the quake disasters is quite a stretched interpretation. But I also cannot help but feel that the flowers she has depicted in recent years have been meant as her offerings to the deceased. More interestingly, she began to paint a river surface in her works beginning from 2012. People tend to associate their life with a river. For instance, the author Kamo no Chomei's essay Hojoki/An Account of My Hut (1212) begins with a passage that alludes to the transience of life: “The flow of the river is ceaseless; and its water is never the same.” Rivers are also places where rituals for the repose of souls are held in Japan, such as with shoronagashi, in which the spirits of the deceased are sent off in paper boats on a river. After having initially aimed to eliminate narrative and emotional features from her works, she has noticeably adopted the motif of a river, which is closely connected with people's lives and deaths. In my view, this shift was due to the influence of the 3/11 earthquake. In her recent works, while still maintaining a solid sense of physicality similar to a craftwork, she has begun to express profound sentiments. Therefore, I would like to cite her works in recent years as being among the most outstanding of post-quake artworks. For her works can serve as a spiritual support for us living in this post-quake period of uncertainty.

Translated by Taeko Nanpei