太田麻里の体操 O JUN
ギャラリーの二階には大小の紙に描かれた絵が展示されていた。何処か屋敷の上階の手摺りであったり、一本のトウヒであったり、荒涼とした土地に設営されたテントであったり、瓦礫であったり…太田麻里が行く先々で目にしたものなのか、一つ一つを確かめるような描き方だ。色や形が強張って紙に張り付いている感じ。色というよりも筆触なのだろうか。アクリルの平滑な塗りであるのにもかかわらず、筆がつくったわずかな絵の具層の起伏がイメージの表面を思いのほか波立たせている。紙の上、どの絵もこれから起こる気配に満ち満ちて、奇妙な緊張の中で色も形も青ざめている。下のフロアーには壁に映像が映し出されている。ヨーロッパの街で太田麻里が行ったアクションの映像だ。ヨーロッパの古い街の階段を上りながら手に持つルージュで階段沿いの石壁に赤い線を延々と引いてゆく。アクションの当日、彼女は開始の時間に合わせて集まったギャラリーの待つこのフロアーに外から入ってきた。彼女は姿勢がよいからなのかツンとして見える。ここですでに彼女と観ている私たちの間に線引きが始まっている。太田麻里の場所と私たちの場所…でも何が分かたれているのだろう。太田麻里はバッグからルージュを出した。それを自分の唇に引く。何度も唇をなぞる。ルージュはさらに唇をはみ出して塗りたくられる。太田麻里は自分にも線引きをしている。でも、やはり何を分かとうとしているのか。それを不明のままに置いてきぼりにして分つふるまいだけが加速されてゆく。そのルージュをこんどは壁に引き始めた。壁沿いに歩きながらルージュを引いてゆく。壁に繰り返し真っ赤な線が何本も引かれてゆく。ルージュを引く太田麻里の姿はとてもいい。凛としている。彼女を眺めている男たちが乗り出して思わず彼女の行路に足を踏み入れてルージュをシャツと手の甲に引かれた。男はばつの悪そうな顔でニヤついている。ギャラリーは女もいるのにとりあえず男どもはみんなカタナシだ。太田麻里は静かにエレガントにこの部屋と男どもを嬲って出て行ってしまった。夢でも見てろと言わんばかりに。彼女のいなくなった部屋には余韻と見透かされた私たちの胸のざわめきが渦巻いている。横溢と不協和を囲って自家中毒のように鞭打つ振る舞いが自ら引く線を越えて今度は私たちに迫ってきた。
Ota Mari’s “Gymnastics” O JUN
Ota Mari’s large and small paintings done on paper were exhibited on the second floor of the gallery. The images in those paintings included a banister on the upper floor of some residence; a single spruce tree; a tent set up on a desolate piece of land; and miscellaneous debris. Ota might have seen those images in places she visited, for she depicted each of them as if she were confirming the details. That is to say, the colors and forms appeared to have stiffened and then stuck onto the paper. This impression might have derived from the brushstrokes rather than the colors. Regardless of the evenly applied acrylic paint, the undulating brushstrokes on the thin layer of paint resulted in the manifesting of an unexpected amount of ripples on the surfaces of the images. All the paintings done on paper were pervaded with a feeling that something was about to happen; thus, within that strange sense of tension, the colors and forms appeared to be pale. Ota’s film was screened on a wall on the first floor. It showed the action she once performed on the streets of Europe. In the film, she was shown going up stairs in an old European city, while also continuously drawing red lines on the stone wall along the stairway with the lipstick in her hand. On the day of her action at this gallery, she appeared in time for the event to begin and made her entrance from the outside into the first floor where the audience was gathered. She gave off a nonchalant attitude, which might have been due to her straight posture. This implied that she had already begun to draw a line between herself and the audience. That is, she separated her position from ours. But then, one may ask, what was she dividing? Ota took out a tube of lipstick from her purse. She then applied it on her lips and overlaid it again and again. The lipstick was then heavily applied to areas beyond her lips. This was performed so as to draw a line within her own self. But again, what was she trying to divide? Leaving this unexplained, her act of drawing lines accelerated. She began to draw red lipstick lines on the wall as she walked, and then repeatedly created many other lines. Her appearance while drawing lines was quite nice, as she looked rather dignified. But the men gazing at her had leaned too far forward and accidentally stepped into her path. Hence, Ota drew lipstick on their shirts and palms. The men grinned with embarrassed looks. Women were also in the room, but it was the men who were like putty in her hands. Ota mocked the space and the men, and then quietly and elegantly left the gallery. It was as if she were saying, “Dream on.” The room without her was whirling with our unsettled feelings from the aftereffects of her action and from how she had seen through our minds. By secluding herself within her own excessive desires and creating a sense of dissonance, Ota tormented herself through her own self-poisoning actions. But in turn, her actions transcended the line she drew between her and us, and began to affect our minds.
