三井田さん、どうかしてるぜ O JUN
一瞬だが、私は三井田さんがオカシクなった…! と思ったのだ。『此の人の月日』という企画展を町野三佐紀さんと三井田盛一郎さんの二人でHigure 17-15 casでそれぞれの作品を会期を分けて個展形式で開いた。三井田さんは紙や布に描いた大量のドローイング?(と言ってよいのかどうか未だに判断が着きかねているのだが…)を上下二つの空間に展示した。更に三井田さんは会期が始まってからも連日、にこにこしながら少し顔を上気させて “また今朝方描いてしまいました” と持ち込んでくるのだ。展示をすることよりも明らかに展示を度外視して描くことに比重が傾いている。その傾きに一線を越えた元気と狂気を感じた。ドローイングには男と女、子ども、そして繰り返し「鬼」が登場する。鬼は巨大化していたり、しゃがみこんで何かのしぐさをしていたり、首だけが宙に浮いていたりと様々な様態が繰り返し描かれている。それが鬼であるとわかるのは鬼のシンボルである角が描かれているからだ。一本もあれば左右に二本の角が生えているのもいる。女性の鬼もいて夫婦鬼(めおとおに)のような関係を匂わせているのもある。しかも鬼の表情がどれものどかなのだ。それが妙にリアルに怖い。しかもそれに或る寓意や見立てが読めるかと言えばそうは問屋は卸してくれない。仮に三井田さんに描かれた鬼の絵を一纏めに集めて綴じて順繰りにめくってみてもおそらくまともな話は起ちあがらないだろう。二つ以上の似通うイメージが連続すればそれは何かを物語るとか、意味の継続や展開が起きていると判断するのはオトナな思慮というもので、たとえば子どもに絵本を読んでやるとき、オトナな私たちは、やはりオトナが作った物語を微塵も疑わずに抑揚や気配を帯びた声色で読み聞かせをするのだが当の子どもはまあ、ここは聞いてやるかとオトナシク聞きながら、一方で、話の脈絡とは関係のない一語や事象に耳目を奪われているのだ。全体の流れを堰止めるほどのこともない泡粒のような事や話者の読み聞かせの合間にふと油断した棒読みの声に反応しているのだ。そして、オトナな私たちが想像し得ない奇妙な世界の相貌と向かい合っている。そういう意味では双方の思惑のすれ違うはざまにお伽話や寓話は効果はあるとも言えなくもないか。桃太郎を聞いたコドモが想像する鬼の姿は実は三井田さんの描く鬼のようかもしれない。――怖くないのが怖い――。ヒグレの壁に貼られた夥しい絵の所々に木版画で摺られた絵があった。人の顔や子どもの玩具などが摺られている。イメージに華美な衣裳は着せていない。 “まんま” である。ただ、彫るというより抉る、に近い。イメージが根こそぎ抉られて爆心地の跡のような有様だ。木版画をこのように作って見せた者を私は知らない。のどかな果てしない描きの風景の中に点々と陰をこぼしている。その近くに紙きれも貼ってあった。おそらく三井田さんの直筆で走り書きのようなメモ。
「小さな衝動を抑えずにすべて行動してしまえば およそ 何も成すことは出来ないのだけれど、これが繰り返されると、たぶん “始まり” というモチーフは見えて来るのだろう。」
のどかと狂気の迷彩の内に、画家は目を凝らすように己の未来と行く末を眺めている。展覧会が終わった今も尚、余震のように描きは続いていると言う。それにしても、三井田さんは、どうかしている。
Miida, Something Must Be Wrong with You O JUN
For a moment I thought, “God, Seiichiro Miida has gone mad!” Last year, Mom and Dad on the Cliff held This Person’s Days at HIGURE 17-15 cas, which consisted of two solo exhibitions held in succession with artists Misaki Machino and Seiichiro Miida.
Miida’s numerous drawings (I still can’t decide if they should be called that) done on paper and cloth were exhibited on the first and second floors of the gallery. After the show opened, Miida continued to bring new works to the gallery day after day, always with a smile on his somewhat flushed face, saying, “I ended up drawing again this morning.” His focus was clearly inclined toward creating his works, without regard to how he would exhibit them. This lopsided state led me to feel that he had crossed the line from being vibrant to going mad. The motifs in the numerous drawings included men, women and children, as well as the frequent appearance of a “devil.” This “devil” motif was depicted in a variety of forms, such as a giant devil, a squatting devil in a certain gesture, and one with only its head floating in midair. I could tell that those depictions were devils as they had horns that are typically associated with a devil. Some only had one horn, while others had ones on both sides of their heads. There were also female devils, as well as two devils that gave off an aura of being a couple. They all had a peaceful expression on their faces. Oddly enough, this was really scary. But all those details did not make it any easier for us to discern any specific overarching allegory or scheme. Even if all his devil drawings were bound together so that we could turn the pages, I doubt any decent story would have emerged. When there are more than two similar images in succession, our sensible adult minds infer that there must be a story or a developing meaning. For instance, when adults read a picture book to children, they use different vocal sounds by modulating and changing the feelings of ambience, without having the slightest doubt about the story that was written also by an adult. But a child who listens to an adult may think, “I’ll be good and listen to him read,” while at the same time his/her eyes and ears are swept away by a single word or phenomenon in the story that is unrelated to the context. Children react to trifling matters that do not come close to stopping the entire flow of the story, or else react to the moment when the reader lapses into narrating in a monotone. And in this way children face a strange world that is unimaginable to adults. From this perspective, one could say that the effect of fairy tales and fables exists within those different expectations between adults and children. The devil that children imagine when listening to the Japanese folklore Momotaro (The Peach Boy) might be similar to the ones in Miida’s drawings—that is, a devil that is scary because it’s not scary. His woodblock prints were also shown in places within the numerous drawings on the walls at HIGURE. The motifs in those prints included human faces and children’s toys. They were not clad in anything decorative; rather, they looked “naturally plain.” But the images appeared to have been gouged out rather than carved. They were so completely gouged out that they resembled the aftermath at the epicenter of an explosion. I had never before met such an artist who showed woodblock prints using such an approach. The prints cast shadows here and there within his peaceful and boundless landscape. A note scribbled in Miida’s handwriting was pasted nearby the drawings.
I continuously act upon all my impulses without holding back even the smallest ones, it might not add up to anything, but I will likely encounter a motif that can be referred to as “the beginning” of my very own expression.Though his works are disguised with “peaceful” and “mad” images, Miida has his eyes closely fixed on his own future and fate. Even today after the show has long since closed, Miida continues to create his works, as if he were in an aftershock. But still, something must be wrong with him.