This exhibition is not designed to present direct representations of "another world" but to create situations which lead museum visitors to think seriously about such a world. Each of the nine artists was given a different room where they dealt with the common theme in their own way.

Anish Kapoor's installation in the first room made use of eleven natural stones. The artist obtained the stones near Mito and, interestingly enough, they were imported from China. Each stone is one to one and a half meters across and weighs between eight hundred and two thousand kilograms. The irregular forms recall soft-bodied organisms. After putting the stones in place, Kapoor painted each one with three coats of blue pigment. The painted stones seem to be coated with an intense, deep blue velvet and the surfaces give an uncanny impression of great depth.

Through this process the strangely-shaped rocks, once part of a great continent, lose their original material presence and sense of weight and are transformed into something non-material. The eye follows the odd twists and cracks in the surface of the stones but finds it difficult to focus on the form.

According to Kapoor, this is an image of "earth changing into heaven." It is an extension of his Angel series in which flat pieces of stone resembling wings are painted a deep blue. For the pieces in this show, the artist chose to think of the illusory, non-material image of the work as a dragon rather than an angel. This mythological creature of Asia, an inhabitant of another world, is at home among the mists and smoke of fantastic mountain peaks, an atmosphere quite different from the more rational, orderly world of Europe

The surface of the river above Hokusai's waterfall is made into a magical space, a wide-open abyss leading to "another world." His series of Waterfalls in Various Provinces depicts eight well-known waterfalls and was painted when the artist was 74 years old. Except for the famous Kirifuri falls in Nikko, the waterfalls are thought to have been painted after existing paintings of the well­ known scenic spots.

Hokusai's imagination worked to create an effective blend of stylized and realistic depiction. His depictions of water are particularly remarkable. He presents the sea with great skill in the wave pictures belonging to the Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji and Chie-no-umi the series on the life of fishing villages. In these pictures, we can recognize the artist's rational powers of observation and an ability to analyze the living rhythms of the eternally changing sub­ stance of water, giving the solid, fixed forms and injecting the pulse of life with a demonic sensibility. His interests were close to those of Leonardo da Vinci who also found a way of analyzing waves, dividing them into twelve types on the basis of form and flow. Da Vinci was devoted to the creative transformation of nature in his art, and his scientific curiosity led him to depict the unending conflicts between earth and water from the bottom of the sea to the top of the mountains. He and Hokusai had a great deal in common in their analytic approach to the mysteries of nature.

This is exemplified in the General View of Famous Bridge in Various Provinces. and Birds-eye View of China in which the artist takes a God-like bird's-eye view. One of these pictures shows the entire land of China spread out in one painting. The one hundred bridges connecting islands, which float like ephemeral illusions, are painted in marvelous detail making each one a complete scene. The viewer can stroll visually through the entire space in a blend of reality and illusion. The famous bridges divide up the space, becoming symbols of the boundary between this world and another. I do not believe that it is accidental that Hokusai painted most of these pictures between the ages of 72 and 76. Hokusai said that he began to understand form only after he turned seventy. To him, the "true form of things" was their essential spirit or life.

(Excerpt from the beginning of the catalog『Another World』)

この展覧会は“アナザーワールド”という表象そのものを見せるのではなく、“アナザーワールド”を想起させる強い働き掛けをもった空間の実現として構想された。9作家はそれぞれ一展示室を与えられ、各々異なったテーマとの関わり方をその作品で示した。



カプーアは最初の部屋で11個の自然石を用いてインスタレーションを制作した。作家は水戸市の近郊で石を選んだが、奇しくもそれは中国から輸入されたものであった。縦横1～1.5mはどの大きさで800キロから2トンもの重量がある石は一つ一つが動物、あるいは柔らかな有機体を息わせる不定形で奇妙な形態をしている。設置後、カプーアは3度にわたって石の表面に青い顔料を塗ってゆき、最後に奥行きの感覚が怪しくなるほど深い、鮮やかな青いびろうどのような表面に仕上げた。

このプロセスを通してかつて大陸の大地の一部をなしていた奇岩は本来の物質的存在感、重量感を失い、非物質的な“何か”に変貌していった。また石の表面のうねるような起伏や割れ目は青の表情に変化を与え、見るものの眼を石全体のフォルムよりも“青の体験“に集中させる効果をもたらした。

カプーアによれば“大地が天にかわってゆく”このイメージは、翼を思わせる平たい切片状の石に青い顔料を塗った一連の「天使」と題された作品の流れにあるものといえる。今回の作品で作家はヨーロッパの乾いた空気と風土をアジアに置き換え、非物質のイリュージョンを天使から、霧ともやの中、幻視的な高峰の合間を上昇してゆく伝説の中の存在、龍の姿に移行させた。



その先にアナザーワールドヘいたる淵のようにぽっかりと北斎の滝つばが口を開けている。今回の展示ではこの世とあの世（異世界）をむすぶ象徴として“橋”“滝”“海”といった水にまつわる主題が選ばれた。水のテーマは北斎が70歳代にはいって多く展開するようになったものである。「冨嶽三十六景」の波の表現、「千絵の海」などを始めとして、「諸国瀧廻り」、「諸国名橋奇覧」のシリーズなどいずれも70代前半に集中している。“ベロ藍”というそれまでになかった鮮やかで透明感のある舶来の青を得たことに加え、形あるものを描きつくした後で、形なきもの、千変万化する水の表現に挑もうとする意図があったのであろう。絶え開なく変化する水の律動を分析し、形像として定着させようとする観察の客観性と、生命の跳躍としてこれをとらえる感受性……その関心の在りようは、形態と流れにもとづいて波の種類を12に分け、波浪の分類学とでもいえる表現の手順を手稿に残したダ・ヴィンチと比較することが出来る。想像力の変換に身をあずけながら、海の底から山の項上にいたる水と土のたえまない闘争のすべてを描こうとしたダ・ヴィンチの科学的探究心は、自然の神秘への視覚的な解明のアプローチとして北斎と共通性をもつ。

自身が神、鳥の目になった「唐土名所之絵」、「百橋一覧図」も同様である。一枚の画面に広大な唐の全土が描かれている前者、一瞬の幻のように浮かんだ島々を結ぶ１００の橋驚くべき事に部分部分はすべて自立した空間として成立している。つまり見るものは具体的にその空間を歩き回ることができるのだ。現実と幻想の混交。……北斎は異界の入口にたち、向こうを示しているように見えて、実際、異界をこちらに引きずり込んだのではなかったか。彼は描くことによって初めて他者と“この世界”を共有しえたのである。

(Excerpt from the beginning of the catalog『Another World』)