hiroshi hayakawa

Realism to me is an attempt to capture ever-changing and eluding beauty that exudes a sense of mystery before it disappears. This is where my body of work “Vanitas” comes from. The “Vanitas” theme in history originated in the Dutch still life paintings in the early 17th century. This current body of work is my attempt to marry the Vanitas art and my interest in figurative art to express my interpretation of the theme by using the symbolism as a common language. Alberto Giacometti once said about realism that he tried to copy a shape of an object while it was disappearing, reappearing and disappearing again in front of his eyes, moving constantly back and forth between being and non-being. Although I don’t draw like Giacometti, I find my idea of realism somewhat similar to his description. I am aware that this sensibility partially comes from my cultural background of being a Japanese, namely the aesthetic known as “Wabi-sabi” in which one finds beauty in things that are transient, imperfect and showing a sign of decay affected by the test of time. I feel the awareness of this fragility and brevity of what we find beautiful gives us the more heightened perception of our ephemeral existence and makes the experience of beauty even more poignant.

My drawing and my photography share the similar interests. They both deal with representation of the complex reality by light and values (and sometimes colors). They are also about understanding the mystery of our physical existence. My former drawing teacher Bruce Robinson once told me that I used my eyes like a light meter of a camera. I do agree with him.

Naturally the primary goal of portraits is to capture the likeness of the sitters. That creates a certain degree of pressure, but it is also a fun process. Unlike purely academic figure drawings, it has a more human connection with the subjects and I really enjoy that aspect.

In fall 2014 I took a class called "Painting Techniques" at Columbus College of Art & Design taught by Neil Riley. Prior to taking this class, I had not touched my paint brushes for 20 years! This class really made me remember the joy of painting. I have a feeling this gallery will grow from now on.

Collection of still-life drawings, paintings, and others.

The collection of the prints from my experimentation of alternative photographic processes.

My photographic work deals with the transformation of the physical and conceptual properties of the medium by means of time. My images are printed on oxidized sheet metal through the application of photographic emulsion onto the surface. In this process the rust on the metal penetrates the image from underneath and surfaces to become part of the image. The time represented by a photographic image, which belongs to the past, is physically shifted and relocated by the decay of the material, which is the manifestation of on-going time. The senses of permanence and timelessness conventionally associated with photographic prints are re-examined by the impermanence implied by the material. In a literal and symbolic sense, my main subject-matters: female nudes provide the ground where these 2 points in time meet and the figures work as a catalyst to accelerate this transformation of the medium due to the transient nature of beauty with which female nudes are viewed. Sometimes by juxtaposing oxidation against the figure and sometimes by blending the oxidation with the figure, I try to create a visual and psychological tension. I would like to continue exploring a new possibility of dialogue that would bridge images, materials and time.

In 1996, I made the first kinetic sculpture piece that eventually turned into a series called, "Peepshows". It started as my attempt to re-interpret the medium of photography in a sculptural context. I brought all the elements that made photography possible into the design: light, moving subjects, a monocular perspective through the lens, etc. The conceptual frame work was to give my viewer an experience of photographic viewing from a unique perspective with a sense of secrecy and mystery and revelation.

In 2011, I had a solo show at Sherrie Gallerie, Columbus, OH. I exhibited a group of 6 kinetic sculptures called, "Vista Interna". These pieces were extension of my attempt to tap into a gray area, on many different levels, in between fine art and toys; external force and internal force, illusion and reality. I used antique phonograph motors as power sources to drive the mechanisms which were operated by the viewer's hand. They all had red balls and fingers that were more or less interacting with each other inside the boxes. The interior movements were visible through the spy hole in the front panel of the pieces.