Akira Shimizu - From the Darkness Series

From the 80’s Shimizu starts From the Darkness Series while working on colleges and drawings. Most of them are sculptures made from sword like objects, spheres and mirrors made of wood, bamboo stick and plastics painted with black. The series would take over same theme of "Power Plant of Hunter" that is to seek a real nature and meaning of thunder, which has "special power". While Shimizu enjoyed rich color in "Power Plant of Hunter" series paintings, all the sculptures of this "Darkness" series are painted in black. Shimizu would try going deeply into the world of darkness, under consciousness in this series, while doing collages in a state of consciousness.

Most of the sculptures have a nuclear in shape of a pair of semicircles. Shimizu says almost all the objects are developed from the nuclear. Some nuclear developed to large bodies and some did not, so they remained as they were.

From the Darkness Series- Running Fire and Running Water

1994
Wood, mirror, chain, wire and black lacquer
257.0 X 205.0 X 250.0　(H X W X L) (cm)
The huge work in the picture is named "Running Fire and Running Water". Here we could see the existence of god in fire and water. Two inclined pillars mean fire and water. The vertical pillar in the center, supported by two pillars, is what Shimizu calls a "waterfall". Two different things encounter, and merged into one, and it is transformed to be an organic material. The "waterfall" runs down deeply inside Shimizu's mind, black hall, and he found another existence of his own.

From the Darkness

1983
Wood, bamboo stick, bell, black lacquer, etc.
55.0 X 88.0 X 61.0　(H X W X L) (cm)

From the Darkness

1989
Wood, bamboo stick, sinker, chain, wire, etc.
98.0 X 88.0 X 75.0　(H X W X L) (cm)

From the Darkness(Home of Water)

1980
Pencil, silver powder
80.0 X 55.0(H X W) (cm)
The pump drill and the waterwheel drawn in the center represent "fire" and "water", that are deeply related to the experiences in Toyama City. As a boy, Shimizu experienced a great fire caused by a ship fuel in the snowstorm on the coast of Iwase, one of the districts of Toyama. Although the ship 's fuel caused a catastrophic explosion, the boy felt the beauty of the sparks and the snow that were dancing together as well as the fear of them. Meanwhile, Toyama City was often hit by floods, and Shimizu remembered the experience of water deeply in his mind.

From the Darkness(Flottages of Darkness)

1992
Conte, Tracing paper
59.5 X 84.0(H X W) (cm)
In this work he drew in frottage and experimented dripping paint on the tracing paper aiming to bring contingency.

From the Darkness

1983
Wood, bamboo stick
76.0 X 90.0 X 39.0 (H X W X L) (cm)
Shimizu eventually made skeletons with wood and bamboo sticks, added the gathered materials there, and lastly painted black lacquer. Gathered materials include light bulbs, fish hooks, buoys, fishing nets, and spinning wheels, each of which symbolizes something.
It is interesting that these symbols are arranged with constant regularity. "A pump drill" or "a sword" is constantly intimidating "a ball" or "a ellipsoid" to penetrate. Moreover, it attracts these objects to penetrate. This also expresses the relationship between men and women, which means the birth of life.

From the Darkness

1983
Wire, Chain, Scissors
47.0 X 22.0 X 15.0 (H X W X L) (cm)
All the assemblages were developed from one cell. Some of them grew big and attracted a variety of materials, but some of them stayed small without growing.
In this way all assemblages that look like inorganic things are all alive and symbolize eternity as well.