Oceans in between
Arrabida and Nagasaki
It was a sunny, bright morning. A view was a bay, a large cargo anchored, fishing boat heading to a market place, people taking walks at the warf, palm tree arranged in the same distance. It reminded me Setubal, if the charcoal smoked and fishermen opened bottles of "Sagres" under the morning sunshine.
Prints already arrived at the museum, the show space used to be an audio room and refurbished to the exhibition space. It turned to a dark room, like a theatre, hanging black curtains and lining black wall papers. The exhibition title is "Portugal Arte e Poesia in Nagasaki." I choosed some works related with Nagasaki. Key word is "sunset in the ocean."
"Ocean in silence" is a photo etching print, made in 2002, and sticking photographs, in chine-collee, from the Convent of Arrabiba. I visited the convent in 02, by chance. It was a breathtaking space. It stands on the cliff of Arrabida mountains, remote of Setubal, mouth of Troia peninsula. There was gardens. Pavement leads to block of compartment. Room has a quite few headroom and a window view, angle facing to the Atlantic Ocean. Fountain of Jesus statue decorated with shells, as well as the nitch which was covered with enormous numbers of shells too. Inside of chapel completely shaded sun light. It was too dark to see even tryptich, icons, any statues of Saints. In an another quater, I saw a statue of Maria. It was placed behind the bars, laying on the rock and stroking a skull of Jesus. The space was also too dark to take pictures.
Everything seemed to be arranged for meditation. Rest of the time, priests worked making rounded roof tiles, that clay was moulded by their legs.
It is said the convent was built in 13th century. The first encounter with westers for Japan was in 1543, when Portuguese arrived with gun and Jesuit. After a decade, they allowed to anchor in Nagasaki. So there is no wonder if some of them past from the convent of Arrabida to Nagasaki. The view from the small compartment in Arrabida lept my mind to the ports of Orient. It is an enormous distance and time between, and it used to be too. Now they seem to be linked, through my relatively short transition of journeys, view from experieces and studies of history, however, the objects are too huge, beyond my imagination.
"Eight botanic scenes IV - celestial," (2007) places two Chinese banners at both side of image. The writing is quoted from "The Dunhuang star atlas," the oldest existing manuscript written on paper of Chinese constellations, possibly dated 649-684 (early Tang dynasty). In addition, I put my own poem in Chinese on top of the winter melon flower, and depicting about the view from my small studio in a rainy day, in a dream floating over and reaching to the Atlantic ocean as,
In an An ( a shanty, a shed or a hiding place) of Megurita (name of my studio locates),
There is a jardinha (small garden) in front of my sight
Listen a sound of a rain dripping - for a while
Leap the mind to my Master who lives in the far of the western sea
I dream when inclining a glass of wine
The rain reaches to the water in the Atlantic Ocean
The galaxy circles over her sky
My command of Chinese is rather advisable to be brushed, however I thought the drip of water arrives to the sea near Nagasaki first. It is seemingly reasonable.
"Man at the stairs"(1996), the image was inspired by a human silhouette, burnt by an atomic flash traced only its shadow on a stone stair of a bank entrance of Hiroshima, 1945. The burnt shadow and the stair stones were collected by Hiroshima peace memorial museum. For the image, please visit
http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/virtual/VirtualMuseum_j/visit/subcon/sa141-2.html
This print was produced after the visit of museum. The latest research, in 1996, tells that the shadow was from Mitsuno Ochi, a woman, forty two years old, who waited for opening the bank and sitting at the stair. Atomic brust vapored her body in a second but her silhouette.
