Toshiko Oiyama / FLOW Opening night, 6 – 8 pm Thursday 5 June. The exhibition runs until 5 pm Sunday 22 June. Curated by James Gardiner.
Not Drowning, Flowing Essay by Lisa Sharp
FLOW, the title carefully and consciously chosen by artist Toshiko Oiyama for this solo exhibition implies a condition of ambiguity. To flow, or to be in a flow, is to be in motion between one thing and another. Flow is a state that creeps, envelops, and is allegorical of a constant slippage and erosion of boundaries. Arguably, in contemporary art this signals a species of expanded vanitas, a reflection on a universality beyond that of any singular life cycle. As a direct visual language, Oiyama’s method of practice and works reflect a preoccupation of the artist – drawing with ink in a sustained dialogue with transience – materially as well as conceptually. Her medium may be ink on paper, but in a series of inventive interventions she positions the resulting artwork as questions, the answers to which are, change. If art is on its way to becoming something else, does this not echo the incessant and unending journey of all physicality? Our experiences of transient states are as varied as a buried memory resurfacing briefly, or as prolonged as our abstract knowledge of a star forming somewhere. It is a posture that seems to subtly point to the futility of exterior worldly pursuits while emphasising the primacy of the interior, experienced moment. And, as she points out, as a word, FLOW is ambiguous, acting as both verb and noun, it both does and identifies. “For me, drawing is a way of asking questions that cannot be answered in words”
Toshiko Oiyama
Oiyama draws primarily with black, white, sepia, silver and gold ink on paper. Her drawing practice extends off the paper, into an investigation of marks and of paper itself, playfully pitting the potential for a drawing to activate space around it. To this end, she uses chance against purpose, accident against planning. On a base of organic ink blooms, a deliberate grid appears, partly revealed and suggesting a larger scheme. Lines turn and punch through the paper, reappearing as threads which end in random and kinetic splays. In the studio the neat white rectangle of a new sheet of paper is not at all sacrosanct as it gradually fills with ink flows and guided marks. The structure of the sheet is ruptured over and again with needle punctures and stitches. The sheet is also folded, sliced, and held in curves by magnets and pins.