Curatorial statement: Eunoia aims to cultivate a community for every artist to connect, create, and use as a platform. We have been introducing several artists from all over the world inside and outside of Japan. This time, Eunoia is presenting Yuka Nishihisamatsu from Kyoto, Japan. GOKURAKU=Sukhavati (Sukhāvatī; "Blissful") is the pure land (or buddhafield) of the Buddha Amitābha in Mahayana Buddhism. Sukhavati is also called the Land of Bliss or Western Pure Land and is the most well-known of the Mahayana Buddhist pure lands due to the popularity of Pure Land Buddhism in East Asia… GOKURAKU is a word that represents “paradise” in Buddhism. According to an old Buddhism scripture (the Sutra), it says, “In this truly refreshing place, a breeze neither hot nor cold blows gently. The melodious chirping of beautiful kalavinka (mythical birds) can be heard, and the ground is covered entirely with golden sand. Various trees are made of seven kinds of treasures, and their leaves are more radiant than gold. Furthermore, there is a perfectly square lotus pond, and an abundance of food is available." It may sound like an ideal place to live, but it comes with one circumstance. This place only has a meter-long chopstick to eat food, and it is a common feature with “JIGOKU” (hell). However, the difference between GOKURAKU and JIGOKU is that inhabitants in GOKURAKU know how to use those long chopsticks properly. If you use these meter-long chopsticks just like normal ones, you will fail to bring the food to your own mouth because they are way too long. So those inhabitants that do not know how to use it (inhabitants in hell), they will suffer from hunger. But those inhabitants in GOKURAKU know how to use it, and they will bring food to others by using these long chopsticks and help each other to feed.
Yuka Nishihisamatsu is an artist who is based in Kyoto, and she is one of the non-exceptions who is influenced by Buddhist thoughts and ideas. She uses motifs from Buddhist artifacts, such as lotus leaves, which are symbols of purity but also of regeneration, and reconstructs her own works. She grew up with parents who were both artists and often followed them to go sketching outside of her house in Kameoka, which is a mountainous town in Kyoto known for the thick fog. Her father was painting landscapes and her mother was painting her works based on the reincarnation, which Nishihisamatsu looked back on as her roots of her studies and artworks. Her main concept is deeply rooted in the Buddhist view of life and death and creates this unique atmosphere around her works. In recent series of her works, she is focusing on habitats and living things such as small organisms in the river or a cocoon in the soil waiting to hatch. Is this GOKURAKU or something else that you feel in her work? In this chaotic world, will we still be able to use those chopsticks properly? Yuka Nishihisamatsu is trying to perceive this through her creations.

Dates:
Collectors First Look + Press Preview: May 6, Noon - 5pm
VIP Opening Night: May 6, 5pm - 8pm
VIP Preview Day: May 7, Noon - 7pm
Regular Show Days: May 8 - 12, Noon - 7pm