- 'Solo Exhibition Leaflet.' galerie16, Kyoto.
The day before lockdown in London, as I looked through the window of the taxi carrying me away to the airport, the city was inordinately beautiful in the blue-orange light of early morning. It was utterly silent, the streets strangely empty of people. And in this preternatural state, I developed the illusion of a voice emanating from the ground, speaking from the deep layers of time embedded in the strata beneath my feet.
‘Wash your hands well. Mother's Day is this weekend, but don't go and see her,' the car radio was repeating like a mantra.
'Mum is not around anymore, so it doesn't affect me,' said the taxi driver. ‘Will you be able to see your mum when you get back to your country?’
I returned to reality, and said, 'Mother's Day is in May back home.'
'Normal here is not normal there.' 'Regular life yesterday is not regular tomorrow.' 'But London is remarkably beautiful today!' This is how we talked, the immigrant driver and the visiting artist, as we crossed the great city
The world we typically inhabit, as we conceive of it in our regular lives, is (as the word itself suggests) a construction of our own 'habits'. And once constructed, this habitual world exerts enormous control over us, shaping behaviors that both protect and alienate us from the vast environment of which are a part, as well as the intimate rhythms of our own bodies. And so we start to develop a myopic vision, focusing on getting through the coming week, the rest of the day, the next hour..., and with our near-sighted eyes, fall into a cycle of seeking short-term profits from immediate gains.
But when those habits are temporarily broken, perhaps by the soundless voice of an ancient city, there is a chance that for a moment we might sense something more in the rich seams beneath the cosmetic surface, and with a respectful awe encounter the immensity of experience, of existence.
On that journey to the airport I resolved anew to continue trying through my work to suspend habitual points of view, to reach beyond conventional frames of behavior and conceptions of time, and seek a deeper understanding of the perspectives, the realities, the truths layered in the ground - to listen to the strata that shape the present and inform the future.
Masako Yasuki, Autumn 2020