About the artwork

Rice paddies are a given of the Asian landscape. I thought that by scattering sculptures in that landscape and building relationships with them, I could present fundamental, and at the same time, contemporary issues in the art world. If an artist is satisfied to be in the closed system of art, he or she has lost a dynamic relation to contemporary society and fresh, immediate impressions and expressive power. Instead, I would venture into society at large and welcome the intrusion of members of the general public with little interest in art. I accept and welcome chaos. Doing so may be the way to make art open to the world. I feel that it was very meaningful to have my project realized in Echigo-Tsumari, since this beautiful land is also a place where a difficult contemporary social issue, the collision of universality and localism, takes place. These mountain valleys are pregnant with the most radical issues of the day.