Streams and Mountains                                         

Installation and Video Art

 

Japanese washi-paper, ink, natural pigment, kimono-silk from kimonos donated by kimono teacher of Kurodahara community, wood, video projection.

 

Exhibited in Coburg House Gallery, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. Exhibition: “In Basho’s Footsteps.” 

 

This installation combines physical art (six hanging scrolls or kakejiku, done in traditional Japanese style) and new media – a video of a moving black river that stitches the paintings together. Black River is a visual expression of the artist’s 2,000km, 3-month long journey through the mountains of Japan in the footsteps of 17th century haiku poet Matsuo Basho. Each scroll accompanies a haiku written along the way, and a stage of Gleizer's physical journey through Japan. In Black River, Gleizer explores the themes of Basho’s own work, but also the vast distance time and globalization have created between the ancient and modern Japan, as well as her own distance, as a westerner, from Basho and his understanding of impermanence.

Combining ancient techniques and modern technology, Black River reflects a search for stillness that remains unchanged since Basho’s time, in a fast-changing contemporary world.

 

 

 

 

 

To read more about the In Basho's Footsteps Adventure.

 

To see more art inspired by the In Basho's Footsteps Adventure