Streams and Mountains                                         

Oku No Kurogawa (The Black River to the Deep North in Japanese) is the Artist's Novel created by the authors after the adventure 'In Basho's Footsteps'. The novel, walked and painted as much as it is written, takes the reader through the tangled forests of Japan's interior, and through the darker recesses of the artists' own minds. 

 

Back from their 2,000km trek through Japan, Gleizer continued to paint, inspired by the journey. Using their travel journals, the sketches, poems, the memories from the road, and the new artwork that Gleizer was creating, Valcarce wove together a narrative connecting these pieces in an intricate tapestry. The goal was to avoid allowing the paintings to become illustrations, subordinate to a text; instead using text as his thread to sew the poetry and paintings together seamlessly. Once the novel had begun to form (a story of a writer and of two travelers), Gleizer stepped in once more, making art in response to the nascent narrative and co-writing parts of the story.

 

Oku No Kurogawa was built up layer by layer, just as a journey consists of its individual steps. Through structure and content it brings into question traditional notions of authorship and the writing process in general. The result is an artist's book in which prose, art, and poetry stand as equals and as indespensible parts of a cohesive whole.