Akira Ishiguro's Solo Exhibition: By the Light of the Silvery Moon

＜Artist statement＞
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Akira Ishiguro

When I visited Akiyoshidai for the first time in May 2023, I became to be fascinated by that the several limestone pillars on the surface of the earth were actually a single large limestone below the ground.

Akiyoshidai is a limestone plateau located in Akiyoshi, Shuhou-cho, Mine City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, known as the largest karst topography in Japan. Its total area is approximately 100 km², and in some areas, the limestone is known to reach a thickness of at least 1000 meters.
Going back in time, Akiyoshidai originated as a coral reef in the warm southern seas. Beginning around 350 million years ago, during the Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Paleozoic era, the remains of creatures with hard shells of calcium carbonate accumulated on the seabed and turned into limestone, which accumulated from the sea to the mountain until it became several hundred meters thick. The mildly acidic water made of the rainwater and soil water with carbon dioxide from the air flowed in it. As a result of it, the limestone was eroded, and the current topography was created. Then, water passed through the limestone bedrock, and the calcium carbonate in the groundwater solidified again, forming stalactites. As the limestone dissolves in the water and solidifies, it changes shape freely, creating a magnificent underground space.

Walking under the unobstructed sky of Akiyoshidai and through the scenery of rocky limestone pillars stretching beyond the ridgeline, I get the illusion of standing on the surface of the earth from an insect's perspective. When I perceive nature, which extends far beyond my field of vision, as a statistical whole, I feel my existence on the earth by photographing a part of it.

I layered six long-exposure photographs of the same spot on Akiyoshidai under moonlight, and created a video work with a length equal to the sum of each exposure times. In addition, the use of a flash consciously adds contrast to the screen, drawing the eye to the limestone in the foreground of the image. I created a three-dimensional object with the same shape as the limestone, and painted a light snow marble pattern on its surface, which is rare among the many limestones found in Akiyoshidai. I will make the image overlap the artificial limestone, projecting the image onto the floor and walls as screens.

The polished artificial limestone illuminated in the darkroom reflects light and attracts viewers, but when they approach, it would be hidden by their own shadow. This reminds me of my trivial incident on site that I found myself hiding the limestone with my own shadow in the moonlight. During that short time, the light of the projector in the venue changes to moonlight, and viewers will relive my realization.
I hope that by bridging this gap between reality and perception, visitors will be able to imagine the visible and invisible forces that shape our earth.

《Karst SM01》2024
Acrylic and urethane on FRP
W67 x H32 x D45 cm
detail

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Anomalies bring imagination to the geological scale:
A review of Akira Ishiguro's exhibition "By the Light of the Silvery Moon"

Hiroki MIZUOCHI
Environmental Scientist, Remote Sensing Researcher
Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Visiting Associate Professor at Nagoya University

“Seeing the forest through the trees,” says Akira Ishiguro in commenting on the exhibition. The area covered by the exhibition is only a small part of the landscape of Akiyoshidai, which spans approximately 100 km². However, the shifting images under the moonlight, projected on the sculptures made of simulated limestone given a marble-like texture, layer the viewer's perspective and evoke the vast scale of time and space behind what exists in the present. Around 350 million years ago, coral reefs formed on the submarine volcano of the Panthalassa Ocean, the only open ocean at the time, and continued to grow as oceanic plates shifted, eventually forming limestone with a high purity of calcium carbonate. This limestone later collided with the continental plate that now forms the Japanese archipelago, and parts of it were accreted onto the plate and gradually exposed to the surface over a long period of time. When viewing the current Akiyoshi limestone, such an immense history lies in the invisible background.
Ishiguro has long been dedicated to opening a channel from the expression of marble surfaces to a geological scale. The delicate marble patterns reminiscent of rock veins running through strata created by the metamorphism of limestone, the uneven karst topography formed by the dissolution of limestone through water, the shadows cast by moonlight or projections - when human encounters pattern such deviations from the normal (anomalies), it may stir their curiosity and evoke a sense of longing or awe toward the unseen abyss. When conducting surveys from the sky using satellites or aircraft, numerous interesting natural uneven terrains are found around the world. The causes of these formations are sometimes gas leakage, the melting of permafrost, or the activity of termites. Yet, each of these phenomena carries something of both charm and eeriness, naturally leading to the question, "Why?"
The thoughts based on such scientific astonishment resonates with Ishiguro’s creative approach. Perhaps stemming from his background as a finishing contractor, Ishiguro’s work is true to the nature of the materials and creations themselves, maintaining a value-neutral stance. When it comes to artwork inspired by nature, especially those related to earth science, the expression context often tends to be framed within ecology or ethical correctness. However, Ishiguro's works challenge this trend. His faithful expression of nature does not conform to the ethics of ethical justification but shifts its focus toward the wonder of existence itself. Ishiguro's expression is not intended to serve as a first-person narrative but instead serves as a stage device for simply "continuing to observe" the past and future of this world.
On the other hand, Ishiguro also says, “Even so, it is impossible to completely erase the subject.” Although he emphasizes the role as a stage device, the creation is naturally an artifact inseparable from the creator's intent. Ishiguro refers to it as a "trivial event," but the experience that a viewer or Ishiguro himself become suddenly aware of their own existence through the shadows cast on the limestone, while their thoughts go to the vastness of Akiyoshidai and its geological background, seems to have an unexpectedly deep meaning. It is an awkward duality of object and subject, which resembles the dilemma that the science of tracing the history of the universe and the Earth can never free itself from the observer, humanity, or its linguistic expressions. Shadows and lights, the visible and the invisible, the subject and the object – they bring viewers a vertigo that might be called a “geological rotation” with inverting like the Rubin vase.

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Akira Ishiguro
Born 1974 in Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan.
Lives and works in Saitama, Japan

■Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 “Cupturing the Karst Plateau of Akiyoshidai” TSUTAYA BOOKS Gallery, Kyoto
2023 “ELEVATED MARBLESQUE” SAC Gallery, Bangkok
2022 “QUARRY” Spiral Garden, Tokyo
2019 “Critical Reflection on the Anthropocene through the Marblesque paintings: III” StudionAme Leicester UK
2019 “Critical Reflection on the Anthropocene through the Marblesque paintings: II” Roentgenwerke AG Tokyo Japan
2019 “Critical Reflection on the Anthropocene through the Marblesque paintings: I” S.A.C. Subhashok The Arts Centre Bangkok Thailand
2017 “Painting of Marble” LOKO GALLERY Tokyo Japan
2016 “The interval of the torsion of the truth and falsehood” Old Tanaka House Saitama Japan
2012 “One wall art project” OralCare.Inc Tokyo Japan
2010 “ISHIGURO-YA” nca | nichido contemporary art Tokyo Japan
2008 “GIFT” Gallery LE DÉCO Tokyo Japan

■Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 “Hysterik Nature ‘TEN’” GEN-SCH-AN, Tokyo
2024 “Opening a new world of art- Ashikaga Real Art Experience” Ashikaga Museum of Art, Tochigi
2024 “Hysterik Nature ‘KETSU’” MITSUKOSHI, Tokyo
2024 “THE ART HOUSE show” Mynavi art sqare, Tokyo
2023 “Hysterik Nature ‘KI’” KANAZAWA Marcury Cave, Kanazawa, Japan
2022 "LAND FORM" SAC Gallery、Bangkok, Thailand
2020 “Artists’ bookshelf” Minnano Gallery, Tokyo
2021 “Door to contemporary art” Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store Tokyo Japan
2021 “Beauties of nature” Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store Tokyo Japan
2020 “Artist”s Bookshelf” Minnano Gallery Tokyo Japan
2018 “Radi-um: Lounge Re-mix” Spiral Room Tokyo Japan
2018 “KOH-JUTSU CAHPTER IX `FU-EN’” TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY Viewing Room Osaka Japan
2018 “GEN-SCH-AN” Roentgenwerke AG Tokyo Japan
2018 ”Depression Contour” S.A.C. Subhashok The Arts Centre Chiangmai / Bangkok Thailand
2017 “KOH-JUTSU chapter 7.5” Roentgenwerke AG Tokyo Japan
2016 “neko neko Rieko” KUNST ARZT / JIRO MIURA GALLERY Kyoto / Tokyo Japan
2014 “Identity X” nca | nichido contemporary art Tokyo Japan
2013 “Femme Fatale” Shun Art Gallery Shanghai China
2013 ”small works” nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo Japan
2013 “enishi” Seibu Department Store in Shibuya Tokyo Japan
2013 “ARTLINE KASHIWA 2013” Mitsui Garden Hotel Kashiwa Chiba Japan
2013 ”TOH-KAI KO- JUTSU CHAPTER IV” Spiral Garden Tokyo Japan
2013 “KO-JUTSU 3.50” Roentgenwerke AG Tokyo Japan
2009 “For Rent ! For Talent ! 5” Mitsubishi-Jisho ARTIUM Fukuoka Japan
2009 “GAISAI #12” TOKYO BIG SITE Tokyo Japan
2008 “Debli Project Art Tour” Starbucks Coffee Japan Japan
2007 “Debli Project” Gallery LE DÉCO Tokyo Japan

《By the Light of the Silvery Moon》2025／Acrylic and urethane on FRP, Video
Digital pigment print, framed