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Water Spirits
 
by Yuko Moriyama   

 
As many people feel spirituality in water, so the waterscape of Toride is an inspiration for my work. Closing my eyes in a moment of quietness, I can see a waterscape in my mind. It is sometimes very dark and frightening. At other times, it is crystal clear with infinite expanse. It is my intention to express such water scenes in my work.
 
The title "Water Spirits" was taken from a small work at an exhibition I saw in London in 1996, the Prinzhorn Collection from Germany, art works by psychiatric patients collected by Hans Prinzhorn who was a psychiatric doctor in Heidelberg at the beginning of the 20th century. There were many pencil drawings at this exhibition, and I found them very moving. These drawings were simple, yet represented images beyond consciousness. As in these works, my aim is to represent something beyond consciousness in my waterscape.
 
The series of small blue prints in frames are produced by the cyanotype. It was invented by the English astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. Despite its simple technique and durability, it was not used as widely as other photographic methods due to its blue colour, but mainly used to record technical drawings. However, I became interested in this method because of its beautiful Prussian Blue, and wanted to use it in my work. So far, I have been basing my drawings on photographs taken from nearby rivers and lakes. I used the images from these same photographs to make the cyanotypes. The series at this exhibition are based on images taken from the Kokai River in Toride.
 
April 2005
 
 

Water Spirits --- drawing spiritual presence
 
by Ryo Tsujimura (Art/Architectural Journalist)
 

Stepping into Yuko Moriyama's room, one encounters the various water surfaces, of the opening exhibition of the TAP 2005 Satellite Gallery. The images of water are presented on white paper with a little unusual vertical and horizontal proportions, which one may find intriguing to the eye which is more accustomed to works on canvas.
 
Water flow out to all four corners of the paper. The mass of water, its depths and its surface is expressed by the accumulation of pencil lines and pastel particles which were applied by the small but strong fingers of the artist. The waves are reflecting white sunlight, an occasional breeze reveals dark depths which harbour creatures beneath.
 
Moriyama has always been drawing water. When I first met her in the late 80's, she was using pastel to draw the water at sunset flowing under a bridge in Venice. Then for a while, she stayed away from art and worked as an architect in London and Tokyo. In the late 90's she was in Dublin working for a large Japanese construction firm.
 
While she was in Dublin, she took me to a place called "Glendaloch" which translates as "valley of a lake". Glendaloch is situated about 50 km south of Dublin, a place where Dubliners come and relax, for picnics and to ramble. However, Glendaloch was not just a place for relaxation. The valley, formed by a glacier in the ancient past, was exuding an atmosphere of mystical spirituality with its ruins of early Christian monasteries. After a brief walk along a gentle mountain path, we reached a glacial lake. It was very quiet as if all the sounds were absorbed by the surrounding mountains. The old lake was brimming with black water with large white rocks from the mountain side on the shore. I imagined the accumulation of ancient organisms on the lake bed. It appeared that Moriyama was a frequent visitor to this lake despite her busy working life in Dublin.
 
It is not certain that she was directly influenced by Glendaloch, however, she left her highly paid job and went back to London to start drawing water full time. In her small room, she drew the murky water of nearby Hampstead ponds, then she moved on to the Thames. Whenever she goes back to Japan, her subject becomes the river in Toride where she spent her childhood.
 
She always chooses a subject, be it a river, a lake or a pond, from her neighbourhood.
 
She continued drawing for many years using pencil which is a common architectural drafting tool. For this exhibition, she has also used cyanotypes for the first time, the deep blue colour of theblueprint is also very familiar to architects.
 

 
What attracts Moriyama to water so much?
 
She says "I want to draw landscapes beyond my mind. I aim for something beyond consciousness, something which speaks to your unconsciousness."
 
Ancient tales tell us there was an old wise sacred man living in a vase. A monster is hiding in a lake deep under water. We have always been sensing the existence of the spiritual being beyond our perceptions and understandings.
 
Life came from water. It defines the line between this world and the other shore. Water embraces both the tenderness of mother nature and the awe of the world beyond our perceptions.
 
In "Water Spirits", she traces the water surfaces in the search for the existence of something deep inside. It may be a life which we have not yet seen, it may be a spirit, or the existence of God. Water harbours it, and hides it deep underneath, creating something beyond our vision and reach. However, we can feel it breathing from time to time. As breezes create wave patterns on the surface of the water, beneath there are different waves on the underside of the surface. It is breathing from the bottom of the water. By careful observation, we can see them interacting.
 
The drawings of waterscapes by Moriyama represent the world beyond human perception and our dark inner world.
 
May 2005
 

Translations by Yuko Moriyama