"Cosmic Laundry"

"Cosmic Laundry"

Shoichi Okumura

Mineral Pigment, Silver Leaf, Glitter, on Silk

18” x 15”

2022

Artist Statement:

I’ve been influenced by traditional landscape paintings, which incorporate multiple perspectives.

Especially emblematic of Song dynasty landscapes is the way in which landscapes are shown, not as single-perspective pieces cut from a landscape, but as a full world, shown from many perspectives.

Another way to say this is that these paintings are trying to create a condensed alternate world, instead of the real world.

Within this alternate world, small scenery known as 点景(Dianjing) are placed, mixing together larger and smaller scaled worlds, creating a structure akin to a nested mandala.

Indeed, these are small, complete, and revolving universes.

These spaces seem to float, and they move the viewers line of sight around the painting, expressing a Chinese vison of utopia though a mix of large and small worlds creating a mandala like universe.