The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to host Hiroe Saeki’s first UK solo show. Hiroe Saeki’s work inhabits a liminal zone on the edges of the perceivable: monochromatic explorations of the subject of beauty in nature, delicate drawings with a weightless quality, sparse compositions evoking traditional aesthetics. Like a photograph, the totality of the artwork and the detail are valued equally.
The void is inherent in her work, allowing the microscopic and macroscopic viewpoint to coexist. Thus her chosen tool is the pencil: ephemeral because it can be erased, fluid because it is undefined, emancipating because there is no outline to follow.
In this exhibition, she presents a new body of work with graphite and water. The powdered graphite travels through capillaries of water: settling where and when the water evaporates, to be absorbed by the land of paper. The resulting surfaces recall water-carved planetary landscapes.
Saeki’s practice evokes associations with biological or mineral forms, such as geological sediments. Exquisite, miniscule lines take us to the nano level of the cellular structure of organisms. Combined with the serendipitous nature of her new graphite process, they take on a sense of the cosmic. This new work coalesces her vision of the world into a yearning to interconnect with the universe at all its scales.