BAANAI

In the new EMERGE series, the artist fills the canvas with colors and paints over it so that letters and recurring words ‘emerge’. Resulting painting with unpredictably colored letters in this series shows baanai’s playfulness.

The SWELL / RECONSTRUCTION series is made up of artworks created through the process of repurposing paintings from baanai’s past collections. Dismantled by being cut into strips, the paintings are then reconstructed as a collage over canvases on whose surface the word ‘ARIGATOUGOZAIMASU’ had been repeatedly painted. The layered images are inspired by the swell of a wave that appears in tiers from the sea as if wishing to announce the arrival of something.

The HARMONY series employs larger cut-outs from a collection of international surf magazines, collected by the artist over the past 30 years, to create a collage on which the word ‘ARIGATOUGOZAIMASU’ is then recurrently painted over the entirety of the surface, with each letter rendered in a different colour scheme. The images of waves, portrayed in cut-outs, express the artist’s idea of invisible vibrations. By using magazines, which have been with him for a long time, baanai intends to incorporate an autobiographical texture of time onto the works. When encountering pieces crafted in this manner, a blend of diverse colours, imagery, and text induces disorientation, prompting the viewer to embark on a journey beyond the confines of time and space.

FUTURE WALL -PUSHING THE LIMIT-, the artist’s first three-dimensional work, is a rectangular piece in the shape of a wall, as the title suggests. The front is made from a mirror-finished stainless steel with a specific letter engraved in the center. The back and each side are decorated with a series of letters, each in a different color scheme, and underneath lie multiple layers of letters and collages.

baanai has for years regarded his artistic practice as an “experiment to explore the truth of the universe”. For the artist, ‘ARIGATOUGOZAIMASU’ is not just a word of gratitude, but also a mantra that expresses reverence for something so unbelievably precious and miraculous. In his new works the word ’ WAOMOTTE ’ (translating to ‘with harmony’ in Japanese) has started to appear. baanai is giving little statement towards this show and his new works, leaving the meaning to the viewer. Please take this opportunity to experience the profundity and meaning that lie beneath the new works.

Press Release: Courtesy of MAKI Gallery