たち (Turning Up) Painting

A mirror to the heart - the multifaceted art of Kiyoshi Shiraishi Kiyoshi Shiraishi's art is both traditional and modern. Emerging from the Zen and Shinto world of ideas, he also draws inspiration from the ancient Jomon period. He feels committed to the Buddhist terms "Ma" (which can be roughly translated as "gap", "space", "pause" or "the space between two structural parts) and "Ku" (translates to "heaven" or "emptiness "and is one of the five elements in Japanese philosophy). Another important aspect of his art is the traditional Japanese tea ceremony (among Shiraishi's works are also some room dividers) and closely follows the aesthetic concept of "Wabi-sabi" which is based on the notion of the beauty of imperfection. The inclined viewer might also be able to recognize a kinship of ideas to Western artists such as Mark Rothko. Layer by layer Kiyoshi Shiraishi painstakingly conveys memories and intuitions from the depths of the canvas to the surface. The canvas serves him - as well as the viewer - as a portal into the inner universe, as the starting point of a journey to the self. By contemplative reflection, a state is to be reached which Shiraishi calls the essence (literally "mind" or "heart") of nothingness. In fact, in Japanese the terms "mind" and "heart" are often used interchangeably. Consequently, Shiraishi places individual experience and subjective perception at the center of his art.