Waiting for a Wonderful Day (2023)

Mizukami's paintings combine myths, legends, and folklore from around the world, creating layered artworks that exist physically even if they are impossible to see through completely. First, she paints an image, then covers it entirely with a pigment mixed with sand from the Namib Desert, making it completely invisible. She then paints a new image over it, creating an unseen dimension within a single piece. There are two elements: the hidden image and the covering image. How these two elements are connected enriches the spacetime within the painting, and their lack of unity, through various times and choices, ultimately forms a single cross-section. This represents the complexity and obscurity of the world we face. While the covered layer exists physically but becomes invisible, the act of covering not only conceals but also adds meaning to the hidden elements.

In the work "Waiting for a Wonderful Day," the first covered layer depicts a person looking out a window and a thunderstorm (a motif frequently found in apocalyptic myths). The visible second layer includes Ariadne's thread from Greek mythology (also reminiscent of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "The Spider Thread"), a labyrinthine vine (inspired by the Nintendo game Donkey Kong), and several suns (motifs derived from Aztec mythology). This work was made during a period of increasing global instability, and it addresses the theme of choosing a good path to avoid great suffering and despair.

photography and text: courtesy of Higawara Projects