Press
The boats of transience
Rica Ohya from Japan displays her works of nature art in the smaller exhibition room in Galerie 3.
Klagenfurt AUSTRIA
There was a reason why Valentin Oman invited Rica Ohya, a nature art artist from Japan, to show her work during his exhibition in Galerie 3:
Transience is the subject in both artists’ works.
The fascinating tradition of Japanese philosophy including the art of Zen is present in the Japanese artist’s ships made of natural materials.
- Symbol of enlightenment
Rica Ohya’s boats are fragile, in fact there are already abandoned, there are wrecks.
They seem to allude to the Buddhism story about a boat which a man seeking enlightenment uses to overcome the waves of illusions.
Arriving on the other bank, he leaves the boat on the side of the river;
he does not need it anymore and the boat falls to pieces.
Naturally, the fractured empty boat symbolises the human who has ‘gone beyond’ into nirvana.
The enlightened himself is not tangible anymore, but as an old mantra says, has “gone completely beyond.”
Here, transience becomes a symbol of hope and of enlightenment which are imperative for freedom.
As a part of “Art in the Landscape”, Rica Ohya has already produced a similar ship out of earth and tree elements in Prigglitz, Lower Austria.
Next to it, with the same technique she built a house as an impression of the Tsunami catastrophe surrounding Fukushima.
She named this object “My home - my Safety Place”, which is also an allusion to Buddhism: Buddha announces to Mara, the tempter, his victory over illusion:
‘house builder, you will build me no more houses.’ A counterpoint to Valentin Oman’s ‘Trails of the Journey.’
Kaerntner Tageszeitung AUSTRIA Jan.10 3013
bks=Bertram Karl Steiner
Translate: Naoko Hamamoto
