particle_0007

UV print on acrylic
h: 90, w: 60, d: 1 cm
2025

*As this work is being exhibited at the solo exhibition "particle" (August 2nd - September 6th, 2025), it will be delivered after the exhibition.

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The "particle" series gives new meaning to the portrait motif through a printing technique that uses an accumulation of dots, and from the scientific perspective that all existence is made up of particles. Multiple public domain portraits are cut out with dots and then overprinted using UV printing on the front and back of transparent acrylic sheets. The structure, in which the layers of microscopic units form a macroscopic image, calls into question our perspective on the world.

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Artist Comment / Kana Ueda

Early in primary school, we were asked to draw ourselves in the classroom from a bird’s-eye view, mimicking architectural diagrams.I clearly remember how stepping outside my body and seeing the space from above completely changed the way I viewed my everyday life. Even after the class ended, I would sometimes catch myself wondering, "What would this moment look like from above?" Looking back, I realize this was one of the first times I truly grasped that there is no single, correct way to perceive the world.

I felt a similar kind of wonder when I first learned that everything around us is made up of particles. Simply by shifting the lens or frame of observation, the world reveals entirely different aspects of itself. What appears continuous is, in fact, composed of countless fragments and layers, nested within one another. Later, when I came across printmaking, I began to understand this more tangibly and deeply.

In printmaking, details can be lost or unintentionally altered in the process of transferring an image onto a plate. Even when using the same plate, the resulting image can subtly shift depending on the printing conditions. From a particle-level perspective, you could say that a true reproduction doesn’t actually exist.

This idea extends beyond printmaking into how we perceive everyday life.We often treat signals from the outside world—information, words, and concepts—as if they are fixed and certain, something that can be perfectly copied or exchanged. But in reality, the way things appear is constantly shaped by the relationship between perceiver and perceived, sender and receiver. What we believe we’ve "seen" or "understood" is always a fleeting phenomenon that arises in the space between subject and object. Behind it, countless unchosen possibilities quietly drift.

The two series presented in this exhibition, particle and #illusion #genei, originated from different starting points but were brought together after Hayashi-san, the former director, pointed out that from a broader perspective, they are fundamentally connected. A shift in perspective is always triggered by contact from the outside.

By moving between particles and the whole, micro and macro, symbol and meaning, I hope the focus of the viewers gently unravels, opening up new ways of seeing the world.

(From the statement for the solo exhibition "particle")