Shiraga Fujiko: Straight to the Sky

摘要

A stark, decisive line ran through the middle of a long wooden board propped diagonally on two posts. Painted entirely in white, the board contrasted sharply against the ochre color of the ground and the dark-green pine forest behind it. Shadows of the pine trees were cast irregularly on top of the board. Upon closer examination, a passerby would realize that the dark line in the middle was not painted, but made of a negative space of about two inches wide, maintained between two pieces of boards throughout. The line recalled a crack made on the earth by an earthquake or lightning flashing in the sky. Shiraga Fujiko1 reflected, "The crack running through the sky was my own concept. It was by no means a natural phenomenon. It was created in my mind."2 White Board (1955) was one of Shiraga's earliest works that she showed at the "Experimental Outdoor Exhibition of Modern Art to Challenge the Midsummer Sun," held on the bank of Ashiya River, near Osaka, Japan, by the Gutai Art Association in July 1955. Upon exhibiting it outdoors, however, she realized how small the work was in relation to the environment and felt that her intention and her as a person were made bare through the work.