Outward in the world
July 30-Aug 9, 2003
Koichi Watanabe | paintings, installation | space 1

Brent Wilson writes:

Koichi Watanabe’s works play between two metaphors — surfaces and systems.

Veronica was the saint who wiped Christ’s bloody face as he carried his cross to Golgotha and in this act of mercy captured an impression of his features, thereby creating an icon. Watanabe has used the same process on himself, on acquaintances, and on a great variety of creatures such as a horse and fish. His pursuit of surface began with explorations of trees which led to truly monumental works that celebrate gnarled textures of tree trunks and truncated limbs.

One of the things that fascinates me most about Watanabe’s work is that his working processes emulate the forces of nature. They mimic as they accelerate the process of weathering — the interactions of cold, heat, and wind on water, rock, soil, metal, and vegetation. They move toward entropy even as they appear to violently disrupt the process toward entropy. His processes and his painting are reminiscent of chemical reactions, corrosion, toxicity and also of the sometimes gentle changing of seasons, of mild breezes.

It is no accident that Watanabe’s surfaces have always betrayed a fascination with underlying systems. He spent an entire year studying anatomy at University where he cut through his cadaver’s skin to reveal veins, organs, tissue, and bone. He is fascinated by how one single object has multiple existences and how it may be visualized in so many different ways. Perhaps this is why he is enthralled with x-ray views of his own.

Brent Wilson, Professor
Pennsylvania State University
School of Visual Arts