Miya Ando, Kumoji (Cloud Path / A Road Traversed By Birds And The Moon): Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd. Fl. 2

“Something becomes more beautiful and sublime the more impermanent it is. There’s a psychological shift that occurs when one recognizes the pathos of falling cherry blossoms, or the moon going through phases, or a passing cloud.”

 

–Miya Ando

“I char the wood because it dematerializes the object. The silver nitrate creates a mirror. It becomes like water. A reflection is there and not there; it is material and immaterial.”

Kuu, a large-scale, three-panel painting made from reclaimed redwood and silver nitrate, borrows its name from a Japanese word of particular importance to Buddhism, which holds multiple meanings, including sky, void, and emptiness. To create this work, Ando first charred the redwood using a traditional Japanese fireproofing technique called shou sugi ban which requires burning the surface to protect the inner layers of wood from future damage.

INDIVIDUAL WORKS

Painted with ink on metal, these tondos by Miya Ando captures the ephemeral, transient experience of watching night clouds as they cover and uncover moonlight. The date stamps in the titles illustrate the exact time and date that Ando observed the clouds on which she based the paintings. As the titles indicate, the Japanese word “unkai” literally translates into “sea of clouds.” Another Japanese word, "mugetsu," meaning invisible moon, describes another idea that supports the series—that of the simultaneous ethereality and reliable return of the phases of the moon. In the lunar calendar, the brightest full moon comes on the 15th day of the 8th month. Mugetsu specifically describes the experience of clouds obscuring the moon on that particular night. A practicing Buddhist, Ando works a lot with natural phenomena such as clouds and light to express the idea of impermanence. In this series, even though the moon is not visible, its presence is still an essential part of the work. The image is painted on metal, a material Ando appreciates for its ability to reflect light under constantly changing conditions. The strength and permanence of the material is juxtaposed by the ephemerality of the subject matter.

This large-scale, three-panel painting  is made from reclaimed redwood and silver nitrate. It represents the culmination of a long-running series in which Ando has been experimenting with a traditional Japanese fireproofing technique called shou sugi ban which requires burning the surface of wood to protect the inner layers from future damage. “I char the wood because it dematerializes the object,” she says. “The silver nitrate creates a mirror. It becomes like water. A reflection is there and not there; it is material and immaterial.” This piece borrows its name from a Japanese word of particular importance to Buddhism, which, as is implied by the title of the work, holds multiple meanings. Of particular interest to Ando is the meaning of Kuu as a term for emptiness as one of the five elements—Godai (五大, lit. "five – great, large, physical, form") are the five elements in Japanese Buddhist thought of earth (chi), water (sui), fire (ka), wind (fu), and void (ku).

 Mizukagami (Water Mirror, or The Shadow Of The Moon Reflected In Water) is a hammered steel floor sculpture. Evocative of the fugitive phenomenon of the moon reflecting on the surface of a pond, the piece is expressive of the overlap of emptiness and substance. Like so many of Ando’s paintings, and like the moon itself, this sculpture seems to emit light despite lacking any source of illumination—a momentary articulation of both presence and absence. “When you see the moon you see the light of the sun,” Ando says. “That reflected light is reflected again when you see the moon on water.”