Utsushimi
Site-specific installation at Suzu City, Oku-Noto Triennale, Japan (2017 – ongoing) 

Materialized Architectural Drawing in Illuminated Wireframe 

Utsushimi (Tr:double image/token/emanation) traces the outline of a now-defunct railway station in the Noto Peninsula of central Japan, capturing its essence through a ‘drawing sculpture’ that renders the station’s form as an exoskeleton. This skeletal emanation stands slightly askew by day, creating a moment of cognitive dissonance between the object and its impression. And by night, it transforms into a luminous apparition. This a circadian rhythm of illuminated and non-luminous states make the work take wing, like a firefly that glows in extreme slow motion.

A double image occurs when reality exhales, leaving behind a token of its form in the air and on the senses. Utsushimi evokes this phenomenon by allowing the station’s imprint to hover over a rice field and an abandoned railway line, no longer in the path of any ghost train. It becomes its own spirit, a quiet presence permanently installed, illuminating a corner of the sky.