Teshima.

The art of komorebi.

By Johnny Nghiem

November 5^th, 2016

“Komorebi (木漏れ日) is an untranslatable word, which eloquently captures the effect of sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees. The shadow created on the ground, or even in our curtains, describes this everyday beauty.”

The first kanji 木 means ‘tree’ (or ‘trees‘), the second one 漏 refers to ‘escape’ and the last one 日 is ‘light‘ or ‘sun‘ and there we come to the literal, yet very poetic meaning of the term komorebi – the sunshine filtering through the leaves of trees.

Art festivals like any festival tends to trend on the success of a couple of notes; well-known artists/acts and relative ease to digest. The Setouchi Triennale is somewhat going on that but it’s also for the true diehards who will trek halfway across the world to be on several remote islands and stay in shitty accommodations to enjoy art where the sun and rain will dictate how those pieces reflects to you emotionally.

Above is Storm House by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller and this experiential piece employed light, movement of water, fans, and sound to imitate the environment of a storm within a traditional Japanese house.

Last year when we went to Naoshima, I foolishly thought that I would see the above and I’m glad that I didn’t because A) I wasn’t quite ready for it and B) well, it’s on Teshima and not Naoshima so that wasn’t remotely possible.

Above is the Teshima Art Museum and besides being surrounded by the most sculptured path to the actual space, it’s almost indescribable what you see, feel, think. A picture is worth a thousand words and I would say that’s mostly true but not in this case - you need more than words and even more years to truly know what’s up and it’s also nearly impossible to take a picture with the eagle-eyed Japanese schoolgirl security guards floating about so you’ll have to see it yourself.

To be continued.