Where is the boundary between what is substantial and spiritual, and the self and others? How is one supposed to go about recognizing and pursuing such boundaries? ‘Who am I? What does it mean to be human?’ Catastrophes, man-made disasters, and unexpected events around the world are able to completely change our values about everything around us that we hold right up to the moment before they wreak havoc upon us. Existence can be so uncertain, and it was when I started questioning and thinking about it that I wanted to turn what we can't visually perceive into what we can see, to capture the trajectory of living itself, and to make my work based on the idea of "proof of existence".

Due to the influences of COVID-19, we human beings are on the diverging paths to reexamine our relations with others from the aspects of life, thought, nation and society, such as the unsolved energy problems and the pervasive effects of racism from the United States to the world. While pondering over what is others, I would like to review the ground I stand upon again. My search for the invisible existence is to grasp a beam of light in the dark, of which should be passed on ever after.

By Shinji OHMAKI