On one creates installations about memory and passing time with ephemeral materials such as naphthalene. The other draws "landscapes" monochromatic using subtle shades. Aiko Miyanaga and Naoko Sekine are invited by the MCJP as part of its second program of artists in residence. Dialogue between two designers who offer more than new forms, objects of meditation. The immaculate sculptures suggest the impermanence of things, light and space arise from the accumulation of lines on paper. Far from the chaos of the world, immersed in serenity.

The work of Aiko Miyanaga begins there a slow transformation from the first day of exhibition. However, expressing the ephemeral is not the purpose of the work of this artist. One of her  favourite materials is naphthalene which has the characteristic of evaporating on contact with air. She uses it to reproduce by casting everyday objects. Cloths of flea market, shoes, keys ... These replicas of familiar objects, marked by time, are placed in windows. Day after day, they lose their original form, but continue to exist under a new guise, that of crystals. This gradual transformation allows us to visualize the passage of time. It encourages us to imagine the evolution of these forms to whiteness, to become aware of the transience of the moment and the persistence of memory.

A leaf, a pencil, an eraser. Naoko Sekine needs nothing else to create "landscapes" whose extreme simplicity is only apparent. Her drawings are abstract, but they are not pure abstraction. Carefully, always at the same rate, Sekine track one after the other, a multitude of tiny strokes that eventually completely cover the sheet. She uses a rubber to ease here and there the density of the blacks. This accumulation of fine tracks emerge gradually ripples, the waves swirling. Through the shadows and lights, rhythms and movements, they evoke a mountain, sea, sky, a play ... without ever really becoming the representation of reality, these are just suggested thinking of something being created.

As in the traditional Japanese paintings and screens sliding walls form part of the furniture or architectural drawings Sekine maintain a close relationship with the space where they are arranged.

1                              2                                3                              4

1 Aristocratic Pierrot (détail), 2007, Aiko Miyanaga / photo : Norihiro Ueno / Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery 

2 SOU (phase) (détail), 2008, Aiko Miyanaga

3 One Thing, 2001, Naoko Sekine

4 The Form of a Road, 2001, Naoko Sekine

April 14- June 26, 2010

Maison de la Culture du Japon
PARIS