About this work
A tall work housed in an acrylic case. The upper panel is black, with two white hellebores in flower and blue-green leaves. The lower panel is also black, with two stems descending from the waterline, thinning as they sink, wrapped in grains of gold. A band of water surface, drawn in gold and white, runs across the join. [About the work] A counterpart to "Three Hellebores in a Glass", taking the same construction divided at the waterline. Here, however, the lower panel is also black, and the water is deeper and darker. The gap between the brightness of the white flowers and the darkness of the water is wide. [On the motif] Above and below the water is a subject Kan has treated repeatedly. As her words have it — "when you magnify a part of a small world you come to feel that everything large is contained in what is small" — a glassful of water is transposed into the breadth of a deep sea floor. [Materials and technique] Natural mineral pigments on kumohada hemp paper. The white petals are built up in gofun for thickness, with the layers worked so that colour beneath shows through. As Kan says, "gofun in particular gives the thickness proper to painting", and the relief of the petals is the physical height of the pigment itself. Gold paint and white are laid finely in the band of the water surface, and grains of gold are scattered below it to show what remains of the light. [What to look for] Note the two stems descending into the water. Above the surface they are a clear blue-green; below it they lose their contour and grow faint. That the same stem should look different across the water is the subject of the work.
More by Kaoru Kan
