Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer. His representative artworks include seascapes, theaters, and architectures. Although he is a photographer, and my work is mainly focusing on painting, his artistic philosophy still has a great influence on me. In the beginning, I paid attention to him because both of us took many pictures of the seascape. Then I found his works mainly discuss the relationship between memory and time; my works also involve the subject In this regard. As I deeply understand his philosophy, I found that there are many similarities between us. For example, in his seascape series, he mentioned air and water's meaning to human beings. In my life, I think the most precious things in the material world are sunlight, water, and air, But Hiroshi Sugimoto has a deeper understanding of water and air than me, and this is where I want to learn. The first time when I looked at Hiroshi Sugimoto's seascapes and theaters, I thought his works were very special and gave me a sense of heavy from history. I could feel that there are much philosophical thinking inside his works.

 

I highly admire the two sentences he said. The first one is "Photography is a system of saving memories. It's a time machine, in a way, to preserve the memory, to preserve time". This has a profound impact on my works. My works usually consist of two chapters, one of which is an abstract combination, which is inspired by flowing water, clouds, wind, fireworks, etc. It is made up of countless different lines. In my opinion, it could be regarded as a time machine as well, in a way to preserve the memory and time. In the process of creation, no matter whether the lines on the canvas are satisfied or not, I'm always keeping them on the canvas instead of trying to modify them. Because in my opinion, every line inside the canvas is like every experience in my life, or like every word I have said and everything I have done. The so-called whole is accumulated, which formed by thousands of lines, and just as it shapes the present me, and defines who I am? My values, preferences, mindsets, so I have to learn to accept every part of it, including the unsatisfactory side. This is a kind of self-reflection. In the same way, every line in the canvas contributes to the whole, regardless the color, length, direction, virtual and reality, shape, and position.

 

Another sentence is "The seawater a million years ago has not changed from the seawater today". This sentence enabled me to understand why Hiroshi Yamamoto's photographic works generally only use black and white because he wants the audience to see the essential parts inside his works. At the same time, this sentence inspired me to think about time and space. The time and space of what we have understood are based on our cognitions, so in fact that they are not objective to us. To some extent, it can be said that time and space are invented by humans. Furthermore, If something doesn't change substantially over time and space, can we say that time and space do not exist for them? For example, a beam of light can travel a million light-years in the vast universe without substantial changes. For another example, everyone has instinctive needs, such as emotion and sex. Hiroshi Yamamoto's words inspired me to think more about some essential issues from a macro perspective. For example, what is the most important thing in life? What is preciousness? Nowadays, we are living in an era that is influenced by popular culture and consumerism, and everything is in rapid development. External concepts and ideas easily influence us so that we mistakenly the meanings we want to pursue in our lives as some people may have forgotten who they are? In order to live in accordance with the secular standards of success, What kind of school will you choose? When will you be married? What kind of house do you want to buy? etc. Some people are still unhappy even if they meet the secular standards of success. At the same time, It reminds me of Freud's In psychodynamic theory, id, ego and superego. Everyone needs to take into account the balance of these three. If a person does not know what he really wants, he will always follow the secular standards of success. For the sake of this, the proportion of his superego will be larger than id and self. On the contrary, if his id's proportion is too small, he will feel restrained and depressed. This is why I liked minimalism for a while, even felt into nihilism, and yearned to live in Iceland and the Faroe Islands for a while because I used to live for others. My heart tells me that only when I stay away from modern civilization for a period and return to the places where the original natural sceneries are preserved, remove all the tags from my body as much as possible, so I can truly know myself.

 

 Now, I already know that the most precious things in my life are sunshine, water, air, emotion and enjoy the moment, and I try to integrate my experiences and philosophy into my works. The philosophy of enjoying the moment has led me to move from nihilism to optimistic existential nihilism gradually. My works have also transitioned from minimalist black and white to colorful visual effect. I will discuss it further in my next writing.