This catalogue was published in conjunction with the artist's solo exhibition in 2013. With the artist's biography.

'In the biblical story, the tree of life is a tree planted by Abrahamic God in the midst of the Garden of Eden, whose fruit gives everlasting life and immortality. Next to tree of life, there is tree of knowledge of good and evil, whose fruit makes people capable of telling right from wrong. But God warned Adam not to eat from it. As the story goes that Eve and Adam both ate the fruit, despite God's warning. They were each cursed by God. To prevent them access to the tree of life, God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. The juxtaposition of immortality and wisdom states a concept of dualism that is indeed interflowing and opposite at the same time. Ideas such as civilization vs. aborigine, development vs. extinction, and pre-experience vs. post-experience, are so confronting with each other but essentially homologous. OHMAKI explores these concepts with involvement of vast tree imagery, real oak branches and powder paintings in his new installation at the reception center. The powder paintings are further extensions of his “Echoes-Infinity” series. As far as the artist is concerned, the relationship between human and society has to be addressed and invisible issues must be brought out via the language of art. In the new series “Echoes-Infinity”, OHMAKI extracts the shapes from Taiwan endangered flowers and depicts the pattern on Taiwan floral cloth. At the reception center, he plans to place works that he makes on site along with the branch imagery as civilization flowers blossom out on the history of human culture. For Mind Set Art Center gallery, the artist intentionally chooses nature materials, like stones and fabrics, with new works from “Echoes-crystallization ” to actualize the substance of tree of life, which creates a poetic dialogue with the silhouette of tree of life at the reception center.' - from gallery's website.
Alternative title

Sheng ming shu: da juan shen si

Access level

Onsite

Location code
MON.OHS2
Language

Chinese - Traditional, 

English, 

Japanese

Publication/Creation date

2013

No of pages

88

ISBN / ISSN

9789868748378

No of copies

1

Content type

artist monograph, 

catalogue

Chapter headings

Shinji Ohmaki - Sculpture of the Invisible Presence - ARAKI Natsumi, 荒木夏美

As Soft as Breeze, as Profound as Eternity - on Shinji Ohmaki's Work - HUANG Shuping Iris, 黃舒屏

Shinji Ohmaki: Tree of Life
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Shinji Ohmaki: Tree of Life, 生命樹: 大卷伸嗣