Depicting the Beauty and Power of Electrical Wiring
Kazuhiro Ishihara – an electrician by profession – won the 4th “1_WALL” Graphics Competition with a variety of works centering on depictions of electrical wiring, an interest he developed early in childhood. He captured the Grand Prize for his eye-catching works evoking strength and manliness – traits going against the times – and for their genesis in his pure feelings of simply liking something. “Ishihara’s graphics really grab you, and whether he is talented technically speaking or not becomes inconsequential,” one judge remarked. Another commented that “although the ambience Ishihara evokes isn’t a contemporary one, that’s where his originality shines.”
Ishihara grew up in a family that runs a small workshop handling electrical machinery, and from an early age he was familiar with machines. After working for a time as a designer, today he works as a registered electrician helping out in the family business. He began painting, self-taught, about five or six years ago, and what he paints invariably takes its inspiration from the machines and electric wiring he has seen in his job. He often depicts the wiring inside a machine, which he likens to the blood vessels inside our bodies. And although he draws such wiring using his imagination freely, what he achieves is a world that could be drawn only by someone with real experience as an electrician.
For this solo exhibition Ishihara will be showing works in acrylic paints on canvas or plywood, mostly of 900 x 600 mm size. Machines operate only because someone makes repeated inspections of their internal wiring. Ishihara says that when he paints machines he therefore infuses them with a human touch and tries to stay conscious of a human presence. Even in their artificial motifs, his works are thus imbued with life-affirming strength. We eagerly invite visitors to sense that power in the gallery.