Text by Nahoko Yamaguchi (translated by Kei Benger)
Photos courtesy of Atsuko Susuki
Made by folding a white sheet of paper 3 times and covering it with pale blue wrapping paper, the series includes works specifically commissioned for the project <Tales>.
From folding a single sheet of paper, a beautiful anthology of 16 poems is created.
Due to its simple yet dynamic presence I inadvertently murmured, “What is this?”
A small unknown flower blooms lonely in a field. When that is the question and at the same time the answer, must I respond to the question of “What/Who are you exactly?”
This small anthology of poetry created under the initiative of Shuzo Takiguchi, is fraught with viridity and surprise, as if it were a flower blooming in a field.
One by one as each question is presented to me, I feel myself puzzled.
To have the time as an adult to read poetry is in turn a time to return to the distant past; to drift back to one’ s primitive sensations.
I cherish the moments of dusk that arrive unexpectedly as I spend the afternoons of my days off drinking tea in my room, gazing idly upon the book spines on the shelf.
The spines lined up along the bookshelf each vary in design, with the balance of letters carefully positioned within a limited space, shapes and color, and the texture of the paper. I do not feel at ease unless the sounds from spine to next harmonically resonate amongst each other like the keys of a piano. I try altering the positions the way they should be lined up: –Do, Re, Mi.
Then unbetold, there are moments when a book long been hidden away, suddenly appears within the narrow crevice between spine and spine.
A book so small, one almost forgets its existence whilst being caught within the day to day mundane.
At dusk, alone in my room, I gently open the pages of the anthology in question.
Something small that had disappeared before one knew it, who was it who lost it? And where is it now? Whether its details were to be vividly recalled and preserved within your memory.
