Hamu Isen

Lives and works in Kanagawa, Japan

Artist statement

My artistic practice takes the "foot" and the "shoe" as its primary motifs. They function as tools for writing characters and leaving traces, while simultaneously serving as signs (signifieds) that bind the body to physical reality. In linguistic terms, I conceptualize the "toe" as a "consonant" that moves forward and transgresses into the outer world, while counterposing the "sole" as a "vowel" that vibrates within. In contrast to the consonantal vector of "movement, speed, and distance" observable from the outside, bringing the sole into contact with the ground, or utilizing shoe-shaped signs (Shoe Shaped Sculpture, Shoe Shaped Canvas), is not a "static fixation" that merely isolates an object in stasis within an exhibition space. It does not mean observing the swinging amplitude of a pendulum; rather, it is an inversion of that very gaze—an act of stepping inside a violently vibrating sphere, actively aligning and resonating with the continuous flux of its internal life-force (dynamic equilibrium). This immersion into "internal vibration" operates as a critical counter-strategy from an Eastern, Japanese perspective against the ocularcentric, "external dynamism"—characterized by outward movement, speed, and spatial expansion—that has dominated Western art since modernity. Western art history has swung like a pendulum between visual movement and stasis. To me, however, whether the surface of the work appears visually dynamic or minimalist is entirely beside the point. My...

Artwork