Just as things are weathered and worn away by the wind, carried by water and broken apart, or gradually eaten away by microorganisms until holes appear, our own bodies, too, are shaped and affected by time and space as we pass through them.

Within the vastness of nature, I seek to capture in my paintings the traces of something that once truly existed.

Kaori Teraoka

During her student years, Teraoka came to realize that performance art, by its very nature, leaves no lasting record. In graduate school, she therefore chose to specialize in painting, a medium that can be preserved.

Bringing together the elements of “action,” “time,” and “preservation,” Teraoka decided to draw one line every second.

In Japan, the character 正 (sei) is traditionally used to represent the number five. In the West, a similar counting system uses four vertical strokes crossed by a fifth diagonal stroke, known as tally marks. Like the practice of copying Buddhist sutras, Teraoka draws each line individually, almost as an act of meditation or spiritual discipline, marking the passage of time. Each line is carefully placed within a three-centimeter square.

This is the form of performance she seeks today: an endless repetition of the same gesture, carried out again and again before the canvas.

For this exhibition, she has drawn inspiration from the landscapes of Yaizu, the port town where she was born and raised. The colors of the sky and sea, the sunlight, the rust on fishing boats and harbor sheds, and the concrete tetrapods along the coast. With a quiet mind and a sense of prayer, she has painted these colors onto the canvas.

Though still young, she has captured in her work the colors of nostalgia, evoking a deep longing for the place she calls home.

The scent of the sea now reaches Ippodo Gallery in Ginza.

**Keiko Aono**
Ippodo Gallery