“Sitting by the Well”
Kobo Chika Gallery Tokyo
06-27.04.2024
The world is not as solid as we think it is, and the more we are open to the gaps, the more wisdom can shine through." - Tsultrim Allione, "Women of Wisdom”
"Sitting by the well" takes poetic inspiration from writings by Marion Woodman, a Jungian analyst, poet, and writer. Symbolically, the well holds crucial significance as water, the source of life, knowledge, wisdom, and all that is unconscious. Wells are often depicted as entrances to other realms or as portals between the earthly and spiritual worlds. They symbolize transitions or passages from one state of being to another, a transformation critical to our biological and psychological existence. The change that allows us to look into the past as well as to the future, one that helps us evolve but usually frightens us the most.
Often such passages can be offered to us through contact with nature. Especially, plants have transmutation powers; they can impact us on so many levels, being species that give life to the world of forms. Plants have been intertwined with human civilization since its earliest beginnings, playing vital roles in our survival, culture, and development. Additionally, the process of using plant dyes has been with humans since ancient times, and the colors created by those beings bear witness to our rituals, belief systems; they also influenced our economy and politics.
Working with plant dyes requires attention and openness to all that is unexpected and uncontrolled. All earthly elements meet in an alchemical dance to generously reveal their stories in reds, pinks, and purples. The paradox of descent and ascent, movement and stillness, death and rebirth, agony and triumph, flesh and spirit. Plants emphasize the constant change happening in front of us, inside us, and all around us. Working with those dyes remind us that transformation is a way to perceive time, not as a linear stream, but more as a spiral. In that spiral, we have a chance to touch what is unconscious, what is in the dark, in the unknown - collective wisdom created by all that is in the past, present, and future at the same time. A gift from nature, one cannot earn, or call upon, or even deserve. The gift to which one should be simply open and present.
With troubles of todays world, environmental crises, and changes happening around us, sometimes it can be very hard to imagine positive scenarios for the future. It is scary to look inward and face all those gaps and places in the dark. Nevertheless, each of us is blessed with our own well—a source of salvation and eternal life from which we must drink or die.
Kobo Chika Gallery
2 Chome-21-3 Ebisu, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0013, Japan
Opening hours: Thursday to Saturday from 1-7pm, Sundays 1-6 pm
Exhibition design - Rita Topa
Substantial coordination - Naoki Katani
Exhibition Photos - Justyna Feicht