Venezia

Asami Kato is a sculptor who clearly shows us the shadows of water, which properly ought not to be visible. He shows us distinct shadows in broad daylight, even as he continues on Böcklin's strangeness and de Chirico's enigmas, which may be distinctive characteristics of his sculpture.

Let us examine Kato's Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1993). This church seems to be in Venice, but does not appear to be the tourist attraction that St. Mark's Basilica is. Kato employs a unique way of selecting his subjects to choose ones that lie on a type of borderline. In Rome, he chooses areas near his atelier and the city center, and in other cities he chooses areas between tourist sites and their surroundings. This church even appears in an Orson Welles movie, but it does not seem to be very well known.

Why, then, did Kato choose this church? It was likely because it is one of very few churches that can be viewed from various angles, and because its reflection in the water can also be viewed from various angles. Kato, on foot, viewed the church any number of times, then internalized and fermented the edifice within his own physicality. The building which Kato then gave rise to is a phantasmagoric structure that undulates, expanding and contracting like a living thing.

The portions in shadow are still further deformed. The ripples of the water are expressed as forms, and curve limply. The shadowed areas are apparent at a glance. This sculpture is easily understood, yet wondrous. What may be even stranger is that the surface of the water, which should not be visible, nonetheless is.

Just as with Nietzsche's stated ethos that truth equals freedom, which becomes apparent only through the existence of shadows, Kato's shadows present before us a translucent skin where the surface of water equals softness.