An artist with a cross to bear after a brush with death
By Shogo Hagiwara
Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
The image of a cross represents both salvation and death; it could mean either, depending on the situation.
But to artist Toshitaka Nishizawa, it only has one meaning -death- as it reminds him of a traumatic experience he once endured while traveling in Italy in 1996.
On his trip, Nishizawa was hit by respiratory problems and was immediately admitted to a hospital in Rome, where he was diagnosed with spontaneous pneumothorax. Unable to enjoy the attractions of the city's galleries, Nishizawa would up staying in the hospital for four weeks before recovering.
He only learned the seriousness of his sickness after being discharged. It turns out that his life had been hanging by a thread. Nishizawa's doctors and his health insurance company were betting against his recovery. Members of his family were summoned from Japan to sit at his bedside just in case he didn't make it.
Even after leaving the hospital, Nishizawa still had a small hole in his lung.
He said that during his hospital stay, two patients he shared his room with died. But their bodies were left on their beds next to his for half a day, leaving with him a lasting impressions of death. And in that same room, there was always a cross on hand.
Due to that experience, the sight of a cross always strikes him as a sign of death, he said.
It has now been seven years since Nishizawa was miraculously snatched from the jaws of the death, and the 38-years-old artist has created a work based on that experience, Gemination 9 from Ospedale San Giacomo ( the name of the hospital in Rome), which is currently on display at HIGURE 17-15 CAS in Tokyo.
Nishizawa's most recent piece - which he completed only a few hours ahead of the exhibition's opening last Saturday after two sleepless nights - is a sculpture of a huge white cross.
The cross, which measures 78 by 288 by 468 centimeters, lies face up on a flat, brown surface. It is finished with about 1,800 white square tiles, giving it both the cleanliness of a hospital and an uncanny silence.
Pulp recycled from milk cartons lines the face of the cross where basil seeds have been planted, so that by the end of the exhibition, they should grow large enough to cover the white surface with green.
Nishizawa's main medium of expression had previously been iron, but hole in his lung prohibited him from continuing to work in it. With iron taken away as a medium for him to work in, he mulled over how to continue as an artist. One day, the idea of using recycled pulp struck him and he started to create works themed on "circulation" or "cycle". Since getting a clean bill of health in 2000, Nishizawa has once again started to produce iron sculptures, but his milk carton project continues as before, and this project marks the ninth of its kind.
To allow visitors to experience the process of his recycled art, Nishizawa will open a workshop at the gallery on June 21, 22 and 28 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The Dairy Yomiuri
Thursday, June ,19, 2003: Arts weekend
This text is faithful to the original.