THE PERFECT PRESENCE

IS THE PERFECT ABSENCE

AFTER JAMES LEE BYARS

2019

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UV direct print on Plexiglas, inkjet print on canvas, silk, cushion

150 x 250 cm

Hinoki wood and straps

42 x 35,7 x 8,5 cm

As a starting point, a photograph documenting an exhibition by James Lee Byars at the Kyoto Municipal Museum in 1962; the spectator is invited to kneel on a zabuton to look through this image at a photograph of the same room of the museum taken from an identical point of view in 2019. The device uses the formal elements of an ink on James Lee's kakejiku Byars visible on the starting image, suggesting an explosion of time and space.

The second device echoes the previous one by taking the form already declined on the cushion. Invited to another experience of the point of view, the spectator is invited to put on a geta base and to contemplate the garden while becoming fully aware of "here" and "now". Maybe he will see a kami ...