Whitestone Ginza New Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition“Ridi, Pagliaccio!” of Tetsuo Mizù and also there is a special exhibition in 5/6th floor at our main gallery space Ginza.

Reverberations of colored “Lyric Opera” - Fragmentary Thoughts on Tetsuo Mizù

Tetsuo Mizù says, “Classical music lovers are free from the beginning. That’s why they long for forms. Those play jazz or rock have anger or feel heart hunger in their depth, try to be radical.”

In the first place, his takeoff point is different.
For Tetsuo Mizù, classical music comes the first. His inspiration is oriented toward all directions. Sometimes he even says that he does not like paintings, therefore he could have an objective way of looking. For Mizù, the act of painting is one of his means to translate his sensibility, and so as “the flags.” * Consequently, it is a bit of stretch to underline only one form as if it were a synonym with the artist and put him on a genealogy of conventional abstract art. As previously mentioned, his direction is completely opposite from other avant-gardists who are vying with each other demonstrating their “newness.” The form of “flags” is just chosen as an effective frame to represent his innate freedom.

Sonority and lyricism – these are two prominent attributes of the world of Mizù. His sonority rejects being applied such a fine word as “crystal-clear.” Deadlocked situation among people; mysterious abyss lurking in the water surface; ironical quirk of fate attacked merely by chance; such aspects including muddy, intricated side of the life are evenly blended in the elaborated coloration of Mizù. However, each color has a certain modest presence filtered through his keen aesthetics. Whether the artist intends or not, in either case, his creation has class. This is how one’s originality should be. In “CORONA.ViRUS”, one of his brand-new works, quiet smoky pink and green draw viewer’s attention. Both are the colors of first appearance, Meanwhile, in other several works, some prisms like white scratches can be seen. They are noises like frictional sound. Any of them spills out of the conventional interpretation of Mizù, that is, “the contrast of brimful colored surfaces divided by the shimmering extra-thin lines.” What the prisms transmit is no other than vibration. Joy of searching for the distant origin of the sound and straining to hear the tones vibrating from deep inside. Since the prism is tinged with dark shade in visual, it ends up heightening luminosity in imagination. The titles are decided antecedently; it is also much alike musical compositions. Assuming parts of the gearwheel figuring composition and development of the forthcoming work, the words beat the rhythm of details solemnly.

Mizù says, “Artists should be absolutely earnest.” Unprecedented creators are often hard on themselves. They force to put themselves under strict rules or routines looking rather ridiculous from others, and stubbornly carry them out. The more its standard becomes detached from the world, the more the artist is serious however, the viewers are unaware of it. On completed works provided, each viewer projects their own preconception. Among four emotions, delight-anger-sorrow-joy, “delight” and “joy” are apt to be considered less serious in the field of “art”. But the matière of Mizù is brimmed with these two sentiments, from which a miraculous moment of ordinary life peeks out. “Ir-reality” lies in a modulated relation with “reality.” Flickering feeling of “real” which will be only forgotten if not noticed. The world of Mizù flits through viewer’s unconsciousness like the music of Mozart that floats in the edge of consciousness. On the appearance, it has a touch of classical music with grace simultaneously resonating abundant passion at the core like “basso continuo.” The ordinary lives of viewers are pulled on the stage in intervals of lyric opera without noticing, then, begin to relive.

Kayo Fushiya (Music critic)

Flags* – The flags used universally for making communication between ships on the sea are called international maritime signal flags, and the signals used for it is called maritime flag signaling. Mizù was in the limelight in 1980’s for his “flag series” designing titles by combining these signals.