The common phrase, “there is such a thing as a beautiful mess”, is often overlooked, but I create artworks every day in hopes of expressing this idea. by Shion Kanzato

The common phrase, “there is such a thing as a beautiful mess”, is often overlooked, but I create artworks every day in hopes of expressing this idea.   

I currently use photographs as a base for my works, but my creative activities did not begin with photography. I was a huge book-lover since I was little and was hypersensitive to words more than most people. Not being able to handle the burden of words I receive from others back in high school, I once have rejected everything in this world. I gave up putting things into words and tried to get away from them.

We never can understand what the person really meant by using certain words and nobody would ever completely understand what I am feeling inside. That is what human beings are about. The fact that I had to stand in a world full of words that are misunderstood where we constantly collide with and hurt each other itself was nothing but pain for me. 

However, it was also words that rescued me. I think the reason I could get back on my feet were the words I kept as a charm by those who tried to pull me back. By that time, I started studying literary arts at Nihon University College of Arts, and was wishing to face words again and express something through them. It was when I was writing some poems that I encountered the limitation of what words can express.

“Sky”  “Blue”  “Sadness”  “Happy”  “Memory”. These are nothing but words at the end of the day. 

Then I sought a way to express complicated sentiments more deeply and precisely. I was primarily working on my artworks by attaching photographs to poetry. What I was trying to do was to make up for the nuances that were not being captured in words using photographs. That was when I started to find my way into photographic expressions. 

Unlike poems, photographs can deliver messages solely through visual information. In the parts where the words get too assertive, photographs can express something intuitively. I found photographs effective in expressing complications in an abstract way. 

Human emotions are not just beautiful things, but can never be purely innocent. They, in fact, come with a hollowness in some cases and with a disconsolateness in others. The more we pursue beauty, the more painful it gets, and the dirtier it may become in return. There are some times when what is right fails to save you, while there are other times when you get haunted by mistakes you made.  I would like to visualize them using photographs so that we all can see the beauty in these complications. 

Finally, I hope that I can even slightly connect and resonate with someone through my artworks.