There are moments in everyday life when words and visuals, imagination and reality, quietly intertwine.

It has been 26 years since I began working as an artist, and I’ve come to realize that this tendency in my daily thinking—this habit of perceiving subtle connections—was what led me to explore the relationship between language and visual art as the core concept of my work.

Among the many experiences that shaped this approach, my participation in the 2023 Setouchi Triennale left a particularly lasting impression. For the installation “Chōbō Zekka (眺望絶佳）” (Sublime View), presented in the Yoshino district of Shōdoshima, I created and exhibited sculptures and paintings inspired by “Biographies and Folktales of Ikeda Town”, compiled by Kazunori Yoshinaka, and my own poetry collection.

I stayed in Shōdoshima for about a year, immersing myself in Yoshinaka’s writings as I continued to create. In that fluid space between daily life and imagination, there were times when yōkai—folkloric spirits—seemed to appear, and moments when I felt as if I were living within an invisible world I could almost see. Those sensations became poetry, and from the poetry, artworks emerged.

Though I now live in a different place, I feel my current life is a continuation of that same thread.

I am now recording these daily scenes and sharing them as a video-poem project titled “Silent Poem”, through social media.

While exploring the liminal space between fantasy and reality in my work, I also aim to leave behind traces of the inspirations that arise before the creative process even begins.

「偶然にも」
Just by Chance

偶然にも、
私が訪れた日本軍海軍基地からみる風景と、私が描いた風景が一致した

その風景には、海があった

洞窟の中から波が立ち起こる

私がみたものは夢なのか？

—

Just by Chance,

I happened to visit an old Japanese navy base— and the view there looked just like one I had drawn before.

There was the ocean, waves rising from inside a cave.

Was it all just a dream?

Silent Poem 04/27/2025

by Yumiko Furukawa