Oil, Canvas
1303 × 970 mm
52.12 × 38.8 in
Unique
This painting shows countless ants swarming across the palm of a hand. For me—someone who grew up in the city—ants are the most familiar insect, and the one I encounter most often. When I sit on a bench in a park, they climb onto me without hesitation, as if they think my body and the bench are part of the same surface. It feels comforting—like I’m released from any social meaning and simply return to being an uneven texture.
The motif of the “palm,” which I’ve been painting repeatedly in recent years, is something I choose as an image for depicting a dialogue with something precious—something important that cannot be reached through words.
The subtitle text in this work was sampled from the 1996 film Matilda.
