Search for Paradise, Japan Gallery Cologne, 2022
Dr. Hanna Styrie, arthistorian and journalist
You're probably no different to me these days: we're feeling the spring and enjoying the awakening of nature.
But reality quickly catches up with us: the coronavirus pandemic has not yet been overcome, and we cannot ignore the images of the war in Ukraine that we have been seeing every day for weeks.
So it's hardly surprising that some people are harbouring thoughts of fleeing and wishing they were far away. But where to? Perhaps to paradisiacal climes or even the moon?
Catharina de Rijke and Shige Fujishiro have their very own longings, which they present to us here in this exhibition.
This stimulating double exhibition is given added tension by the meeting of two cultures. And that is entirely in the spirit of Tenri, the Japanese-German cultural workshop, which builds bridges between Japan and Germany with a varied programme.
Catharina de Rijke was born in Rotterdam, her family comes from the province of Zeeland on the north coast of Europe, which consists mainly of islands and peninsulas.
Its structure is reminiscent of Japan, the country to which Catharina feels particularly attached. On the beaches in Zeeland, you can experience the constant change of ebb and flow caused by the moon's gravitational pull.
And as I know from my own holidays, you can feel a little closer to the moon there than anywhere else, especially on a full moon night.
No celestial object has inspired the imagination to bolder dreams. This is due to its strange properties: it emits light in the night that is not its own. It constantly changes size, colour and shape, it can shrink oceans and cause floods.
It is therefore not surprising that Catharina de Rijke has succumbed to the magic of the moon, to which she responds with artistic means - not in the romantic sense of Caspar David Friedrich, but as an abstract phenomenon.
In three series, she presents us with her very personal view of the ‘blue planet’.
You may know the saying ‘What does the moon care if a dog barks at it’.
Catharina has borrowed a quote with a similar meaning from the comic series ‘The Peanuts’. This gave the softly coloured three-part canvas with its floating all-over structures its title: ‘The moon hasn`t changed, and the dogs are still dogs’ is an ironic reference to the constancy of the celestial body.
The paintings in the series ‘Schein Paradies - Mond Schein!’ are more threatening. Here she confronts us with the black holes that swallow up matter.
The artist finds a free painterly expression for this and her abstract forms give rise to many associations.Elements from the animal and plant kingdoms seem to be recognisable, in which nocturnal black, shiny and dull parts suggest unfathomable depth and cadmium yellow symbolises the glow.
These images, in which Catharina de Rijke creates spaces of the unreal, unreal and mysterious, are created in a processual manner. In some cases, she uses a fluid, almost watercolour-like painting technique that lends the pictures depth.
Another series of works is dedicated to ‘Moonboxes’, packages containing small treasures that can be shot to the moon under the motto ‘Immortalise your keepsake on the moon’.
Catharina de Rijke responds to this questionable offer in her paintings with reduced shapes without a concrete, tangible form, which unfold a wonderfully light-footed life of their own on the canvas.
With an artistic signature developed over many years, the artist presents her very personal view of the moon, which we encounter here in a poetic and emotional transformation.
