Ayumi Adachi @ TGIF

The site-spe­cif­ic install­a­tion Line (2022) ori­gin­ates from the artist’s long-run­ning install­a­tion series, and is com­posed entirely of paper. Metic­u­lous black lines hand drawn on each sheet, a sym­bol of Ksana — a Sanskrit word indic­at­ing short­er-than-a-fin­ger-snap unit of time, and all enlight­en­ment that hap­pen in the space of a Ksana which eludes our con­scious mind. Crumpled and sus­pen­ded from the ceil­ing, the work immerses view­ers in the mar­vels of a seem­ingly nat­ur­al phe­nomen­on. With the Ksana lines vis­ibly twis­ted, tangled, and con­nec­ted, Ayumi Ada­chi incor­por­ates the under­stand­ing of time and life cir­cu­la­tions intro­duced by ancient Buddhist beliefs.

Ayumi Adachi’s works on paper are loosely cat­egor­ized and res­on­ate her art’s most per­suas­ive traits, which are the artist’s col­lab­or­at­ive, per­form­at­ive and atav­ist­ic impulses. The major group of paper works on view began with a scanned image — a Ger­man bio­lo­gist Ernst Haeckel’s illus­tra­tion or a fallen leaf found on a hike — trans­ferred onto paper using grey tone inkjet print­ing. The artist then mois­tur­ises the paper sheets, often with nat­ur­al rain drops. Water sinks into the paper and brings out the col­our­ful pig­ments bur­ied deep under the grey­ish sur­face, the sat­ur­ated pink and magenta, and the sooth­ing teal and blue. Through Ayumi Adachi’s approach, the body of works departs from its imbric­ated ori­gin­al images and becomes the found­a­tion for her intu­it­ive brush­strokes and mix-media explor­a­tion. The oth­er series of paper works, Komorebi (Japan­ese for “sun­light filtered by the leaves of trees”), is a game of catch­ing sun­lights. Using water­col­our, the artist traces the shad­ows around Komorebi in a timely fash­ion, res­ult­ing in paper works with cap­tured bright voids, and stun­ning yet subtle details. Play­ful and seem­ingly futile, the per­form­at­ive pro­cess exam­ines the concept of “time- passing” and records the tactil­ity of the invis­ible. As Ayumi Ada­chi said her­self, “I con­verse with the sun this way”.

Ayumi Adachi’s works col­lab­or­ate well with TGIF’s design philo­sophy of mak­ing nature vis­ible. As an inspir­ing fig­ure in the Hong Kong art com­munity for years, we hope her poet­ic and stun­ning present­a­tion in TGIF will increase eco­lo­gic­al aware­ness and reminds view­ers of mankind’s long-stand­ing curi­os­ity about nature.

The pro­gram is gen­er­ously sup­por­ted by TGIF and is part of Wang­sim Art­work Con­sign­ment Pro­gram.