SCULPTURES BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RULES

With the title he gave his work "Syncret", Nakao Masaki sends us directly back into

Antiquity, directly back into Antiquity, but let there be no mistake about it, this work is

totally modern, minimalist, even avant-gardist, but thanks to its ambiguity deliberate

or not, it can also be read in different ways with varying meanings, be they linguistic,

cultural, religious, psychological and physical…We feel that this last vision is closer

to the essence of this work that, like in quantum physics, attempts to combine

materialistic and idealistic philosophies, the conformity of mind and matter. It is

therefore a work with an outstanding aesthetic and poetic range.

The visual vibration engendered by this installation clearly shows that a work of art

is not merely animated volumes due to a surface approach. It deals with a vibration

of transparent and luminous masses faced with the environment that the artist absorbs

as a common part, imbued with a strong density, and that allows the viewer to find

his way once more towards the visible and the intellect. The work offers a new vision,

an encounter between the artist and his world, with the imaginary in appearance,

whereas the symbolical reality is accomplished via the harmonious  center providing

the key to the spatial rhythm. We find both interdependency and singularity in each

constituent element of this luminous polyester, acrylic and nylon sculpture, that is part

of the whole. That is also what differentiates Nakao Masaki from other artists like

Carl André, or Donald Judd…. who have preferred to opt for a simplified modularity,

raw materials, a flat surface, whereas the Japanese artist insists on the correlation

between the elements, their inner organic links, and an extreme precision in the

execution. It is a question of a gestural signal that, in its turn, thanks to the result

obtained on the surface, perpetuates the play of multicolored light, creating another

link between the work and the environment that reveals it. The optical element,

the use of pastellised colors in their turn transform the given space, pre-determined,

freed from false appearances, and the elements, attached or detached from each

other, which allow the shapes to escape from resembling the rest of the imaginary

in the surrounding space.

Text : Ante Glibata, 2007.Oct. / for the Exhibition "Gongzhen 共震- Sport in Art"

in Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (MOCA)