Miwa Komatsu: Sense Of Sacredness

This weekend is the final chance to catch this numinous retrospective of Japanese artist Miwa Komatsu at Whitestone Gallery, located on the fifth floor of the Tanjong Pagar Distripark, also home to the Singapore Art Museum.

The 39-year-old, who has been described as a yorishiro, or a conduit for divine spirits in Japanese Shinto terminology, is known for her affinity with otherworldly realms. Her works are less individual artistic expression than portals for channelling and communicating visions.

Set in triptychs and mandalas, her canvases are populated by ferocious guardians from Japanese mythology and folklore, from the dragon-like shinshi of Shinto shrines to wolf spirits that had guided her home as a child in Nagano prefecture, Japan.

A pair of searing eyes or a single third eye confronts viewers. Komatsu’s own third eye was opened when she came face to face with spirits and entities during a meditation session in a cave in Thailand.

For this Whitestone Gallery exhibition, she has created a painting specially for Singapore titled City Amidst Lush Greenery, in which a transfigured, slightly discombobulated Merlion presides over the city’s attendant spirits

A few obsidian pieces resembling relics also point to the artist’s belief that the glossy black volcanic rock harbours connections to the harmony that once existed between humanity and nature.

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