toshiaki tomita

Heart Mountain / The 4th Story and Anecdotes

storytelling with painting by Soeren Bjoern, other paintings by Toshiaki Tomita (6 years old), MP3 player, head set, text, stones, rocks and rock tools. Solo Show at SPICA art, Tokyo. 2010.

As a sequel to HEART MOUNTAIN / The 3rd Story, HEART MOUNTAIN / The 4th Story and Anecdotes is realized.
4 months between 2 solo shows refers to the length of time experienced between the birth of the painting and the discovery of its meaning.

Since the 3rd story was Bjoern's remembrance of his painting, the 4th story is Tomita's journey with the painting, exploration to it. In the 4th story Tomita reports his discovery of a significant meaning, according to his life's journey, struggles, betrayals and salvation. Bjoern happily accepts Tomita's discovery of the meaning of the painting.

The painting never changed since it was painted 8 years ago but Bjoern and Tomita grew, that's how stories remain told, forgotten and restoried, and that's how a painting give us space and time to find new and significant meanings.

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Tomita split HEART MOUNTAIN / The 4th Story and Anecdotes into two periods.

The storytelling session precedes the actual show.
Tomita set up the space a cozy living room-like or a study-like with his collection of his old drawings (painted when he was 6 years old!) and rocks / rock tools, then invited his close friends who can support his narrative which is very personal.

The setting of the space and the manner of storytelling symbolizes how Tomita sees HEART MOUNTAIN. It is more like an universe of images attracted by the core image, or a constellation with a certain set of archetypal images. And it must be storied and shared by person-to-person, face-to-face situation.

4 secoundhand sofas represent the 4 dots which form [心] "heart" in Chinese character. The colors of the sofas and cushons were carefully taken from Bjoern's painting so that it makes sure that the guests can commit to Tomita's narrative by accutually sitting in the "heart" or the painting, rather than being an observer.

The storytelling sessions were done 6 times in 3 days. Each session was with 4-6 guests and 2-4 hours. The guests freely spoke and shared their personal stories and images not only listening to HEART MOUNTAIN / The 4th Story and Anecdotes.

photo: Masaru Yanagiba