JAPANESE TEXT

Fujiwara creates  dramatic black and white works of great delicacy and complexity that are done using an XY plotter that is controlled by a computer. Since 2009 the artist has been using a large format ink-jet printer to produce these works. The artist, by using this format trades refined, overlapping lines with high-contrast optical effects. In some works these effects conjure the concentric circles that a rock makes when thrown into water, wormholes in space and the like. Other works are like images in kaleidoscopes that are incredibly complex and symmetrical.

Fujiwara’s art is florid and Baroque in it effects while at the same time it is austere because it is in black and white and is made entirely of lines. The computer’s part in the art is not hidden. Rather it is front and center. However, it is the artist, the programmer, who is clearly in charge, as he decides what effects he wants and writes his program accordingly. In this sense his use of the computer is not that different from the use of conventional artist’s materials like paint and brush. However, the perfection that the computer allows is unattainable by an artist who only relies on his manual skills, and in this respect Fujiwara’s work is cutting edge.