JAPANESE TEXT

Kagii’s work is a marriage of simplicity and complexity, and imagery and transparency. The artist starts by painting a canvas, often of figures, using a pallet knife, in bold, flat colors, He takes a digital photograph of the painting and feeds it into a computer. The image is then printed onto sheets of acetate. Although they are paler than the original painting, the sheets glow like subtle stained glass. The sheets are cut up into strips, and are then strung with fish wire from clear, plastic arms that extend from the wall. The strips then visually reassemble the original image, but in layers like a translucent cubist painting. The result is a prismatic experience, and the configuration can be circular, square or a shallow rectangle. The installations range from a foot wide to several yards wide. Kagii’s art is always joyous. It never overburdens the eye with clutter, and maintains a crisp efficiency of design.

Even if a work is very large and complex, the fact that it is entirely translucent gives it an almost weightless, ephemeral look. Its ingeniously simple system of wires and plastic arms does not intrude on the images, and yet its presence is an important component of the works’ uniqueness.

Kagii’s art straddles the disciplines of sculpture and painting. The manner in which it commands space is sculpture’s province, while the imagery is entirely in the sphere of painting. The give-and-take between the two gives the work its dynamism.