Hokusai Passages Exhibition

Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Collection of the National Museum in Krakow. Arrangement of the exhibition ”Hokusai. Passages…” is an attempt to create a space on the border of art, architecture and nature within museum galleries.

Low walls made out of various materials separate individual interiors and suggest the itinerary of the visit, guiding guests to the subsequent groups of works of art (”Views of Mount Fuji”, "Literary Inspirations”, ”Ghosts and Apparitions”, ”Waterfalls”, ”Surimono. Occasional Prints”, ”On the Tōkaidō Road”, ”Pattern books”, ”Hokusai Manga”). The rectangular interiors feature additional diagonal screens, painted with silver and gold varnish.

Also, smaller separating elements were designed individually. The wall with probably two of the most famous works by Hokusai ("The Great Wave off Kanagawa" and ”Fine Wind, Clear Morning”) stands on a specially selected boulder, which may suggest a reference to historical solutions in the shaping of Japanese gardens (keiseki stones) and architecture (soseki stones).

Another work – ”The Dish Mansion" from the series "One Hundred Ghost Tales” – inspired the creation of a perforated balustrade in one of the smaller rooms. Patterns cut in tinted plywood are based on lines created by Hokusai illustrating wood divisions (this procedure may also resemble an architectural interpretation of the so-called blind embossing technique – karazuri).

Elsewhere, the background for the exhibits are fire-treated wooden panels (yakisugi). Two reflective black walls, placed opposite in the first room, may in turn bring to mind the color and texture of Japanese lacquer used in traditional serving utensils. The dark colors and discreet lighting of the exhibition are a nod to the book „In Praise of Shadows" by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

The shapes, colors and textures of the selected boulders indirectly refer to the works displayed in specific rooms. Importantly, these stones were only borrowed for the duration of the exhibition, and after its end, they will be returned to the company dealing with their distribution and will serve to decorate some new gardens in the future.

In turn, in the dark blue room with illustrations of waterfalls and bridges, a spatial installation inspired by the surface of water is placed in the central point. This attempt to capture something elusive in a permanent form fits in with the concept of ukiyo-e, describing old Japanese art as "images of the floating world".