CHUUSHIN (中心）- "THE CENTER "
Artist statement
John S. Couch’s work focuses on the intersection between contemporary and traditional Japanese art (ukiyo-e and sumi-e). Much like his mixed ethnicity, Couch draws from his bicultural background (Japan and US) to create paintings that are an amalgam of his experiences in both the West and the East. Using synthetic polymer paint imported from Japan that was created for traditional hand-drawn sign painting, he combines a superflat aesthetic that simultaneously reveals dimensional layers of paint beneath. Using rollers he applies faux wood grain that make reference to the patterns often seen in ukiyo-e prints. Additionally the disintermediation of precise mark-making from the hand by using a pattern derived from a commercial roller allows, as John Cage espoused, a certain amount of chance to be incorporated as a discipline.
This series is entitled “Chuushin” (中心), which means “The Center” in Japanese. The kanji are composed of characters that mean “middle” and “heart.” At the center of each painting is a square color block (the center) around which the work revolves – a Zen moment in the hurricane of colors.
As this series was created during the first year of sequestering, it is essentially a “Pandemic Paintings” progression that expresses how the artist created the works as a totemistic talisman to capture the tumultuous zeitgeist and communal sense of uncertainty as well as to invoke a brighter future. Kanji are both pictographic and ideographic and the artist used the characters to stamp in the “ki” (気) or life force of being human into the surface. To paraphrase Robert Henri, each brushstroke is a record of the moment the stroke was made. These paintings record Couch’s thoughts and sensations; the final black and white self-portrait, devoid of color, depicts the artist waiting, spent but present.
john-couch.com