( before a work comes into being)
Outside narrative, outside purity.
If Modernism was the pursuit of “what a painting is,” my inquiry focuses on the very process of “how a painting comes into being.
Modernism closed inward through the purification of form, while postmodernism, arising from that impasse, relied on external narratives.
Yet neither possessed a perspective that addressed the actual “phenomena” occurring within the painting—the activation of visual laws.
My inquiry stands precisely on the ground of addressing this missing “phenomenal layer.”
The movement of visual laws within a painting can be understood through three states:
- Pre-generation: The state in which visual laws have not yet been activated.
- Front Layer (Zensō): The state in which visual laws remain activated and in motion.
- Back Layer (Kōsō): The state in which visual laws converge and achieve stability.
My position lies within the Front Layer (Zensō)—a realm in which a center exists, while visual laws remain in motion.
Even after the adjustments are finished and time has passed, there are moments when the surface seems to faintly tremble. That trembling draws my attention, sending me back and forth between the act of painting and the judgment of observing.
A structure in which the center has not yet emerged within the tremor. I named the state in which judgment and action waver upon the visual laws Before-Origin.
Because I knew that an order already exists on the side of the world, there was no need to decide the meaning first.
The world does not collapse without meaning. Visual law is already at work. I trusted the cycle of judgment → action → change → judgment → action. When the cycle is trusted, meaning does not arise. The wavering continues. This certainty cut off the dependence on meaning.
When postmodernism became dependent on external contexts, I needed to return to the layer before meaning arises and touch the source.
Observing a phenomenon and making a judgment, engaging with it through the body, seeing the resulting change and judging again. Eventually a center appears, the changes grow, and in response, judgment and action repeat. A structure may emerge.
Modernism stalled inside; Postmodernism looked outward.Both missed the layer where visual laws keep operating—I named it the “Front Layer.
Visual laws are the eye’s automatic drive to form meaningful unity.Activation is the start of this drive; Convergence its stabilization.
Front Layer: Visual laws are active but not yet converged.
Back Layer: Visual laws are in the state after convergence.
Case Studies: How the Front and Back Layers Manifest in Paintings (→ View the Map)
Artist Map (the translation layer)
Meiro 1980
Maze (1980) — “Pre-conscious structure”
The Declaration ( toward the outside)
Internal Terms (the internal vocabulary)
Q&A (the entry support)
Narrative dominates today, but I do not stand there.