星野 美津子《風と松》アーティスト・ステートメント
Artist's Statement for The Wind and the Pine Trees by Mitsuko Hoshino
(English follows after Japanese)
わたしの住む家の庭に、大きく育った松の木が2本並んで立っています。このあたりが住宅地になるずっと前からここに根を下ろしていたのであろうこの野生の松は、今では家よりも高くなり、バルコニーから手を伸ばせば届きそうなほど近くにやや居心地悪そうに立っていて、お天気のいい穏やかな日には追いかけっこをしながら跳ねまわるリスや小鳥たちがひっきりなしにやってきます。
松はわずかな風にもそのひょろひょろと伸びた枝を揺らし、嵐の夜には荒れ狂う狂気のダンスを踊り、樹皮に染み入る恵の雨を静かに受け止める・・・
トウベ・ヤンソンの「彫刻家の娘」という自叙的短編集を初めて読んだのはもうずっと昔のことですが、その最後のくだりに強い風に吹かれる松（と、その木の中に潜り込んで一緒に風に吹かれている少女（作者））が登場する「五つの入江」という作品は、海辺で育った私自身の子供の頃の記憶と何層にも重なり、わたしの心を強く揺さぶります。
この松の木の実は緑でとても堅い。
私の足は茶色。
風が私の髪を真直ぐ吹きぬけていく。
(トウベ・ヤンソン「彫刻家の娘」香山彬子訳)
わたしのアトリエの窓から見える、見慣れたゴツゴツした太い幹の、方々に広げた枝の先に束になった松葉をたっぷりと携えて揺れるこの2本の松の木が、時折り時空を超えて遥か彼方の記憶の中のあらゆる「松」と重なり、その枝の茂みの中にひっそり隠れている少女、もしかしたら幼かった頃のわたしと、今のこの「私」も一緒に同じ宇宙に包まれているような、不思議な感覚を覚える瞬間があります。
風は呼吸、松は身体、ドローイングは交感の軌跡 – この展覧会では、二つのドローイングシリーズを展示します。ひとつは風に揺れる松に向き合って描いたもので、もうひとつは、風に吹かれて地面に散らばる松葉（抑圧や戦争の戦禍によって離散した人間にもどこか似ている）からインスピレーションを得て生まれた Needle Trace です。
星野 美津子
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In the garden of the house where I live, two large pine trees, each fully grown, are standing side by side. The wild pines, which must have taken root here long before the area became residential, are now taller than the house and stand somewhat uncomfortably close it, just out of reach of my hand touching high in the canopy from a balcony. On sunny days, squirrels and birds visit the twin pines incessantly, chasing and leaping about.
The pines sway their spindly branches in the slightest breeze and they dance a wild and crazy dance on stormy nights – then tranquilly as they catch the rain that seeps into their bark…
It was already a long time ago when I first read Tove Jansson’s short story ‘The Bays’ (in the book titled ‘Sculptor’s Daughter’, which is a collection of her autobiographical short stories), the final section features a pine tree in a strong wind and a girl (the author), hiding in the tree to be blown about by the wind together with the tree. This autobiographical story strongly moved me, as it overlapped with layers with my own childhood memories of growing up by the sea with windswept Japanese coastal pines.
The pine cones are green and very hard.
My feet are brown.
The wind is blowing right through my hair.
–––Tove Jansson, ‘Sculptor’s Daughter’, Schildts Förlag Ab
The view from the windows of my studio, with the familiar thick trunks of these two pine trees with their branches spreading out and swaying incessantly at the ends, and with their abundance of tightly bundled pine needles, gives me a peculiar sensation that overlaps with all the ‘pine trees’ in my distant memory, transcending time and space; as if the little girl – this time me – was again hiding quietly in the thicket of branches. Tove Jansson’s experience might also have happened to when I was a child, and with this ‘me’ of today, we are together enveloped in the same universe.
Wind is breath, pine trees are the bodies, drawings are the traces of communication. In this exhibition, I present two series of drawings. The first was made facing the pine trees swaying in the wind, and the second is ‘Needle Trace’, inspired by the pine needles blown by the wind to be scattered on the ground in groups and patterns [resembling humans displaced by the ravages of oppression or war].
Mitsuko Hoshino
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