3 アルギン酸を用いた制作：1979年以降の平面作品②
作品が再び発表されるという大きな転機が、1983年富山県立近代美術館で開催された「現代日本美術の展望－立体造形」展です。この展覧会は、数人の招待作家選考委員が彫刻家を選考する方法で進められていました。選考委員の一人であった東野芳明が毛利を推薦したことから、担当者の柳原正樹（当時、富山県立近代美術館学芸員）が出品のお願いをしに杉並区久我山のアトリエを訪れたといいます。柳原の回想によれば、あっけなく断られたが、何度か訪ねるうちに出されるものがお茶からお酒にかわり、ようやく出品の内諾を得たようです*1。
そこで発表された作品が、一人の人間あるいは人類の誕生から死まで凝縮された壮大な世界観を持つ《哭Mr.阿の誕生》です。この作品は現在、「シーラカンス毛利武士郎記念館」に常設しています。
さて、この頃から作品のタイトルにしばしば「阿」という文字が登場します。「阿」は意味を曲げて人にへつらうことを表したり、逆に、親しみの気持ちを表して人を呼ぶ言葉に付く接頭辞であったりと多くの意味を持ちます。柳原は、文学者の魯迅による小説『阿Q正伝』より発想を得て、小説の根底に流れている人間の虚偽や差別、抑圧等の普遍的な意味合いから、「阿」は現代に生きる人間の代名詞ではないかという見方を提案しました*2。一方で、仏教とともに伝来した梵字の字母の配列が「阿」から始まり「吽」で終わることから、万物の始まりから終わりを意味する、そちらの「阿」を想起する方も多いでしょう。「哭」や「誕生」という言葉も合わせると、様々な解釈が可能であり作品への想像が広がります。
また、《哭Mr.阿の誕生》や同じ頃に制作された、《1/2Mr.阿の誕生（胎児）》、《幻覚シリーズ 弧と空》の抉られた穴、《ジャコメッティな茨》等にも見られるような、半立体的なレリーフを支える技術として、アルギン酸を用いた型取り方法が採用されていました。
アルギン酸は、コンブ、ワカメに代表される褐藻類に特有な天然多糖類です。ゲル化して固まっても弾力があり、立体の裏側近くまで回り込んで彫刻されたような造形部分も型抜きできました。これは、株式会社七彩工芸でのマネキン製作に用いられた素材だったようで、毛利はその開発も任されていたそうです。それらを作品制作にも応用したのでしょう。制作ノートには1980年以降「アルギン酸」の記載が続いていることから平面作品の制作当初からの使用が推測できます。また、制作する作品によって、温度や水分量あるいは石膏との配合による撹拌作業、硬化時間の調整を何度も繰り返した実験記録があり試行錯誤が窺えます。
文：尺戸智佳子
*1 柳原正樹「思い出の展覧会 毛利武士郎展」『美術館連絡協議会会報 美連協ニュース』96号、2007年11月号
*2 柳原正樹「毛利武士郎「哭Mr.阿の誕生」」『収蔵品についての報告』富山県立近代美術館、1989年
3 Production with Alginic Acid: Two-dimensional Sculptures from 1979 ②
A Panorama of Contemporary Art in Japan – Sculpture held at The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama in 1983 became the first public exhibition to present Mohri’s new work after a long time. It was hence a landmark for his career. This exhibition was being organised by a selection committee who nominated several sculptors to invite. One of the committee members, Yoshiaki Tōno, nominated Mohri. As per the nomination, Masaki Yanagihara, then the Curator at the Museum, visited Mohri’s studio in Tokyo’s Kugayama to ask for an agreement to participate in the exhibition. According to Yanagihara’s recollections, he was turned down flatly at first, but after several visits, the welcome beverage offered changed from tea to sake, and he finally earned the Artist’s consent to exhibit his work*1.
The work he exhibited there was Wail, The Birth of Mr. A, which has a magnificent worldview that condenses the birth and death of a single person or of humanity. This work is currently on permanent display at the Coelacanth – Bushiro Mohri Memorial Museum.
From around this time, the character 阿 (pronounced ah or ə) often appears in the titles of his works. The character 阿 has many meanings and functions: it can mean being obsequious to someone by distorting the original meaning, while it can function as a prefix that is added to words to address people with feelings of affection. Yanagihara took his inspiration from the novel The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun and proposed a viewpoint that 阿 might be a pronoun for people living in the modern age, based on the universal implications of the novel’s underlying themes of human falsity, discrimination and oppression*2. On the other hand, many people may recall the other meaning of 阿, which is the beginning of all things. This is because the arrangement of the Sanskrit alphabet that was introduced to Japan with Buddhism begins with 阿 and ends with 吽 (pronounced un or hum). When thinking of meanings of other words in the title such as “wail” (to wail or a wail) and “birth”, various interpretations are possible and imaginations expand.
In addition, the technique of using alginic acid to make moulds was used to achieve the delicate parts like a hollowed hole, thin spikes or moulded hands seen in the semi-three-dimensional reliefs created around the same time as Wail, The Birth of Mr. A. These reliefs include 1/2, The Birth of Mr. A (Fetus), Hallucination Series, Arc and Sky and Giacometti-esque Thorns.
Alginic acid is a natural polysaccharide found in brown algae, such as kelp and wakame. Even when it gels and hardens, it retains its elasticity, and it is possible to make moulds of sculpted parts on the back of three-dimensional objects. This was a material used in the production of mannequins at Nanasai Kōgei and apparently, Mohri was in charge of its development. He must have applied this material and technique to his artwork as well. The fact that the word “alginic acid” appears frequently in his production notes from 1980 onwards suggests that he was using it from the very beginning of his two-dimensional sculptures. The detailed records of his experiments, which shows that he repeatedly adjusted the temperature, the amount of moisture, and mixing ratio with plaster, as well as the curing time, depending on the work he was creating, suggest that he was a man of trial and error.
Text by Chikako Shakudo
*1 Masaki Yanagihara, “Memorable Exhibition: Bushiro Mohri Exhibition,” Museum Liaison Council Bulletin: Birenkyō News, no. 96, 2007.
*2 Masaki Yanagihara, “Bushiro Mohri: Wail, The Birth of Mr. A,” Report on New Collections, The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, 1989.
Image captions:
– Wail, The Birth of Mr. A, 1983, height 173cm, permanent installation at Coelacanth. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– 1/2, The Birth of Mr. A (Fetus), 1983, plaster, graphite, 85.0 x 22.0 x 10.0 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– 1/2, The Birth of Mr. A (Cloak), 1984, plaster, graphite, 87.0 x 22.0 x 10.5 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– 1/2 Mr. A’s Birth (Double-leaf Door), 1981, plaster, graphite, 87.5 x 87.0 x 7.0 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Untitled (Black Katabira Cloth B), 1982, plaster, graphite, 175.0 x 41.5 x 10.0 cm, private collection. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Installation view from the Relationship between Mohri Bushiro and Kurobe exhibition (Kurobe City Art Museum, 2023). Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Installation view from the Relationship between Mohri Bushiro and Kurobe exhibition (Kurobe City Art Museum, 2023). Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.