“Copperplate Prints From 1963” / 『1963年の銅版画より』

［カタログ］
仕様：文庫本サイズ、36ページ、カラー
掲載作品：河口龍夫が1963年に制作した銅版画より10点
文：河口龍夫、土屋誠一
翻訳：河西香奈
撮影：SNOW Contemporary
編集：窪田研二、石水美冬、北村大宰
デザイン：峯石景子
発行：SNOW Contemporary

*展覧会展示風景は、カタログに掲載されておりません。/ The exhibition view is not posted in this catalogue.

■河口龍夫 / アーティストステートメント 『1963年の四点の銅版画をめぐって』より抜粋
1.　消去された時間
　時間への何らかの関心が感じられる過去の作品で、私の手元にあるものを探してみた。すると1963年に制作した銅版画の作品で、題名が《消去された時間》となっており、その題名からも時間への関心が明らかであった。
　そこに描かれているのは、時間そのものは描くことができないので、時計を借りた時間のイメージであった。当然のことながら、時間そのものを対象化することは、時間内存在である我々には不可能であることを自覚していたようである。その時点では時間への表現力が稚拙にも思えるが、私にとっては時間への関心とささやかな冒険を示す、そして懐かしさを誘う作品でもあった。
　懐かしさを誘うのは、描かれている時計が、誕生した時から我が家にあった古い柱時計からのイメージであったからだ。記憶に残るその時計は振り子時計で毎日軽快な音を立てながら時を刻んでいた。またその時計はゼンマイ仕掛けによる機械時計で、大きな真鍮の鍵状の道具を丸い小さな穴に差し込み手動でねじを巻かなければならなかった。その柱時計にねじを巻く役が父から私の役になった時から、ねじを巻くたびに時計に命を与えるような気分になっていた。ねじを巻く音と時刻を知らせる音が思い出される。時刻を知らせる音は、一時にはボーンと一つなり、十二時にはボーン、ボーンと連続して十二回なった。
　音を失った《消去された時間》から読み取れるのは、画面に向かって右側に時刻を知らせる文字盤部分が描かれ、左側には時計を起動させる振り子部分が描かれている。だが記憶に残る時計は、時刻を表記する文字盤と時計の短針と長針を起動させる振り子が完全につながって一体化し、柱を背にして時を刻んでいた。なぜ振り子時計を切断し左右に隔てたのであろうか。それは文字盤の画面に時計を巻く鍵が描かれていることから推測すると、時計のねじを巻き忘れ、時計が静止してしまったことの記憶からであろうか。あるいは、切れ目なく連続する時間に、現実時間とは無関係な隙間のような時間空間を想像し、そのために時間の切断を試み、切断された時間の存在を消去された時間と夢想したのだろうか。もしくは、同じ長さの時間が長く感じたり短く感じたりすることが、私的な観念によってとらえる時間と即物的な時間との乖離を時間の切断と捉えようとしたのだろうか。いずれにしても時間の非可逆性は過去の現実への非可逆性と重複するかのようである。
　ここに書かれている作品《消去された時間》を探し出した時、同時に三点の別の作品を見つけ出した。いずれの作品も1963年制作の銅版画で、私が23歳の時の作品である。作品の題名はすでに記述した《消去された時間》の他、《人》、《萌芽》、《仮面》と画面下に書かれていた。作品と再会した一瞬、題名も含めてまるで水族館の水槽越しに不動の魚を見るような、または、自分が昔採集した珍しい昆虫を標本箱越しに見るような、あるいは、時間の残滓で少し霞んだ曇りガラスを通して見るような感じを覚えたのは、55年前という経過した時間のせいであったからであろうか。

（注）この文を書いた二ヶ月後、新たに55年前の銅版画６点が見つかりました。

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［Catalogue］
36 pages, 14.7 x 10.5 cm, English & Japanese
10 works by Tatsuo Kawaguchi from the Copperplate Prints from 1963
Essays by Tatsuo Kawaguchi and Seiichi Tsuchiya
Translated by Kana Kawanishi
Photo by SNOW Contemporary
Edited by Kenji Kubota, Mifuyu Ishimizu and DaisakuKitamura
Designed by Keiko Mineishi
Published by SNOW Contemporary

■ Tatsuo Kawaguchi Artist Statement - Excerpt from “About the Copperplate Prints From 1963”
1.Erased Time
I was looking for my earlier works left in my atelier in which I could find my interest towards time. One of the copperplate prints I created in 1963 was titled Erased Time, which vividly showed my interest towards time already from its title. As it was impossible to draw the time itself, what I had drawn there was an image of time by rendering the image of a clock. Being an existence living in time itself, it seemed as though I was aware of the impossibility of objectifying time itself. I must admit that my expression towards time was still somewhat impoverished then, while at the same time, it embodied one of my earliest interests and endeavors towards time, which also brought me back a nostalgic feeling.

The reason why it brought nostalgia to me was because of the image of the clock. It was the old wall clock that existed in my house since I was born. The clock was a pendulum clock that ticked every day with a lyrical sound. It was a mechanical clock that moved by the power of a wind-up wheel, and it needed to be wounded up every day with the small copper key that went inside a small hole. Since the moment the role of winding up the wall clock became mine instead of my father, I felt as though I was giving life to the clock each time I winded it up. I can vividly remember the sound of when would wind up the clock, as well as the sound of its bell when the clock would let us know the time. The bell of the clock rung once when it was one o’clock, and then twelve times when it was twelve o’clock.

The work titled Erased Time had already lost its sound, but we can see that the dial face in which had the function of acknowledging the time was drawn on the right, and the swing of the pendulum that made the clockwork was drawn on its left. However, the clock in my memory had its dial face that acknowledged us the time and the swing that made the short and long arm of the clock to move all connected together as one and was ticking time with the pillar on its back. Why did I separate the pendulum clock and divide them to the left and the right? Thinking back from the fact that I also drew the key that could wind up the clock together with the dial face, perhaps it comes from my memory of the clock stopping in silence when I forgot to wind up the wheel. Or, perhaps I imagined of inserting a special time-space that does not exist in the actual seamless time that flows without any cleavages; this means I cut the time, and maybe imagined that the disconnected time was an erased time. Or, did I think of those moments in which a particular flow of time would feel longer or shorter than others, and interpreted such personal flow of time in one’s mind is different from the physical flow of time, and comprehended this disconnection as the disruption of time. Either way, it seems as though the irreversibility of time overlaps with the irreversibility of facts that occurred in the past.

When I found the work Erased Time described in the text above, I also found three other works. All of them were copperplate prints created in 1963 when I was 23. The titles written below the images other than Erased Time were A Person, Bud, and Mask. The moment I reunited with my works and saw those titles, I felt as though I was encountering an unmovable fish in an aquarium, or staring at a rare insect I had captured and kept in a cabinet in the past, or was seeing through an old opaque glass that was slightly foggy after the remnants of time, perhaps because of the volume of the time that had past which counted up to 55 years.

* Two months after I wrote this text, six more copperplate prints from 55 years ago were found.
*Please feel free to ask us about the artworks shown in the catalogue.
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