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| Natsumi Goldfish, Presences, 2025, Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
My recent painting, “Presences”, is about today: everything that is moving, and we can feel at this moment; the people, art, nature, and something beyond our daily atmosphere. When I see a window on a wall, I always feel behind a blank plain wall is someone’s home – and realize I might or might not know them. But at the same time, I’m drawn to the ongoing mystery about their lives and stories. Since we can’t see inside these windows, the person behind the wall could even be someone imaginary; or someone from the future — or someone who is no longer here.
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| Natsumi Goldfish, Presences, 2025, Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
I borrowed many elements from different histories and places to create this work. This painting in my existing window series, for the first time, has the surrounding environment outside the window frame. In this work I was inspired by a door-like shape of the canvas. This shape created a life-size view, as if we are standing in front of this place with a window and a wall where someone’s life is blooming behind it. I wanted to paint an atmosphere without painting a full or partial human figure, because that’s what happens every day when we walk outside. The vertically long painting has a window in the upper area, a wall in the background, and a lower area being ground — inviting you into the painting’s world.
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| Detail 1: Natsumi Goldfish, Presences (2025) Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
The title, Presences, and the main idea of this painting come from things we can physically see, and it is also about something we can’t see — “Yaoyorozu no Kami” (eight million gods) or the idea a god/ a soul or spirit resides in everything — whether living or non-living. Such gods or spirits reside not just inside objects but also in ideas, in the atmosphere, lights, shadows, living beings, and anything someone pays attention to and cares about – this is one of the ideas I grew up with. When we pay attention, respect, and take care of something for a long period of time, it starts to have its own good spirit and becomes a god that we can learn important things from. It is one idea and a way of living that I wish to spread around the world.
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| Detail 2: Natsumi Goldfish, Presences (2025) Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
Two Painting Styles:
If you noticed the mismatched painting style of the upper and lower area— I intentionally made this painting in two different time zones/styles of painting. The upper window area is more modern and contemporary with the simple white window frame and lace curtains. And at the bottom, it has an impressionist feeling because of a modified* “Irises” painting by Vincent van Gogh on the ground. Van Gogh’s Irises are not replicated exactly like the original, because real plants move, grow, and have their own lives, and insects also have the freedom to come and go.
About Hidden Texts:
There are two texts hiding in this work. The first one is in French and I borrowed from Marcel Duchamp’s gravestone and hid Duchamp’s phrase behind the Irises. The second letter is in Japanese, hiding in the curtain lace patterns — it is the Japanese national anthem. Both text elements are talking about life from different angles.
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| Detail 3: Natsumi Goldfish, Presences (2025) Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
The first text — Marcel Duchamp's gravestone in Rouen, France, features a famously ironic and anti-establishment epitaph: D'ailleurs, C'est toujours les autres qui meurent" (After all, it's always the others who die). I admire artists who were brave to become a pioneer, and contributed to leading our creations as a whole through their influence. Duchamp was one of them — and questioning death at his own grave was very site-specific and something only Duchamp did as far as I know. I always intentionally integrate elements/materials from other artists with whom I personally want to research, see more of and rediscover. To me, talking about death is ultimately talking about life because we can only talk about things we know, or we believe in.
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| Detail 4: Natsumi Goldfish, Presences (2025) Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
The second text — the Japanese national anthem, has one of the shortest lyrics for the national anthem, and it was originally a love poem by an unknown author before it was modified to become a national anthem. It was a poem about his/her beloved one’s long-lasting life (or the world the author’s beloved one belongs to, lasting forever and ever). I enjoy learning the national anthem of my country as it is a rare song that keeps changing the subject over the years: (from a lover, to the emperor of Japan, to people of this and next generation). But the core stays the same as the original love poem — we always wish our loved one’s life and the world around them lasts long and lasts well.
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| Detail 5: Natsumi Goldfish, Presences (2025) Oil on Linen, 72"x24" |
Additional notes:
In Japan where I grew up, windows were often left open, and we could hear sounds people make inside and even smell the dishes they were making or the bath soap they were using. And at the back of my current family house in Tokyo, we have a long and narrow sidewalk alley that my mother calls her “garden” — where she grows her favorite flowers. And her garden looks like this painting; the composition with a window, wall, and plants on the ground. But my house wall is more of a pink tone and the flowers aren’t irises.
