In Undercurrents, Koshiro Akiyama invites us into a liminal realm where water becomes both a subject and a metaphor for emotions. The works do not just depict watery surfaces; rather, they use translucency and fluidity as ways to explore what lies beneath, both literally and emotionally.
Akiyama’s technique is rooted in his combining of control and chance, just as water flows. Layers of watercolour and acrylic paints are painted over one another, with Akiyama giving them free rein to separate and merge where they please. Many of his figures appear half-submerged, their outlines softened by the water’s surface. This both anonymises their identities, allowing the viewer to put themselves in the landscape, but also creates a sense of dynamism that mirrors the materiality of water. Underwater Shadow I and II exemplify this technique, with the figures’ bodies slowly merging with the water around them, just as the water meets the green landscape.
This process reflects the meditative state of Akiyama: brushstrokes are not just a medium, but are representative of letting go; letting control go to the material and letting the material carry meaning. The water is an active player in both the subject and the fluidity of the paints. Through this fluid surface, Akiyama creates suspended moments, memories out of reach, anonymous figures drifting in and out of our minds. This can be seen in works like Mermaid Syndrome, in which both the figure and the mermaid are created from shapes that intermingle with the sea that holds them. Colours used to depict people are also seen in the landscape around them as they’re given the freedom to land wherever they flow.
The anonymity of the figures in the works prevents cementing them in a place or time: we do not know who they are or where they are going. They float in a dreamlike world that Akiyama creates, and the viewer joins – a gesture to the shared and borderless nature of water. Sky Blue features one such face, created from light gestures and gentle shading; they have no set facial features. Not only does this mirror the lack of concrete identity in the land/sea, but it also allows the viewer to project their own self into Akiyama’s liminal worlds.
In Undercurrents, Koshiro Akiyama offers a quiet yet immersive experience: one where water is not simply a motif or subject, but a medium of emotion and creation; where the surface holds and obscures, and people move in between states of being as the paints flow. Akiyama’s work asserts that meaning often floats just below the surface, and giving in to this movement can create so much more.
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