The Frankenstein Monster
23 | Yusaku Yoshimura | Takeshi Kosugi

The Frankenstein Monster

I watched the play, Frankenstein, by the Royal National Theatre of London in 2011. 

The monster was pure-hearted, but he killed people, and I felt sympathy for him. Which of them was the real monster: Victor Frankenstein or his creation?

In my current work of art, I used the 2 loops below, to show the five levels of action in each loop.

 〇 Loop 1:  Mind and behavior (expressions)

1. Write → 2. Read → 3. Play→ 4. Hear→ 5. Convey

 〇 Loop 2: Methods and tools (materials)

  1. Calligraphy→ 2. Poem→ 3. Voice→ 4. Musical instrument→ 5. Machine

Shunsuke Tsurumi was a Japanese historian and philosopher. He spoke about "Marginal art" in his book『限界芸術論』勁草書房 in 1967 . He used the term “marginal art” to refer to works produced by non-professional artists and consumed by non-professionals. He classifies "activity levels" into two:  1. written (calligraphy) and 2. read (poem). Human action levels were his categories for distinction.

Because he was not familiar with the “Eye of the Calligrapher”, his work and assessment did not adequately portray nor describe Japanese calligraphy. Many people think that Japanese calligraphy is simply the drawing - the ink-墨 and the Japanese brush- 筆.  That simple way of thinking is mistaken.

There is true value in what we do with our eyes. We study how to write, and how to observe. We think about how to move a brush, how much pressure to apply and more.

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This time I used a pencil line, but in my mind I was thinking about the movement of the brush since the pencil moves in much the same way as the tip of the brush. This pencil line is nearly a roadmap for the brush. Using actual brush and ink would involve a different technique. The pencil line is the first step in the overall work; without this line we cannot balance and hold properly.

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An important concept is called, “The Calligrapher's eye”. In fact, this knowledge is applied in the legal field in areas such as handwriting analysis, often carried out by Japanese calligraphers. This is because the calligrapher is a professional with the necessary skills and technique. On the other hand, for me to be able to move people more and express deeper feelings through my artwork, I must continuously improve my calligraphy. In my view, this is what it means to be a real artist.

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The Frankenstein Monster used "poetry", as it is much easier for "words" to capture the human imagination. To accompany, Yusaku produced the sound. He used the words and the feelings of the poem and transmitted them through the music.  Finally, the speaker that Takeshi manufactured was used.

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With that, I showed how to embody the actions of  "Play (Recitation), Listen (music) and Convey (the speaker)".  These three were each chosen to represent Calligraphy and Poetry, Recitation and Sound and Sound and Audio Equipment - according to the two loops mentioned above.

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Allow me to use this opportunity to give my thanks to Yusaku and Takeshi, and to all of you. Though the world still combats COVID-19, I hope soon that the world will become evermore peaceful.

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23

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English by  R. Wesley Cunningham  |  Jeff Enukora | 23

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