Blue Lines, 2011

Katsumi Hayakawa, born 1970, constructs tri-dimensional worlds made of paper. His works are abstract representations of our de-individualised cities, in which we live and work but do not manage to establish relationships. The buidlings of our cities are the containers and décor of the “absence of existence, the absence of nothingness and the absence of the absence of absence”.

Hayakawa’s works could be interpreted as urban landscapes or as integrated circuits of microchips. These are both ends of the same man-made universe that reveal themselves to the viewer. The contrast between the real and the virtual, simulated reality.

There is a lot of the Buddhist concept of all things being connected in the universe in Hayakawa’s paper works.

Hayakawa is more commonly known for his geometric paintings, which he calls “virtual abstractions”. But he was dissatisfied with the medium, which was not suited to fully express his artistic concepts, so he decided to to shift to sculpture for his more recent works. Hayakawa uses paper cubes and squares that he pastes onto watercolor paper. These works seem casually arranged but they remind us of landscapes, integrated circuits or labyrinths but still leave us in doubt if what we see represents what we mean it is. This is Hayakawa’s way to remind us of the information tsunami that has overrun us a long while ago.