HOME ＞ Calligraphy ＞ Installation Artworks＞ Signature WorkーOutline
Outline
Characters that fill the space.
Outline was presented in 2007 as an invited work for the 13th Sen Exhibition, realized as a large-scale installation at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. The entire room was densely covered with characters, transforming the space into an ocean of text. To devote attention solely to the act of writing, the artist created an original sequence of words that retained the grammar of Japanese while being stripped of semantic meaning. The immersive environment enveloped viewers, expanding calligraphy from something to be read into something to be felt, and establishing the work as a pivotal milestone in the artist’s practice.
【Venue Photographs】
Dimensions:
H 1000 cm × W 114 cm × 17 pieces (ceiling)
H 700 cm × W 114 cm × 14 pieces (walls)
H 500 cm × W 114 cm × 10 pieces (wall entrance)
Materials: Sumi ink on faille
Exhibition View —Outline
A composition in which expansive surfaces extend from the ceiling to the walls and the entrance, shaping an entirely new spatial experience.
First showing : The 13th SEN Exhibition — Invited Artist｜Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (Kyoto, Japan)／April 2007
【Artist’s Statement】
What does the overwhelming field of calligraphy reveal?
—What it filled was more than space.
Outline is an immersive calligraphic installation conceived to transform an entire museum gallery into a space of writing. Across 200 meters of fabric, every surface is densely inscribed with characters, filling a room with a ceiling height of five meters and walls extending ten meters in length.
By overwhelming the viewer with sheer quantity, individual characters dissolve—stripped of semantic content and recognizable form—into intricate, geometric patterns. This dissolution of meaning redirects perception from language to structure, from reading to seeing.
The work is rooted in the singular act of writing, pursued with undivided focus. It seeks to reveal what emerges when one is entirely absorbed in the physical gesture, when the act itself becomes the architecture of space. In doing so, Outline offers a neutral, affectless field where writing exists purely as line, rhythm, and spatial presence.
【Work Photographs】
【 Invitations & Re-exhibitions 】
Asté Kawanishi
September 2007
Tsubasa Kimura Calligraphy Exhibition
Venue: Asté Kawanishi (Hyogo, Japan)
Category: Re-staged presentation (solo exhibition)
— Structured as a solo presentation in a public space.
【Venue Photographs】
Dimensions:
H 1000 cm × W 114 cm × 3 pieces
H 700 cm × W 114 cm × 5 pieces
Materials: Sumi ink on faille
Casa de Cultura
March 2011
Traces of Time, Traces of Words: Artists from Japan — Invited Artist
Venue: Casa de Cultura (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Category: Invited & re-staged presentation
— Presented in accordance with the curatorial concept of the exhibition.
【Venue Photographs】
Museum of Anthropology at UBC ( MOA )
May 2017
TRACES OF WORDS: Art and Calligraphy of Asia
Venue: Museum of Anthropology at UBC (MOA) (Vancouver, Canada)
Category: Re-staged presentation
— Presented in accordance with the curatorial concept of the exhibition.
【Venue Photographs】
