Kusho – "Writing in the Sky"

To put it simply, Shinichi Maruyama hurls black India ink into water (or vice versa) and photographs the millisecond that these two liquids collide.

Maruyama takes full advantage of a recent advancement in strobe light technology which can record physical events faster than the naked eye can perceive them – 1/7500th of a second, in fact.

In the series Kusho, which means “writing in the sky,” Maruyama’s goal is to arrest in space and time the sublime intersection of two different media before they merge into one.

In some respects, the project resembles a scientific experiment, but in Maruyama’s artistic hands, the total action becomes a form of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) performance–with the gesture executed in the air rather than on the flat surface of the paper.

More info about Shinichi Maruyama and his works can be found via Bruce Silverstein Gallery