by ANDO Saeko (b.1968)
Reiwa 1, 2019
Lacquer on acrylic panel
30 x 30 x 0.3 cm.
Ando first started experimenting with acrylic boards five years ago. It is a discipline that reinvents the traditional approach of Vietnamese, son mai, painting, and works with the natural translucency of lacquer. Conventional base panels are opaque wood on which the lacquer layers are built up to be viewed only from the front. But on acrylic Ando needs to take advantage of the transparency to create two-sided artworks. Although the lacquer is still only applied to one side of the board, the ‘front’, Ando must constantly pay attention to how the build-up of layers will appear from the back, which becomes a second artwork. How this side looks will also dramatically change when the surface of the front side is sanded. Complex layers of natural lacquer with various colours and other materials are applied on the thin, clear, acrylic boards creating textures and effects like strata of earth. They are then sanded and polished smooth by hand. The light penetrates the art works as if they are actual specimens on glass slides placed under a microscope’s lens. The front face appears darker, the back – viewed through the acrylic board – brighter.