inner space
2008 - 2012
A Parallel Reality ”inner space”
My practice begins with "inner space," a virtual world I have constructed using 3DCG. I place my perspective within this virtual space and observe it as if walking through it, capturing the cross-sections of the space that emerge from that viewpoint as paintings. Within this virtual world, I can move my perspective freely, and the relationships between the landscapes and the space shift through this movement. I extract the landscapes that appear in the process of this observation and render them as paintings.
Unlike traditional painting, which is based on a fixed, frontal view of a single space, this method assumes that the space continues to expand through the movement of the perspective. To me, a single work is not a completed landscape, but a cross-section of the virtual world; as the number of works increases, the world itself expands. My practice is less about creating a collection of finished works, and more about the formation of a single world that continues to be updated over time.
This virtual world was born as a sanctuary for my own mind. While living and working in the city, I found that searching for my direction within the constraints of real-world spaces could be exhausting. I began by constructing "inner space" as a place where I could safely continue my creative work. There, I can observe the world with a sense of time and space different from reality, moving my perspective freely.
As I continued my practice, this world evolved beyond my own internal space, gradually becoming a space that could be shared with others. For instance, in workshops, I asked participants to draw based on the theme of "what do you see through the window?" and incorporated their works into my space. This revealed the world as seen through the individual windows of each participant, naturally highlighting their unique inner landscapes and interests. Through multiple windows aligned in the same space, people can glimpse not only their own world but also the worlds of others.
The windows that appear in my work serve as a way to look at the outside world and, at the same time, a way to look into oneself. These windows exist on the same horizon, and the perspective can travel between them. Going from one's own world to the worlds of others, and back again. I feel that in this going and returning, one can distance oneself, however slightly, from one’s own preconceptions and become aware of different perspectives.
In contemporary society, where we are surrounded by grand narratives and assertive information, I feel the space for imagining others seems to be narrowing. In such a situation, rather than presenting a strong message, I seek to create a place where imagination can work quietly. My work is not intended to teach something to someone; perhaps it is more like a device for feeling the possibility that different perspectives can coexist within the same space.
"inner space" is a world that expands within the imagination, while simultaneously rising as an external space through observation—it is a parallel reality. I continue to walk through that world, painting the landscapes that appear there. I hope that this space created through my practice becomes a small window for visitors to re-examine their own worlds and the worlds of others.
2026.03.10
"inner space” update 2026.01 @Iku Harada
Layered Structure of Windows
In my practice, the “window” does not separate the historical transformations of art, but rather attempts to layer them into a single structural system.
Window as painting:
A frame that inherits the traditional visual experience of painting.
Window of the virtual world:
An access point to the digital space inner space.
Window in physical space:
A structure that generates new boundaries within the exhibition environment.
From the Renaissance conception of painting as a spatial simulation, to the modernist emphasis on flatness, and further to the digital interface of contemporary screens—these developments are not treated as disconnected historical stages. Instead, they are understood as structures that coexist and overlap simultaneously.
By layering these different notions of the window, my work seeks to propose a new perceptual field that moves back and forth across the boundaries between the real and the virtual, and between space and vision.
Furthermore, in my practice the window does not exist as a singular device. Rather, multiple windows appear as an interconnected network structure.
Each window connects to a different viewpoint or spatial condition, and through their interrelation the world no longer appears from a single perspective but emerges as a multilayered relationship of vision.
In this way, the window is redefined not simply as a device for looking at the world, but as a perceptual network that allows movement between the virtual and the real, the internal and the external, and the planar and the spatial.
