This exhibition features stills taken from the video piece “Counter Skin Colors” that was unveiled at last year’s “Life and Death – Light of Life” exhibition (at Kirishima Open-Air Museum).

In these body-paintings on six males and females of different skin colors, the artist reflects on ways of overcoming differences.

Born 1957, Tokyo. Lives and works Ibaraki, Japan.

Three guiding principles represent the foundation of Miyajima’s art, which he outlines as keep changing, connect with everything, and continue forever. ‘A constant is the fact that we are always changing’, he observes. ‘In Western thought, permanency refers to a sense of constancy, without change.

In Eastern and Buddhist philosophy, change is natural and consistently happening’. Explaining the importance of connection, he expands: ‘As humans and living beings, we cannot and do not exist independently. We are only able to live within relationships in this world.’ The third principle – expressed through the perpetual cycle of birth, death and regeneration – refers back to the first two, for ‘that is the structure of life and of truth’.