ART–OTH–SHI
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Kazuo Shiraga
Gestural Lineages
Gesture as structure
ART–OTH–SHI
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Gesture as structure
Kazuo Shiraga
ART–OTH–SHI
Gesture as structure
Index Code:
ART–OTH–SHI
Orgin:
Amagasaki, Japan
Field Notes:
gesture as structure · gravity as brush · motion as language
Defining Moment:
Early 1950s — body as brush; order clarified

Kazuo Shiraga

( 
1924–2008
 )
kah-zoh shee-rah-gah

Shiraga built a world where the body replaced the tool.

Painting with his feet while suspended by rope, he turned action into composition — motion rendered as structure.

His canvases are records of gravity and force, choreography written in pigment.

‍

In his world, gesture becomes architecture: discipline expressed through surrender.

Structural Focus

Process as Form

The method of making defines the structure. Repetition, accumulation, or procedure becomes the visible logic of the work.

In Kazuo Shiraga’s work, this approach appears where bodily force structures material action.

Position

Process as Form

The method of making defines the structure. Repetition, accumulation, or procedure becomes the visible logic of the work.

In Kazuo Shiraga’s work, this approach appears where bodily force structures material action.
Constructed Surfaces
Surfaces are built through layering, joining, and controlled fabrication.
Systems of Clarity
Order and coherence arise through disciplined systems and constraints.
Gesture
Gesture functions as structure through disciplined, repeatable action.
Structure
Structure holds the work through rules, joins, and controlled relationships between parts.
Material
Material behavior governs form through weight, resistance, and constraint.
Art
Form operates as a site for material, perceptual, and conceptual inquiry.
Gutai
Material and action test the limits of form through direct physical engagement.
Japanese Abstraction
Abstraction emerges through restraint, material sensitivity, and gesture.
Image Credits
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Observartory

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Structual Relations
The following practices are connected through shared structural decisions in form, material, and spatial logic.

By Structural Focus

ⓘ
How are these related?
Quiet Modernism relates practices through how form is organized rather than how it appears. Connections emerge through shared structural conditions — such as repetition, constraint, spatial organization, material behavior, or duration — even when outcomes differ.

A single grouping may reflect multiple overlapping structural concerns.
Jiro Yoshihara
Emptiness as structure
Atsuko Tanaka
Light as body

In Dialogue

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