I was mesmerized by the Dripstone wall of the Wallenstein Palace in Prague and the White sand sea of Jisho-in in Kyoto. Both stopped my breath momentarily when I saw them for the first time and my eyes were trans-fixated. The Baroque of the West and the Dry landscape of the East are human achievements of the early 17th Century.

I am fascinated by these parallel achievements in different places at the same period. Both demonstrate to me their extreme development of a concept and their contradictions. Their extreme development seems to be toward the opposites: West went to additive, ecstatic and anthropomorphous, East went to reductive, meditative and symbolic. West commands physical and emotional participation, while East commands abandonment of them.

In my most recent body of work, "Cosmic Theater II", I am presenting my personal parallels in two series of work. One is HyperBaroque and another is Moon Light / Mooring. These are my two parallel fictions based on the human desire to reach out into the mental and physical space beyond our reach. One is looking out and another is looking in.

Although the appearance of my work has been changing considerably over the past 30 years, my basic concerns have been quite consistent, always personal and humanistic. In the center of the concept is my realization that human knowledge is extremely limited. Our understanding of our position in the larger context of the Universe is as minute as the time of the Baroque and the world seems as far away from the ideal. It is serious and comical. However, the effort we make toward understanding is uplifting. In my recent work, I wanted to focus on this celebratory aspect of the human race. In the past, my attitude toward my subject matter has been rather critical and inward looking. Through this inquiry into historical, cultural and sociopolitical conditions, I am trying to come to terms with the complex reality of the 21st Century.

Michiko Itatani