Junko O'Neill | The Work

 

Statement

The Japanese time/space concept called Ma is the central theme running through the works of Junko O’Neill. 

Ma is a concept that is unique to Japanese culture and can be seen in various aspects of Japanese culture, such as literature, architecture and the visual arts including painting and filmmaking.  It is an aesthetic sense of distance, created by detachment in time and space.  It is neither time alone nor space alone.  It is a mixed concept of both.  With Ma, space is perceived in terms of time-flow.

In Japanese culture the concept considers space as fundamentally void: only space itself is deemed to be eternal and everything that fills the space is of a transient nature.  Unlike the Western view of empty space as lacking everything and having a negative value, Japanese see it as having a positive meaning.  While the West perceive space compositionally with their logical and rational way of thinking, Japanese perceive atmosphere in relation to time, which defines the space.

With her paintings, Junko leads the viewer to sense the space, which stands calm and yet strangely with time flowing at the same time.  She paints the atmosphere in a way that emphasises the transient nature of time where the space holds, with space and time perceived alongside each other.

CV

Education

2009   MA Fine Art Painting, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton

2008   BA Fine Art Painting, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton

1985   BA American & English Literature, Rikkyo University, Tokyo

 

Exhibitions

2012   ‘Space of Transience’(Solo show), Fairfields Arts Centre, Basingstoke

2011   ‘Contemporay Art for Christmas 2011’, The Lloyd Gill Gallery, Weston-Super-Mare

2011   ‘Hyde 9x5’, The Hyde Tavern, Winchester

2010   ‘Beneath This Surface’ (Two-man show), The Link Gallery, Winchester

2010   Northington Art Exhibition, Northington Church, Northington

2009   'New Contemporaries 2009', Fairfields Arts Centre, Basingstoke

2009   'Ten Days at the Laundry', The Old Hyde Laundry, Gordon Road, Winchester

2009   'Alternatives@GASP', Gallery Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth

2009   'THIS LEADS HERE.' MA Degree Show, Winchester School of Art

2009   'See/Show', MA Interim Show, Winchester School of Art

2009   'New Contemporaries', Fairfields Arts Centre, Basingstoke

2008   BA Degree Show, Winchester School of Art

 

Award/Scholarship

2008   Progression Scholarship, Winchester School of Art

2008   Stephen Heffer Momorial Award, Winchester School of Art