This looks like fun. Born in Nagano, Japan in 1968, Shinichi Maruyama hurls black India ink into water and photographs the millisecond that these two liquids collide. Capable of capturing this phenomenon at a 7,500th of a second, Maruyama takes full advantage of a recent advancement in strobe light technology which can record physical events faster than the naked eye can perceive them. In the series Kusho, which means “writing in the sky,” Maruyama’s goal is to arrest in space and time the sublime intersection of two different media before they merge into one. In some respects, the project resembles a scientific experiment, but in Maruyama’s artistic hands, the total action becomes a form of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) performance–with the gesture executed in the air rather than on the flat surface of the paper. “Once your brush touches paper, you must finish the character, you have one chance. It can never be repeated or duplicated. You must commit your full attention and being to each stroke. Liquids, like ink, are elusive by nature. As sumi ink finds its own path through the paper grain, liquid finds its unique path as it moves through air.” -Shinichi Maruyama
