Artwork by Masaki Hirokawa

Archetypus

元型

Jul 2020 · Photo collage · Digital media · 123 x 99 cm (Height x Width)

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This artwork, titled “Archetypus,” explores the theme of “Repetition and a Return to the Archetypal,” featuring multiple depictions of a woman wearing a bird mask, symbolizing humanity’s inherent desires. The piece articulates the necessity of a logical structure underpinning art and civilization. In this narrative, logic serves merely as a restraint on the senses, initiating a perpetual cycle akin to reflections in facing mirrors—endlessly looping within nested structures. This unending cycle may represent the construction of human history, culture, warfare, and conflicts, extending even to the cosmos itself.

Examining the theme of returning to archetypes and repetition, this piece reveals humanity’s fundamental desires. It integrates and expresses recurring patterns in history, thought, nations, and families.

The artwork consists of a collage of repeated images of the same figure. Each mask was uniquely modified with individual restorations and damages to make them appear distinct.

Masks were replicated based on logical calculations, with intuitive adjustments compensating for any remaining inconsistencies. The design allows the artwork to appear both symmetrical and asymmetrical, reminiscent of peering into opposing mirrors.

Initial processing was done in Adobe Lightroom, followed by collage assembly in Adobe Photoshop. Enhancements and corrections were applied to finalize the image. Subsequently, all elements were integrated into a single composition and retouched from the beginning again in Adobe Photoshop. Although the dimensions are slightly larger than A0 size, the piece contains over 200 layers, resulting in a total file size of around 20GB. Detailed brushwork was predominantly used, and corrections were carried out with great delicacy. To evoke a sense of nostalgia, the masks were intentionally damaged and repaired, enhancing the overall atmosphere.

To achieve a painterly finish, the artwork was meticulously brushed to subtly blur its archetypal roots. Each mask was individually detailed to prevent simple replication. In pursuing the boundary between beauty and ugliness, the piece reveals a manifestation of the psyche that transcends mere aesthetic appreciation.

This research focuses on visual expressions that enrich the human spirit, encompassing not only material wealth but also mental serenity. Unlike other works, this piece aims to evoke a profound visual and emotional impact on the viewer, relying predominantly on inspiration—which is extremely challenging to verbalize. Inspiration, derived from the external environment, originates from the “superego” in psychology or “spirits” in the spiritual realm. By collecting data through psychological dictionaries and surrealistic artworks, the piece elicits powerful responses due to its deep psychological resonance and depiction of critical human systems like business, society, ideology, and culture. It is one of the works that received the most reactions from viewers, likely because it delves into the depths of the human subconscious.

Painful divisions and wars are symptoms, not the illness from which the world truly suffers. At the core of that illness lies “delusion”—the delusion held by each of us, and by the world we collectively inhabit. In psychiatry, “delusion” is defined as “a firmly sustained, unshakable false belief, resistant to correction even in the face of decisive evidence or rational argument.”

This work considers how our society, too, is troubled by what might be called a collective delusion—one that echoes individual delusion in its causes, contents, and consequences. To borrow Freud’s words, “a delusion does not arise without any grounds”; like a dream, it may be a distorted utterance of a concealed reality at its root.

A physician cannot begin to treat a patient without understanding why the patient must cling to their delusion, what reality is being figured within it, and what psychological response it summons. In the same way, unless we grasp the problems that propel our collective delusions and offer realistic solutions in place of wishful thinking, we cannot hope to correct them. Through art, I want to think toward what our society harbors within itself—what, in time, becomes the cause of division and war.

This work is designed to read as both asymmetrical and symmetrical; it evokes the sensation of peering into facing mirrors. I repeatedly duplicated images of the same person and collaged them, and—as if each mask were singular—gave each one its own repairs and wounds. In this way, the work gives form to the delusions of society and the delusions of the individual.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I created 「元型」, and set its theme as “a return to archetype and repetition.” I sought an expression through which humanity’s primordial desire might surface—an expression that would gather and bind recurring histories, ideologies, nations, families, and more into a single field. Several years later, I was startled to see the bird-beak-like mask worn by physicians who treated the plague more than four hundred years ago. Might there exist an archetype of defense against fear—an archetype, so to speak, of “delusion”?