The horizon is always far away. In a painting, however, it can be right in front of us. Curved Horizon, Sawako Nasu’s second solo exhibition at NISO, begins in the space that opens between these two distances.

The eye follows a line, a change in colour, a sense of depth, and moves away, only to return to the surface soon afterwards. A drip, an area where paint has been removed, or a change in the fabric itself interrupts this movement. For Sawako, this proximity does not contradict depth. It makes it possible. For an image to move into the distance, something must bring us back to what is in front of us.

The exhibition brings together conventional and structural canvases. In the former, the surface remains flat while the horizon line curves slightly. In the latter, almost the opposite happens: the line is painted straight, but the flexible canvas curves and pulls away from the wall. In one case, the image curves; in the other, the support.

Distance no longer belongs only to what we see within the painting. It also exists between the canvas and the wall, and between the work and us. As we move in front of it, these distances begin to affect one another.