AFTERGLOW

📍 Shimokitazawa Station Square

This work creates a space of lingering light where a distinctly Japanese aesthetic sensibility and a cosmic sense of time converge through the phenomenon of phosphorescence.

The moonlight we see from Earth reflects the moon as it appeared approximately 1.3 seconds ago; in a sense, we are gazing into the past. Since ancient times, Japanese people have looked to the moon, projecting their thoughts on time gone by and unseen presences onto its light. The moon depicted in *The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter* serves as a symbol connecting the otherworldly realm with the mortal world.

Phosphorescence involves absorbing light and slowly releasing it in the darkness.

Both the moon and phosphorescent materials convey the influence of light received from an external source across the passage of time.

I once heard a monk say that a person dies twice: first when the physical body perishes, and again when there is no one left to remember them. Phosphorescence evokes that second life.

Perhaps this is the light that remains until the very end, persisting even after all the light of the cosmos has faded away.

Midori Kawano

Born in 1982. Visual director and artist. Deeply drawn to the cosmic perspectives found in music and art, the artist began their creative career in the mid-2000s. Graduated from Tama Art University in 2006, majoring in Product Design. Works across a diverse range of fields, including three-dimensional and spatial installations utilizing light phenomena and color shifts, visually vibrant two-dimensional works, CD cover art, advertising, video, product design, spatial staging, and photo direction. The "RGB_Light"—a lighting fixture that creates multicolored shadows—was successfully developed into a commercial product following the acquisition of patents in both Japan and the United States.

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