Kepler
Kepler is an art project that explores the interrelations between people, and between people and nature,
through the compositional motif of the ellipse, viewed from the intersecting perspectives of science,
literature, and philosophy.
From a scientific perspective, the work draws inspiration from Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion,
which states that planetary orbits are ellipses with the sun at one focus. An ellipse, defined by two
foci, has the geometric property that the sum of the distances from any point on its curve to the foci is
constant. Planets slow down as they move away from the sun and accelerate as they approach it, a rhythm
that mirrors the fluctuations of human relationships-marked by distance, proximity, and mutual influence.
The ellipse thus symbolizes a relationship in which two entities remain apart yet are drawn to one
another.
From a literary perspective, the project is inspired by a line from the Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa in
his poem A Billion Light-Years of Solitude: "gravitation is the force of loneliness pulling
together." In this text, Tanikawa portrays the human condition of living on Earth while reaching out
imaginatively to distant others who inhabit different stars. Here, solitude is not presented as a negative
state, but as a fundamental human longing for the presence of others-transforming personal emotion into a
more universal narrative of communication.
From a philosophical perspective, Kepler refers to the Zen concept of the enso. The enso is a circle
drawn in a single brushstroke, a motif found in calligraphy and hanging scrolls in Zen temples. This
minimal form, stripped to its essence, evokes cycles of the Earth and nature, while also suggesting the
laws of the cosmos, inviting viewers into multiple layers of reflection.
Taken together, Kepler is an attempt to express the roots of communication-solitude, vulnerability, the
desire for others-through the layered lenses of physical structure, literary metaphor, and philosophical
symbol. In tracing the path of the ellipse, viewers are invited to reflect on both the incompleteness of
human connection and the possibility of resilience, drawing these reflections into their own lived
experience.
