Year: 2014-2015
Medium: oil, glue, beeswax on linen
Dimensions: diptych, 123.8 x 370.5 cm (48 3/4 x 145 7/8 in.) overall
Acquired from Everybody Needs Art, 2022
In the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Fukui turned his attention to energy issues and in the process became interested in Edison's rival and ill-fated genius, Nikola Tesla. Gaining inspiration from the research content by Tesla, the “TESLA” series including this work was then created. Tesla’s contributions include “alternating current” which is still in use today as a worldwide power transmission system, the basic theory of wireless communication and fluorescent light, as well as “World System”, a groundbreaking wireless power transmission system concept. In this “TESLA” series, Fukui expresses his belief through painting that if the “World System” research was to be realised, it could lead to improvements in energy problems around the world and global reform of social system. In the large two-sided painting space, several pale flashes of light generated by an atmospheric discharge are being depicted sharply. Deep blue and black are overlaid on a carefully crafted base of glue and chalk, while the lines depicting the lightning change to iridescence as the light reflects. The subtitle “IKAZUCHI” is the word for thunder, which in Japan is regarded as a deity, and has appeared in the names of gods from the ancient times. Additionally, “INAZUMA”, alternate name for thunder, means that it brings fertility from the high heaven down to the rice fields on earth. The ideal world of gaining energy unlimitedly from the air that Tesla envisioned has overlapped with the Japanese image of “thunder” in Fukui’s work.
