Topological Vision: The Artistic Thinking of Shigeru Onishi

TY - JOUR

T1 - Topological Vision:

T2 - The Artistic Thinking of Shigeru Onishi

AU - Bak Herrie, Maja

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - This article examines the work of the Japanese mathematician and photographer Shigeru Onishi (1928-1994) and his topologically inspired photographic experiments. It considers how his painterly play with emulsion and coloration is a visual exploration of questions of process and continuous transformation and how these experiments can be understood in relation to more general discussions of mathematical and artistic “ways of knowing.” Building on ideas introduced by the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his work on late Paul Cézanne, the article introduces the concept of topological vision to describe and account for a particular way of seeing that considers the continual coming-into-being of a photographic motif.

AB - This article examines the work of the Japanese mathematician and photographer Shigeru Onishi (1928-1994) and his topologically inspired photographic experiments. It considers how his painterly play with emulsion and coloration is a visual exploration of questions of process and continuous transformation and how these experiments can be understood in relation to more general discussions of mathematical and artistic “ways of knowing.” Building on ideas introduced by the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his work on late Paul Cézanne, the article introduces the concept of topological vision to describe and account for a particular way of seeing that considers the continual coming-into-being of a photographic motif.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163384989&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1162/leon_a_02311

DO - 10.1162/leon_a_02311

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0024-094X

VL - 56

SP - 262

EP - 265

JO - Leonardo

JF - Leonardo

IS - 3

ER -