Natsumi Kobayashi - Artist Statement 

Moving between distance and proximity is central to my way of perceiving the world. Much like travel sharpens awareness of the everyday, shifting perspectives allows connections to emerge, between a distant waterside and a small geometry held in the hand. Through printmaking, these movements of perception are separated into layers and overlaid, tracing the act of seeing itself.

The resulting landscapes are not documents of specific places or research-led stories, but personal, inward constructions. Motifs act as borrowed shapes, temporary tools that shift perspective and expose the natural uncertainty in how we see things.

During a recent stay in New Zealand, conversations while walking - about soil, thermal water, black sand, and black seaweed, shifted my attention away from the fixed appearance of things toward the invisible reactions that continuously transform them. What appears complete and beautiful is understood instead as a fleeting moment within constant change.

These reflections informed new works that introduce an immaterial layer of “reaction” into the Grass and Water series, as well as a group of works based on salt crystals collected during daily cooking, their forms translated into distant waterside landscapes. The cyanotype-like palette was chosen to record these forms as they appeared. A forthcoming series, Black Sand and Black Seaweed, further explores layered black as a continuation of this inquiry.