Michiko Van de Velde

Underneath the trees, the sky

16.03 > EXTENDED UNTIL SATURDAY 03.05.25

Rivoli Brussels is closed on Thursday 01.05.2025

For her second solo exhibition at the Michèle Schoonjans Gallery, Belgian-Japanese artist Michiko Van de Velde continues her research into light and shadow, presenting a group of works with the evocative title ‘Underneath the trees the sky’.

When observing sunlight, particularly that passing between the foliage of a tree, there is a phenomenon in Japanese called komorebi 木漏れ日. I wondered why the shadows cast by the trees don't quite match the shape of the tree in question.

Under the trees is a veritable observatory from which you can contemplate the image of the sky upside down. The komorebis are not just spots of light; their round or oval shapes are images of the sun. When light passes through a small hole (as in a camera obscura), it projects its inverted image onto a flat surface. The komorebis are therefore visible through the holes formed by the foliage of the trees, but also thanks to the clear sky and the half-light under the canopy. (1) This makes it possible to look at the sun without burning your eyes.

Each komorebi is unique and ephemeral, just like the changing colours of the sky, which remind us that the earth is spinning. These apparitions are omnipresent, discreet and silent. They offer themselves to those who notice them.

How can we bear witness to these visual experiences?

There's an urgency and a need to observe these fleeting scenes, especially when photography fails to capture what you've just experienced.Through my observations of the sun in Belgium and Japan, I try to relearn how to observe its shape, its colour, its ever-changing movements. I pay particular attention to the emotions and sensations that these encounters give me.Through drawing, painting, engraving and video, I try to make them exist a little longer than their brief appearances.Under the trees, I can draw a miniature version of the sun at my feet (even though the sun is 110 times bigger than the Earth).I can ‘touch’ it by playing with my shadow and the round shapes of the komorebis, which interlock as they touch. I can also ‘touch’ it with a brush, drypoint or pencil to try and understand the transition between what we call ‘shadow’ and ‘light’ in pictorial terms.

Unlike images that are consumed quickly, these works are revealed slowly, at their own pace. They are the result of a plurality of juxtaposed times: the slowness of the vegetation, the speed of the earth's rotation, the time it takes to observe, the traces kept of a fleeting scene, the process of reconstituting an image, as well as the new elements that invite themselves to imagine another landscape.(2)

Many light phenomena still require empirical, direct observation with the naked eye: for example, sunspot monitoring still uses hand-drawing as a method of observing the sun, to ensure continuity with the readings taken 400 years ago.

Painting/drawing/etching what I see gives me the impression of being in step with time: trying to find the right colour for a sunset with my pigments, marking the ephemeral appearance of a komorebi in a metal plate, waiting for the sun to arrive on my wall so that I can film it at the right moment, etc.

I'd like to pay tribute to the trees that form this link between the earth and the sky: they put down roots so that they can rise towards the sky. Each leaf welcomes the light on its surface, each root draws water to enable the magic of photosynthesis and life (3).

Under the trees, the sky, suns, eclipses, clouds, sunrises, sunsets, weather, space, the speed of the earth's rotation, time, spring (4).

Michiko Van de Velde

Additional notes

(1) If part of the sun is hidden by an obstacle, such as the moon, the komorebis will no longer be round, but crescent-shaped, like a partial solar eclipse.

If part of the sun is obscured by a horizon, semi-circles appear. If part of the sun is obscured by a cloud, ...

(2) ‘Before being a conscious spectacle, every landscape is a dream experience... But the dream landscape is not a frame that fills with impressions, it is matter that teems’. Gaston Bachelard in L'eau et les rêves, essai sur l'imagination de la matière.

(3) ‘The quest for light is their only purpose’ (their = trees)

Jacques Tassin (Biologist at the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD)), in ‘Je crois aux arbres’, published by Odile Jacob, 2021.

(4) Spring under the trees

The sun is not only found under trees, but also under the Earth: when the first scribes of Ancient China invented the word ‘spring 春’, they composed the writing by incorporating the word ‘sun 日’ under the roots. This is the time of year when daytime energy awakens the roots hidden underground.

‘Of course, by staying under trees for so long, I'm now soaked’.

Jacques Tassin (Biologist at the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD)), in ‘Je crois aux arbres’, published by Odile Jacob, 2021.

(ko) 木  Tree

(mo) 漏  Leaking, sinking

(re) れ

(bi) 日  Day, sun

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