Ink manifests itself in many ways - swaying, resting, layering. Blurry black dots and fine delicate lines stand out against the light of white backgrounds. Ink creates outlines, or becomes branches and leaves. Trees emerge as if accorded life.

This is not the representation of a landscape, but the trace of actions. Azami makes her works from the reverse of the picture plane, moving forwards. We see the tones that have oozed out to the front. In most paintings, the last brushstrokes appear on the top, but in Azami’s work it will be the first that take that position. Once an ink mark has been made, no emendation can be made to it, nor any mistake corrected.

This unusual method enables the artist to draw first what is most impressive and visually close, and then to move back to what is afar. In this sense, the order that viewers receive the information matches her own process: Azami first looked at trees and scenery, and then represented them with her brush. Furthermore her then matches our now. This allows for an exceptional viewing experience. I doubt it is possible to control all the flows of ink made in this way, from the reverse.

Azami assembles the painting in her mind, inviting in accidental effects, and makes the whole by judging how ink tones will deposit themselves on the opposite surface. Azami’s works show things that existed there, in the past, but are now transferred and crystalised via her artistic process, to be in turn reconstructed in our experience of looking at them here.

- Toshio Kondo, Art Front Gallery