Ishihara's abstract paintings have been based on impressions that surge up from some unconscious realm, as well as the assumption that his own existence emerges from a multi-layered world. Inspired by the image of the Hirasaka slope that leads to the underworld, as described in the Yomi no Kuni section of the Kojiki (“The Records of Ancient Matters” – the oldest surviving book in Japan), Ishihara began making work depicting the boundaries that loosely bind this stratified world together. In the past few years, the figure of the “deer man” has also started to appear in his paintings – a pilot who manages to reach the lower depths of our contemporary cities, where countless overlapping layers of past memories become eroded and sealed off with the passing of time. The deer is a symbolic figure in many cultures: a messenger who straddles the boundary between the human and the divine (nature), life and death. Ishihara’s “deer man” serves as our envoy, burrowing deep into the crevices of our cities and showing us the world that lies hidden beneath.