There is some text in this new work, but most of it is impossible to read as a coherent narrative. Letters can be discerned,
even whole words, but is Maki directing us to a literal space, or one that is pre-verbal, or non-verbal, or an indication of a
philosophical affinity? Some conceptual space that is paranormal, coming as it does just before or just after a mystical
experience: Following this line of inquiry, I came to a conclusion: For Maki, making art is a form of mysticism. There is
this aura of other-worldliness that radiates from her vision -- not in the sense of a cliched spirituality, but as a quality that is
at the roots of mysticism -- an aura of mystery, an enigma. But if Maki emphasizes the enigmatic in her art, it is her way
of connecting us to the world. While partaking a a hermetic stillness, her work does not take a vow of silence -- letters, after
all, form the basis of language and they are a means to skirt the void by way of associations, or a relational logic.
In the work Thought Form (1), small fragments of text referring to the Cabala are incorporated, fragments such as: actions
radiate to ...East and West...upright axis...the high and the... associate with time... most important one of... of space...
space... It would be easy to miss this text:it is partly whitewashed into the surface, but it is there like the dream of finding
a key to some symbolic puzzle.
I don't want to suggest, however, that Maki forsakes visual pleasure in favor of rarified speculations about philosophical issues.
Her sculptural paintings are not only about text, but texture and color, too, and they focus on contrasts of light and shadow, on
light and shadow, on form, line, and the interplay of two and three dimensions. And there is the dimension of time. Maki's
work is an invitation to go to the edge of the ordinary and think about the coordinates where art, language, poetry, and all
symbolic expression come into being and dodge to and fro among the resulting images, word games, palindromes, invocations,
and all those enigma variations.
DIANE ARMITAGE
THE magazine July 2007
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