Rei Naito’s work is characterised by a sensitivity to the preciousness of the small object and an extreme attention to detail and finish. Her minute, fastidiously executed sculptures and drawings are often housed within sympathetic spaces that the artist creates within existing gallery architectures, using muslin and fine silk webbing. However, such is the compression of texture and association in Naito’s objects, they imply evocative architectures of their own.

Her series of drawings titled ‘Namenlos’ commenced in 1989, while she began the ‘namenlos/Licht’ series in 1993. The first works were rendered in coloured pencil and oil pastel and were made on white typewriter paper. This paper choice reflects a distinct characteristic of the artist’s work. The thinness of the paper embodies a translucence belying the toughness of a material designed for commercial use, and it is this coexistence of strength and preciousness that is the thread connecting Naito’s works.

namenlos/Licht 1998 is a drawing using red pencil pigment that has been blown and pressed into the paper. The extremely faint marks are of a circle, a circle that outlines a void. The collective title of ‘namenlos’ means ‘no name’. It implies a solitude that is not defined by naming, or the abstract notion of ‘nothingness’. The title also includes the word ‘licht’, meaning ‘light’. Light illuminates, emanates, encompasses, glows. In this work, ‘namenlos’ and ‘licht’ — ‘nothingness’ and ‘light’ — are combined as abstracted entities made visible. The just discernible red rim circles the void, a void glowing with white light.

pillow for the dead 1998 is an extension of Being Called, a project Naito produced in 1997 in response to the murals at the Frankfurt Carmelite Monastery. Created by Jörg Ratgeb between 1474 and 1496, they depict the history of the Carmelite Order, including its persecution and migration throughout Europe. At the base of the murals, Naito placed 304 tiny sculpted pillows made from silk organza. Each of the works was made for each individual portrayed in the murals. These exquisite pillows draw attention to the fate of the fleeing Carmelites, the saints, the martyrs and the victims, as well as those responsible for their persecution. Illuminated from beneath, they are intended to convey the fragility of existence.

Created immediately after this project, pillow for the dead recalls the concepts at work in Being Called. In contrast to the 304 individual pillows made at the Carmelite Monastery, this object is intended for a collective of nameless souls. This single sculpture of a delicate luminous pillow, displayed on its own pedestal, was made for a countless number of individuals who have no-one to commemorate their deaths. The works in the monastery set up a dialogue with the murals, however, the single element of pillow for the dead depends instead on the absence of figures. The work extends and abstracts the notion of the commemoration in its solitary nature. Here, Rei Naito creates a glowing pillow splendidly cradled inside a pedestal to formulate a distilled and focused metaphor for the contemplation of existence.

Adapted from an acquisition essay by Suhanya Raffel, then Assistant Curator, Contemporary Asian Art, QAG, November 1999.