Catherine Cloran Unforeseen

Janet Clayton Gallery 2015

These photographs were taken in Autumn on the Japanese island of Kyushu during an artist residence in Beppu. I’m interested in the Japanese aesthetic ideal of ‘mono no aware’, which literally means ‘the pathos of things’ on account of their transience. This emotion is not always one of sadness but can also be a heightened sensitivity to the beauty of nature, the seasons, love, loss and impermanence. ‘Mono no aware’ is sometimes translated as the ‘ahh-ness’ of things and existence in general.