Designboom_ For his solo exhibition, artist Kazutaka Shioi introduces SHA-KO-SEKI, a series of large light-reflecting stone formations. The project, named after the word indicating ‘a stone that captures light’, is, in fact, a photographic work. While appearing as ordinary stones of various sizes, shapes, and colors, each structure is meticulously crafted by affixing ‘photographs’ onto its surface, capturing the essence of light from Munakata Taisha, a local shrine in Japan. The stones’ surfaces are colored with inkjet-printed inks, causing them to swiftly undergo changes when consistently exposed to direct sunlight.

SHA-KO-SEKI undergoes a deliberate fading process when exposed to sunlight, representing the artist‘s conceptualization of the natural cycle of life and death. The fading colors symbolize a return to the origin, echoing Eastern philosophies and Buddhist concepts of reincarnation. As individual stones gradually turn white over time, the work embodies a profound connection between the physical fading phenomenon and a philosophical interpretation rooted in oneness and the eternal cycle of existence.