Sensory Threshold and Scale

In The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu was acutely attentive to moments of threshold—doorways, transitions between spaces, points where perception or understanding shifted. Scale in sculpture functions as such a threshold. A small form asks for intimacy and close attention; a monumental form commands the entire body's engagement and alters spatial perception. The most powerful threshold occurs at life scale or slightly beyond—where the viewer becomes uncertain whether they are larger or smaller, familiar or strange. By calibrating sculpture to positions just beyond comfortable perception, artists can disorient and reorient viewers, creating psychological and sensory states that parallel Shikibu's emotional thresholds. A form that hovers between organic and geometric, between recognizable and abstract, can position the viewer in productive uncertainty. This technique draws on Shikibu's mastery of ambiguity—the unsettling, beautiful moments where meaning remains suspended between interpretation, creating space for deeper feeling and understanding.