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Colosseo, 2006
Hemp, ink,Acrylic Paint, Paper
H540×W790 mm (frame size) |
Greetings from YAMAMOTO GENDAI
We are happy to begin a new series of shows called “YAMAMOTO GENDAI
Future Feature”, in which we will be taking steps out of the rigid
frame-work of only showing already established artists, and instead
follow our intuition by showing works by artists that we feel have
good things going on and which we would like to help grow. Compared
to our usual shows, these will be shown for a slightly shorter period
of three weeks and will happen a couple of times, interspersed throughout
the year.
The first of this series will be a solo-show by artist Ootake Tsukasa
titled “CREAM”.
Ootake lives and works in Nagoya and is know mostly for his two
dimensional works. He was initially schooled in a certain ‘Nihon-Ga’
(Japanese painting) technique, which orthodoxy insisted on the use
of natural pigments and the depiction of such “timeless” motifs
as vegetation. But after graduating school, he felt an unease between
the anachronistic practice that he had devoted himself to and his
contemporary surroundings, and so altered his subject matter to
something that he felt was more pertinent and real to him. Another
qualm that he faced was with the medium of natural pigments, of
which expensive, and time consuming qualities where seen as virtues
meant to elevate the feeling of completing a work to a sacrosanct
level. He felt these qualities as hindrances to his own work and
swapped most of his traditional palette with acrylics. Soon after,
he began employing the stylistic trope of the bold lined ‘manga’
which he used to depict spooks and other fantastical characters;
amalgamations of his imagination and appropriations from such sources
as traditional Edo
folklore. Honing these skills he probed the history and ongoing
fascination that Japan has with the strange intermediary zone in
which human and animal character traits are murkily indistinguishable.
In
2003 he begun creating paper-cut-out works, which medium he had
not touched since his first year in college, but on his second encounter,
pushed to new brinks of detail. During this period of rediscovery,
he felt that 90% percent of the work that went into painting was
only a dutiful addition of visual information to achieve an initial
creative impulse, whereas the process of paper-cut-outs was much
more engaging because of its subtractive process that required the
creator’s imagination and action to coalesce in realtime creation.
He does not use a single blade, but instead uses scissors, which
allows him to potentially create work anywhere. Before cutting he
only folds the paper once, for perfect mirror symmetry. The completed
paper-cut-out images exude a daunting power and absolutism, and
also provokes a feeling of unease from encountering something alien,
as nothing of the natural world is perfectly symmetrical .
YAMAMOTO GENDAI,Tokyo
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Drooping cream in the shape of
a donut spins round and round.
When the rotation occasionally slows, globs of cream pitter patter
down.
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Various meanings can be pinned onto what I make, but this dripping
cream is the closest likeness.
Just as donuts lack a core or nucleus, so my current life also lacks
these things.
Working with a clear goal or purpose and expecting deep mutual understanding
when interacting with people are gradually dissipating from my life.
Although I am spinning around a non existant nucleus, there are
small moments that do latch onto my heart.
These moments have a quality of ease that I try to put into my work.
OHTAKE Tsukasa |
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