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Metamorphosis
GALERIE PARIS YOKOHAMA 2014 / Mur Nomade Hong-Kong 2014-2015
Galerie Paris, YOKOHAMA
Galerie Paris, YOKOHAMA
Galerie Paris, YOKOHAMA
Introduction
The solo exhibition Metamorphosis by Japanese artist Sanae Takahata features an
installation of dress-shaped painted sculptures accompanied by paintings.
Takahata’s latest series renders into shapes and images her deeply personal and powerful
experience of the illness and loss of a close friend. About the dress-shaped sculptures of
the Metamorphosis series, Takahata says: ‘Inside them are the time she lived through and
the life of hers I saw.’
Through fluid shapes, vibrant colors and elaborate patterns, the artworks deal with the
journeys and flows between the material and spiritual realms, and between figuration and
abstraction. Great attention was paid to the display and sequence of the artworks to respect
the artist’s wish to follow her friend’s life journey. The installation and lighting aims at
surrounding visitors with a feeling of freshness and lightness, as if an ocean breeze was
circulating within the bright space.
Takahata often likens her sculptures to cast-off skins. Beyond the intimacy of the artworks
and their subject, the Metamorphosis exhibition invites visitors to reflect upon the many
possibilities and opportunities to evolve and reinvent one self.
The Metamorphosis series was presented in a solo exhibition part of the program of the
Yokohama Triennale 2014, and is showcased for the first time outside Japan.
Mur Nomade, Hong Kong
Artist Statement
"From WEAR ME to Metamorphosis"
Nature, matters, loved ones and myself constantly change. Yet I
think that painting is like a wish and an act of weaving the
eternal time into the canvas. With the theme of ‘Change and
Impermanence’, I have been pursuing the eternal time in my
work.
The series of the dress-shaped works called WEAR ME, which I
have been creating since 2001 are entirely improvisational
paintings. Each piece is a portrait of my surface consciousness
of the time and they are also the cast-off skins that I stripped off
as I kept changing in my life. Although my central core remains
there without changing, like a post standing at the center of a
house, my surface conscious keeps changing constantly as it
responds to stimulations from the outside world. I embodied that.
I titled the first twenty-four pieces WEAR ME - Armors of Unconscious, Kabuto Helmets of Conscious. The heavy armors with layers of glass
beads and the kabuto helmets with flowers and faces of beasts were necessarily born in the midst of battles against myself and society. Without creating these dress-shaped sculptures, I wouldn’t have been able to survive the process of self-transformation that lasted for seven
years. As I fought storms of horrific images that emerged from within myself, I portrayed my surface consciousness on the dresses, which
kept changing everyday like a kaleidoscope. To survive those hours that seemed never ending, I needed a dress as heavy as an armor.
Life changes as if it draws spirals. At some point, I started seeing the outside world that was not visible to me while I kept paying attention to
my inner world. Before I knew it, I was portraying my outer world ever since WEAR ME #25 Ryukyu Dance created in 2009. Even without
wearing the viewer-threatening helmets, the glass beads that can hurt whoever touches them or the internally installed heavy armors, my
dresses have transformed to be able to stand lightly.
And now Metamorphosis, the series I present in Hong Kong, showcases a huge transformation in terms of forms and subjects portrayed. They are not bodies I lived in but bodies my close friend lived in. Inside them are the time she lived through and the life of hers I saw. This is
the opening of the series that is sequel to Intimate Reflections: Birth of Self Portraits (1991-1995) a series of self-portraits exhibited in 1995.
October 2014
Sanae Takahata
Mur Nomade, Hong Kong
Foreword
The artist Sanae Takahata has been going through metamorphoses since the days of living in Paris at the age of 18. Not only does she
change through the time course but she travels back and forth between dual worlds of past and present, dreams and reality, and this life and afterlife.
For her dress-shaped series titled WEAR ME, which she has been working on since 2001, the material that covers the surfaces has beenchanged from beads to tableau, and the series has become the protean canvas to portray subjects like her state of mind and body, symbolic flowers and space that evokes ocean floors and vast universe.
Along with the dress-shaped series, she has been showcasing wearable objects in recent years. They conjure up decorative patterns of medieval architectures or female portraiture by Cranach from German Renaissance era.
After being deeply involved in the process of metamorphosis of life from a physical existence to a spiritual entity two years ago, she cast the integrated two worlds into shape by surrounding a new three-dimensional work with two-dimensional works of landscapes as well as people
that exist in the border zone between dreams and reality. This is a new Sanae’s World we see for the first time in this solo show.
August 2014
Kiyoko Sawatari
Superior Researcher, Yokohama Museum of Art
Metamorphosis - Homage to Chimera Noko
- date :
- August 26 - September 7, 2014
- at :
- Galerie Paris, Yokohama
- URL :
- http://www.galerieparis.net
Metamorphosis
- Date：
- November 29, 2014 - February 7, 2015
- At：
- Mur Nomade, Hong Kong
- URL：
- http://www.murnomade.com/EP.html
Medieval Garden ( curatorial project )
- Date：
- December 04 - 07, 2014
- At：
- A.M Space
Sculptures & Paintings
A Container of Time (front)
Acrylic and glass beads on cotton, 53 x 20 cm, 2014
A Container of Time (back)
Blue Flowers - Chinoiserie Love (front)
Acrylic on cotton, 142 x 43 cm, 2013-2014
Blue Flowers - Chinoiserie Love (back)
Bodhisattva (front)
Acrylic on cotton, 158 x 32 cm, 2014
Bodhisattva (back)
Hirado - To the piece where we can confluent (front)
Acrylic and glass beads on cotton, 108 x 41 cm, 2014
Hirado - To the piece where we can confluent (back)
Samarkand - A Frozen Moon (front)
Acrylic on cotton, 103 x 32 cm, 2013-2014
Samarkand - A Frozen Moon (back)
Spiritual Dalia - Life’s Explosion (front)
Acrylic on cotton, 153 x 43 cm, 2012
Spiritual Dalia - Life’s Explosion (baack)
Trance - Her Spirit Flows out from her Body and Fills up her Living room (front)
Acrylic on cotton, 142 x 43 cm, 2012
Trance - Her Spirit Flows out from her Body and Fills up her Living room (back)
Venice - Transformed into a Black Swallowtail Butterfly, Taking a Bath with Gathered Evening Dew (front)
Acrylic on canvas, 182 x 59 x 20 cm, 2014
Venice - Transformed into a Black Swallowtail Butterfly, Taking a Bath with Gathered Evening Dew (back)
Wisteria Maiden - Breathing in Water, Surrounded with Flowers (front)
Acrylic on cotton, 146 x 43 cm, 2012
Wisteria Maiden - Breathing in Water, Surrounded with Flowers (back)
Zero Point Field - Continuously Changing the Ocean of Bubbling Energy
Acrylic on cotton, 173 x 87 cm, 2014
WEAR ME #29 Spring (front)
Acrylic on canvas, 145 x 45 cm, 2012
WEAR ME #29 Spring (back)
Anastasia - Resurrection
Oil on canvas, 130 ｘ 97 cm, 2014
Anastasia - Resurrection
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 50.5 x 40.5 cm, 2014
We Don't Need Words
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 50.5 x 40.5 cm, 2014
Lived through the Age of Discovery
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 60.6 x 50 cm, 2014
Mingled with the Desert Nomads
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 50.5 x 40.5 cm, 2014
Mandara #1
Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2014
(from left)
Transforming Spirit #2 - Approaching Zero
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 50.5 x 40.5 cm
Traveling Ocean and Sky #2
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 50.5 x 40.5 cm
Traveling Ocean and Sky #1
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 60.5 x 50 cm
Transforming Spirit #1 - Beyond the Light
Oil on canvas, Ellipse 50.5 x 40.5 cm
2014
        
   
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