Born 1973 in Saitama, Japan and now based in Kyoto, Tanaka's credentials include numerous series of abstract work in photography that questions anew the idea of color, configuration, and vision. His method of expression pursues deep into the boundary between abstract and concrete using photography and is a unique approach to the string of context found in abstract paintings represented by Piet Mondrian, Clyfford Still and so on.

Along with his personal work, Tanaka has been gaining exposure by curating artist-led projects such as Her Name is Abstra (Daido soko, Kyoto 2012) and NEW INTIMACIES (Hotel Anteroom Gallery 9.5, Kyoto 2014).

In his third solo show at Maki Fine Arts, Tanaka returns after two years to showcase his new work using flowers as motifs. For pLastics_fLowers, the artist will attempt to present the flower, a universal object in art history, as an abstract subject through a process of tracing the outline of the flower and then integrating it into a photograph.

pLastic_fLowers

In my new piece "pLastic_fLowers", I strived to create a picture where viewers can recognize the captured and depicted, while also creating an abstract state. A flower can be recognized instantly by anyone, and (most likely) the majority of people have taken a photo of a flower before. Throughout the years, various flowers have adorned paintings and photographs in art. The question, then, is, is it even possible to make flowers abstract without breaking down its image? 

"pLastic_fLowers" was created using a very simple process. First, a plastic sheet was positioned between the camera and the flower which was placed atop a desk. I quickly drew the flower's outline by looking at it from various angles, and then shot the photo of both the flower and the plastic sheet. The photos were all hand-developed in a darkroom. 

By presenting the outlines of the flowers, in sharp focus, and the actual flowers, slightly out of focus, together in the same photograph, it forces the viewer's vision to travel back and forth over the offset that exists between the two layers. And when that offset eventually turns into cohesion (or collapse), that is when "pLastic_fLowers" becomes a new picture that is both plastic and abstract.

--Kazuhiko Tanaka