東京画廊＋BTAP TOKYO GALLERY + BEIJING TOKYO ART PROJECTS

オープニング・トーク　
2012年1月21日（土）｜15:00-16:00
「つくるもの、つくること」
瀧本光國×林武史（石彫家、東京藝術大学美術学部彫刻科准教授）

オープニング・レセプション
2012年1月21日（土）｜16:00-
東京画廊＋BTAPにて

このたび東京画廊＋ＢＴＡＰは、木彫家・瀧本光國の個展「彫るもの、彫ること」を開催いたします。
当画廊では２回目となる個展では、作家が1990年代後半から制作を続けている＜水＞や＜雲＞などの不定な形の木彫シリーズから、最新の作品を展示いたします。

現代アートという言葉が流布している昨今、瀧本の肩書の「木彫家」という言葉はどこか懐かしい響きさえ感じさせます。現代アートの表現といえばコンセプトが優先しがちですが、木彫には素材や技術が最も重要な要素となります。木という素材と、彫るという作家の身体が習得した技術によって、彫られた形が現れ、見る者にはその全体が伝えられます。この一連の過程を体感することに懐かしさを覚えるのはなぜでしょうか。
瀧本は、2002年の個展の際にこう述べています。
「『瀧』の作品といって、水を木彫で彫ってもリアリティーがない。瀧をつくることは瀧の形から離れることであり、取り巻く周辺の空気みたいなものをつくること、逆にそれに近づくことではないかと。制作のプロセスでも、空の部分をつくることが最初であって、したがって何も無いところから形をつくっていくということから始まっていくというか・・・」
すべての造形は、＜つくること＞の結果として何らかの＜形＞に行きつきます。
しかし、多くのもの見、それらをただ見過ごしてしまうことで、「形」とは「つくること」から始まっているのだということをつい忘れてしまいがちです。
つまり、現代の情報化社会は、美術にかかわらず世界中のありとあらゆる新旧の表現を一目瞭然のものとして目にし、接することができます。しかし、それは表現が＜形をつくること＞という行為や過程によって導かれているということに、もはや立ちもどれなくなってしまっているかのようでもあります。瀧本が＜不定の形＞を彫ろうとする理由はそこにあるのかもしれません。瀧本がこだわる木彫の表現形式は、我が國の歴史のなかで神や仏につながる依り代でした。日本の風土（自然と歴史）に培われた素材とつくる人との関係は切っても切れないものでした。
何のために彫る（つくる）のか、彫る（つくる）こととは何なのか？　何を素材にし、どのような道具と技術で形を生みだすのか？
表現のバリエーションは増えても、「つくること」の過程が軽視され、作品の質感そのものが失われつつある今こそ、作品という＜形＞が包含する聖的な質感をいかに回復するか、その答えを見出そうとすることこそ、現代の私たちに残されている可能性なのかもしれません。

Opening Talk
January 21 (Sat) 15:00-16:00
“What is to create, what is to be created”
Mitsukuni Takimoto×Takeshi Hayashi (Stone sculptor, Associate Professor, Department of Sculpture, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts)

Opening Reception
January 21 (Sat) 16:00-
Venue: Tokyo Gallery＋BTAP (Tokyo)

Tokyo Gallery + BTAP is pleased to present an exhibition by the wood sculptor Mitsukuni Takimoto entitled “What is to carve, what is to be carved”. This is Takimoto’s second solo show with the gallery, showcasing a selection of pieces that include sculptures from his Water and Cloud series, which he has been working on since the late 1990s, as well as a number of his most recent works.
At a time when the term “contemporary art” has become commonplace, the name of Takimoto’s occupation – wood sculptor – seems to have a somewhat nostalgic ring to it. Although contemporary art tends to emphasize the concept behind the work, wood sculpture privileges material and technique above all else. Techniques that the body of the artist has acquired and absorbed sculpt the wood, bestowing form on it. Out of this, a shape emerges, conveying the entirety of this process to the viewer. Why, then, do we feel a certain nostalgia when we experience this sequence of events?

During a previous solo exhibition held in 2002, Takimoto said of his work:
This work called “Waterfall”, in which I attempt to depict water by carving a block of wood, has absolutely no reality to it. The act of creating a waterfall consists in straying from its actual form. When I make a “waterfall”, what I am really doing is recreating the atmosphere that surrounds it – or at least trying to do so. It’s the same with how I go about making my sculptures. The first step is to create the part that represents the sky. In a certain sense, once that first component is in place, I can start by creating a form out of nothingness...
All art finally attains some form or other as the result of a creative act. Surrounded by countless things that we simply overlook or pass over, however, we tend to forget that the form of an object derives from an act of creation.

To put it another way, our modern information-oriented society allows us to come into contact with an entire panoply of cultural idioms and expressions, whether in the realm of fine art or otherwise: both old and new, from every single culture that has ever existed all over the world, in a form that is instantly obvious and readily comprehensible. This state of affairs, however, also means that we can no longer return to a time when artistic creation was guided by the act and process of form-making. The medium that Takimoto has chosen to devote his artistic career to has long been associated with divine spirits, deities and Buddhist iconography in the context of Japanese history. In Japan, the materials that have been cultivated and nurtured by the country’s natural, vernacular environment and history have always been inseparably tied to the artists and craftsmen who draw on these materials for their work.

What does it mean to sculpt, to create something out of nothing? What materials should the sculptor use? Which tools and techniques should he turn to in order to impart a shape and form to his creations?
As varieties of artistic expression continue to multiply, the processes related to the act of actually making something are neglected, yielding works that have lost their “feel” and sense of texture. This, then, is perhaps what remains to be done in our age – to discover how we can recover a certain sacred or divine texture that used to be embodied by the shape and form of an artwork.