Painting Waves of Particles: Takako Azami

A dazzling afterimage left after looking into sunlight through the branches of a tree at high noon.

A memory of luminescence spreading out in both eyes after unexpectedly emerging from a dark abyss.

This is the impression made by the recent paintings of Azami Takako. Looking at them disturbs one’s vision. There are spots of ink, single brush marks. And there are white, empty spaces, semitransparent lines and spots made with glue. The spots overlap and form criss-crossing. Spreading like splash marks, they are scattered over the surface in complex layers. Brushstrokes placed on the back of the hemp paper, both black and white, cross between the light and its opposite, reversing themselves. Light and afterimages of light create endless vibrations at “Inframince” moving back and forth between front and back.

These marks come together into one pine tree. The rhythm of the brush extends itself rationally in the pictorial space, governed by the dynamics of the branches. While looking at the picture and following its movements with the eyes, one feels a bodily sensation of being among trees in sunlight and in the flow of time. I believe that what the artist is painting here are waves of life force arising between the person who sees and the tree being seen.

The structure of the painting is based on radical principles: not taking definite form, not ceasing to move, and not being contained in the confines of the pictorial space. Between the planar expansion and the “Inframince” vibrations, the artist lays down brushstrokes that are one of a kind and can never be changed once they are made.

The spots in Azami’s paintings are as far removed as one can imagine from the pixels in digital camera images or computer output. Just the same, these paintings do not truly come into being until they enter the viewer’s range of vision.

I do not like to think of these paintings as a new development of traditional ink painting. I look at them as paintings that belong to the age of digital images, and that is why I have recommended Azami for this exhibition.