Disinterested Contemplation – To Takashi Suzuki
2009
Kunio Motoe A work of art cloud be described as beauty condensed and made solid, or perhaps in terms of the veneer of a collection of baubles, and if it is described in flowing poetry, that would perhaps make for a splendid review. It is not that writing about beauty in this way (as if one were describing a plump sheep, as beauty can be described in a Chinese traditional way) is a poor fit here. However, in terms of aesthetics, a branch of philosophy that entered the world stage in Germany in the mid 18th century, ‘beauty’, can be summed up as an ‘inundation of the truly perceived’ – in short nothing more and nothing less than purity. Standing in front of Takashi Suzuki’s series entitled Text, which consists primarily of geometrically square, scarlet red paintings, I am frequently reminded of a gem, a ruby for example: a pure, crystalline object that is not something that is not something that one thinks of as having an open-ended existence. However, this talk does not end entirely minimalist. In this red the viewer naturally sees fresh blood, although this is essentially an unconscious reaction. Red, the color of blood, is to people the color of life and death; an extremely compelling and urgent color. It is the dominant color in paintings from tens of thousands of years ago found in caves scattered over the southwestern portion of France and Northern Spain in places such as Chauvet and Lascaux. Fundamentally and formally, the visibly implied relation and connections surely imply certain quintessentially guarded or secretive human aspects-and especially in regards to Suzuki’s work, I don’t think this is an errant reaction. With regards to the series title, the impression is that without humanity, “text” itself is unimaginable. And the works themselves are titled with serial number, such as “Text No. 483”. To fix one’s eyes upon these hung on the wall, I can almost imagine these ‘text’ to be human. A vivid red “person No.283” is a fairly unsetting suggestion. Aside from Suzuki, numerous other artists who also employ a particular hue and geometric shape of red spring to mind. In particular, “Red Square” (on a white ground) by Kasmir Malevich (although to illuminate this own thinking, according to recent study, strictly and truly square might be impossible); the blend of pigment, Eve Klein’s deep crimson example is deserving of special mention. However, if talking about the red surface per se, one of the 20th