PROFILE >>
STATEMENT
Tanaka Chisato’s works are rendered on a base that being black imparts a sense of the overwhelming, in an exquisite balance of acrylics and oils from which the artist creates her own world. The charm of my work lies in the strength of images realized with clarity, uniquely concrete, and breathing the exotic, whether in its people, landscapes or buildings. My concept behind paintings is “darkness and radiance.”
“Darkness and Radiance”
Earth is shrouded by space, night is shrouded in darkness. My works are always shrouded in blackness, yet they are not just expressions of the night, but express the state of mind and the circumstances of what is painted. I weave my tales with the kinds of images you find in storybooks, of landscapes, places and other people that we all share memories with, and whom every one of us has memories of. Even if not that concretely formed, they have to be strong. What come forth in dreams are not detailed backdrops, but just the important objects. I reclaim the images, approaching those objects from memory, and draw near to them that way. I am always conscious of the presence of people in whatever landscape I am in. The white earth, the black sky, and the horizon that is the boundary between earth and sky going on and on and on. You can find light in the darkness that you wouldn’t see during the brightness of the day. Ideas and stories keep on being born while people go on to die. Darkness and light are symbols of death and life, endings and beginnings, the various backdrops against which people live their lives, and the thereon after. The past: dreams and hazy memories, flashbacks, déjà vu, flickerings. The present: a gathering of situations that transforms in a fleeting moment. The past fades away, the present is indefinite, the future unpredictable. Who knows where the definitive is? Every day is repeated and brought to an end. I rely on the feelings encountered in everyday life in my search for the things to treasure.
Covering the whole canvas in jet black acrylic creates depth of surface, which brings out against its velvety blackness the shining motifs in ever greater power. The images that radiate from the work are of a depth that would drag you in, and induce a feeling of distance that defies telling dream from reality.
Overwhelming blackness and blazing motifs reach out with intensity, making for visionary works. These are atmospheres brought to life as only painting can.
This project is an expression of my world, bringing together on a single canvas the relativity of darkness and radiance.