Takumi Kato, CGLAS Artist in Residence 2018, has recently published a reflection of his residency, in association with Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo. Following a period of research and exploration during which he attended conservation workshops, visited the lab at Winsor & Newton, and further studied Cennino Cennini’s treatise on the medieval painter’s materials and techniques, Takumi produced a series of paintings based on the intention to un-tie and re-tie the disparate elements of a painting – material and immaterial.
“This series of paintings is generated from the experiment to untie painting binds, and ‘rebinding’ my own behaviours with properties of materials. I place this painting experiment as one of the abstract forms of metaphor which prompt me to look back our contemporary lives. “
To Paint #5
Wood panel, chalk, pigment, aldehyde resin,
acrylic resin, casein
To Rub #03
Wood panel, linen, rabbit skin glue, chalk,
pigment , aldehyde resin
Tamiko O’Brien on Takumi’s time at the Art School: “During his residency Takumi met and interviewed paint technologists, attended pigment analysis lectures and workshops, visited 300 AD frescoes in Rome and studied master paintings at the National Gallery: looking deeply in to the roots of painting while working directly with pigments and grounds in his own practice. Employing ancient techniques and materials to produce works that play with softness, and brittleness, lightness and absorption, Takumi developed a visual language where colours hover in a curiously disconcerting way, with gem like pinging natural-neons appearing and dissolving in to the softness of gesso.”
With parallel text in Japanese and English, the publication details the 2018 residency from Takumi’s arrival, through the development of his research and studio practice, to the exhibition of the resulting works as part of the Art School’s MA degree show.
“My intention was to approach the integrated knowledge in now two separate industries, manufacturers where the art materials are made and conservation and creative industries where the art materials are analysed, as a creator, and reconnect these industries with the creators.”
You can read more about Takumi and the residency in the full publication, available here.
