この度SAIでは、2月23日（木）から3月12日（日）まで沖縄出身アーティスト多和田真人による東京初個展「SPACE OUT」を開催いたします。
 
美しく、崇高でどこか幻覚的でもある抽象画を描き続けるアーティスト多和田真人（たわたまさと）。1990年頃に創作活動を開始、以来 25年間一度も沖縄を離れることなく制作を続けてきました。東京はもちろん県外初となる本個展では、昨年から今年にかけて制作された新作の他、多和田が10年以上前に制作し自宅の倉庫で保管されていた作品で構成されます。
 
本展の中で多くを占める「額縁に収まった絵画」は、描く事へのスランプがきっかけとなり制作が始まりました。多和田は、20代の頃に訪れたニューヨークでポロック、ロスコをはじめとした抽象表現主義との出会いから感銘を受け、抽象絵画を描きはじめますが、当初は自分自身で納得のいく作品が出来ず、その挫折から一度は筆をおきます。その後、再び描こうと試みるも今度は何を描いてさえ もわからず、キャンヴァス前で悶々とした日々を送ります。そこで多和田は、元来立体作品を制作していたという経緯から、現実逃避をするように、まだ見ぬ絵画を収めるための額縁を制作しようと取り組みはじめます。そうして完成した額縁に真っ白なキャンヴァスをはめ込み、改めて描こうと目の前に立つと、不思議と良く描けるようになったと語ります。
 
1967年、沖縄で生まれた多和田の脳裏には、日本に返還される前の情景、そして70 年代 80 年代と急速に移り変わりゆく返還後の沖縄の光景が鮮烈に、そして幻想的に焼き付いています。そのような環境で過ごした多和田の思考の根底には、全ての事物は一つではなく、時間や空間、事象が変われば対象も変わる。という考えがあります。
 
「少年時代、不潔の象徴くらいに思っていた『ハエ』が、ある日、たまたま眺めていた子供向けの教育番組の中で電子顕微鏡で拡大されて映し出された映像を見て、電子顕微鏡特有の青さ、その姿が あまりにも美しく興奮し、バックミンスターフラーを思わせる複眼、色彩の美しさには『ハエ』の 印象が 180°変わりました。以来『ハエ』は、僕にとって物の見方のイコン的な存在です。」
 
画家にとって絵を描くという行為は、描いているのか、それとも描かされているのか、この両方の視点から考えることができるのではないでしょうか。人の目では認識できないこと、言葉にできない事、人間が主体の考え方では到底説明のつかないことがこの世の中には幾多もあります。多和田にとっての制作とはそういった事実を確かめる手段であり、自己にある未知を見つけ出していく行為なのです。
 
自分が真に心地よいと感じる瞬間、筆からパレットナイフに持ち替えたときに動く心情、額を作る退屈な行為、 そしてその額がどのように絵画に作用していくのかなど、そういった一つ一つの心情に耳を傾けながら生み出された作品は、それぞれが個性を持ち作家自身を超えた存在として昇華されていきます。
 
「何でもいいから造りたい。何かを作っていると楽しい。何かを作りたいとある日ふと思って、出来 のイイ悪いではなく、何かを造り始めると生きているという実感が持てるからです。自分の為に作っていると思います。」
 
沖縄で一人黙々と制作を続けてきた多和田真人。彼の作品を東京・渋谷という場所で展示することで新にどのような変化が起きるのか、どうぞご高覧ください。
 
 
抽象絵画と空間。抽象絵画は、単に絵画というだけでなく、その空間に存在する “状況” ではないか と思います。ご承知のとうり、どの空間にも個性があります。東京で初めて個展を開催するという事は、作者自身にとって今生活している環境 とは全く違う “東京の空間” と沖縄で製作された “作品” との「経験した事のない 未知の融合」であると思います。未経験の変化、まだ見ぬ可能性が、SAI の空間に新たに生まれると期待しています。
 
ー 多和田 真人
 
 
戦後開発と公共工事によって沖縄の至るところに塗りたくられたアスファルト。その上で、 深夜のほとんど同じ時刻の同じ酒場に、どこからともなくゆらゆらと立ち現れてくる影。その輪郭や濃度から、光源は不思議と、しかし確かに、人工的に施され、いくつも増幅させられる街灯のものではなく、自然が生み出すたったひとつの、澄明なものであることが感じられる。漂う軽やかさと濃密な重さを併せ持っているその影は、その人物像、その口から発せられる言葉、作品、全てにズレがなく重なっている。地方では本来のアカデミックなアートは成立しないといわれるなかで、そういう沖縄に限って、作品の力を差し置いた政治的プレゼンスが優先され、それに則したヒエラルキーが根強くある。そして、社会的状況が切実であるほどに、その頂点は不変性よりも即時的なものとなってしまう。そこに意味を見出したものは、そうではないものを端に追いやり、そこから外れたものはアウトサイダーとなるだろうが、多和田は高度な知性と精神力を持ち、確信的な意思で、その淵ギリギリのところで戯れるように耐え続けている。年齢から見えてくる時代背景や、ライフスタイルから読み取ることができる沖縄のストリート、アンダーグラウンドカルチャーのど真ん中、MAD最前線。掴み所なく、ひょうひょうとした表情の多和田を取り巻いてきた環境が、キャンバスからはみ出た油絵の具のように、外の地の影響を受けながらも、そのあらゆる文化には収まりきれない、アスファルトのように重く混沌としたものであることは想像しにくくない。社会の淵、政治的墓石、その上に立ち 現れる影として、それらを超越する人間の知的感性を多和田の作品から感じるのだ。
 
ー 写真家・石川竜一

SAI is pleased to present ‘SPACE OUT,’ a solo exhibition by the Okinawan artist, Masato Tawata. The exhibition will be Tawata’s first solo exhibition in Tokyo and will be taking place from Thursday 23rd February to Sunday March 12th 2023.
 
Masato Tawata is an artist who has been creating beautiful and somewhat hallucinatory abstract paintings for the past 25 years. He began his creative activities around the year 1990, and has continued his practice to the present day, without leaving his native Okinawa. This exhibition marks his first solo show in Tokyo, as well as his first outside of Okinawa, with over half the works on display created by Tawata over 10 years ago, lying dormant in a warehouse at his home, waiting to be rediscovered, whilst the remainder were painted specially for the exhibition between this year and last.
 
Many of the works on display are from Tawata’s series of ‘framed paintings’, which began as a result of an artistic slump he endured in the creation of his abstract paintings. He began painting abstract works after visiting New York in his early 20’s, where he encountered the abstract expressionist works of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, which left a lasting impression on his style. At first, Tawata found himself to be disappointed by his inability to produce any works that satisfied his artistic vision and put down his paintbrush for an extended length of time, losing his confidence. Forcing himself to pick up his paintbrush again, he would spend days in agony in front of the canvas not knowing how to go about painting. Therefore Tawata began framing his canvases by hand, making use of his experience of creating sculptures early in his career, as an escape from this reality. By placing a pure white canvas inside a finished frame, he mysteriously found that he was able to paint and was able to create a better frame of mind.
 
Tawata was born in Okinawa in 1967, a time when the island was still under U.S. occupation.
The landscape of Okinawa before it was returned to Japan and the momentous changes that took place in the 1970's and 1980’s made a great impact on Tawata, the memories of which were vividly and fantastically imprinted on his mind. Having grown up within this unique environment, Tawata's thinking is deeply rooted in the idea that there are always multiple forms and ways of seeing.
 
‘When I was younger, I thought of flies as dirty symbols of filth. One day, however, I happened to be watching a children's educational programme and saw an image of a fly magnified by an electron microscope. The blue colour of its appearance was so beautiful and exciting and its compound eyes reminded me of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, and the beauty of the various colours shifted my attitude towards flies 180 degrees. Since then, the ‘fly’ has become a personal icon of sorts, a symbol of my way of looking at things.’
 
For the artist, the act of painting can be considered from both perspectives: do you paint or are you forced to paint? There are many things in this world that cannot be recognised by the human eye, things that cannot be put into words, and things that cannot be explained by a human-driven perspective.
For Tawata, creating is an act of confirming these things; of discovering a new self through creation, and of finding new emotions and a balance that he feels truly comfortable with, as well as the emotions that fluctuate when switching from a brush to a knife, and how the frames that were made in advance affect the paintings he is about to create. The works created in this way each has their own individuality, and for Tawata, it is sublimated as an existence that surpasses himself.
 
“I want to make whatever I can. I enjoy making things. When you suddenly think one day that you want to build something, and you start building something, regardless of whether it's good or bad, it's because I can feel that I am alive. I think I am making something for myself.”
 
Tawata Masato has been quietly working on his practice in solitude in Okinawa. By showing his works outside of this context, in a place like Shibuya, we look forward to witnessing the new changes and shifts in perception of his work.
 
 
Abstract painting and space. Abstract paintings are not only paintings but also "situations" that exist in space. As you know, every space has its own character. I believe that holding a solo exhibition in Tokyo for the first time is a "fusion of the unknown" between the "space of Tokyo", which is completely different from the environment in which the artist himself lives now, and the "work" created in Okinawa. I expect that SAI’s space will provide new and never before experienced changes that will allow unseen possibilities to be born.
 
- Masato Tawata
 
 
“Asphalt was smeared across Okinawa as a result of post-war development and public works. Moreover, in the same bar at almost the same time of the night, shadows appeared shimmering out of nowhere. From its contours and density, one sense that the light source is strangely but certainly not that of a street lamp, artificially applied and amplified in several ways, but that it is a single, clear thing produced by nature. Its shadow, which has both a drifting lightness and a dense heaviness, overlaps the figure, the words from its mouth and the work, all without any discrepancies. While it is said that true academic art does not exist in rural areas, it is only in Okinawa that priority is given to political presence that puts aside the power of the work, conforming to a deeply rooted hierarchy. And the more acute the social situation, the more immediate and less immutable its culmination becomes. Those who find meaning in it will drive those who do not to the edge, and those who stray from it will become outsiders, but Tawata has a high degree of intelligence and mental strength and continues to endure playfully on the edge of that edge with a confident will. From his age, we can gather his historical background, from his position at the centre of Okinawa’s street and underground culture we get a sense of his lifestyle on the frontline of madness. Tawata, whose expression is elusive and hazy is surrounded by a chaotic environment heavy in asphalt, and like the oil paint protruding from his canvas, his work is influenced by the outside world but unable to fit in it with all its various cultures. Through Tawata's works, we can sense the human intellectual sensibility that transcends social boundaries, political tombstones, and the shadows that appear above them.” While it is said that true academic art does not exist in rural areas, it is only in Okinawa that priority is given to political presence that puts aside the power of the work, conforming to a deeply rooted hierarchy. And the more acute the social situation, the more immediate and less immutable its culmination becomes. Those who find meaning in it will drive those who do not to the edge, and those who stray from it will become outsiders, but Tawata has a high degree of intelligence and mental strength and continues to endure playfully on the edge of that edge with a confident will. From his age, we can gather his historical background, from his position at the centre of Okinawa’s street and underground culture we get a sense of his lifestyle on the frontline of madness. Tawata, whose expression is elusive and hazy is surrounded by a chaotic environment heavy in asphalt, and like the oil paint protruding from his canvas, his work is influenced by the outside world but unable to fit in it with all its various cultures. Through Tawata's works, we can sense the human intellectual sensibility that transcends social boundaries, political tombstones, and the shadows that appear above them.”
 
- Ryuichi Ishikawa, Photographer

 
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