[Gallery Visit No. 144] The front and back are not one, but three-dimensional — On the 'Yasuko Tachi Exhibition' —
The front and back are not one, but three-dimensional
— On the Gallery Face to Face 'Yasuko Tachi Exhibition' —
Toshihiko Akama
In classical sculpture, represented in Japan by Buddhist statues, paper—specifically washi—is often used for repair and restoration. Despite its thinness, it is incredibly strong, binding objects together and preventing cracks from spreading. Paper holds bottomless potential.
Yasuko Tachi is a printmaker. She uses Western paper as a support, creating prints via silkscreen or lithography. Furthermore, she combines this with the application of poppy oil, which dissolves oil paints, to finish her works with a unique texture. The oil changes over time, taking on a distinct color. Therefore, the works only reach completion after about a decade. The interaction between poppy oil, printmaking, and time opens doors to a world beyond expectation.
Paper and cloth serve as curtains, shoji screens, and fusuma sliding doors, separating the inside from the outside. Yet, they allow many things to pass through. Both paper and cloth are merely frameworks of fibers, structures full of gaps. And the ink and oil of a print are also objects with spaces between their particles. Through the operations of creation, they are combined and reborn into new forms. And perhaps, by growing over time, they leave the nest of their parent, the artist, and come to exist independently.
In Tachi's work, the image on the back is just as much a part of the piece as the image on the front. There is no front or back; it is designed to be viewed from both sides.
If there is a front to things, there is a back. The back is what supports the appearance of the front, but it is also the folds of the heart that cannot be shown on the front. Yet, even if one tries to hide it, it reveals itself. Even if adults pretend to be clever, they are full of gaps, and children are watching the hidden faces that are revealed when they let their guard down.
Being conscious of the front and back simultaneously is to see a flat surface as a three-dimensional object, and perhaps that refreshing quality is exactly what Tachi is expressing.
