Technology cultivated by each individual should not be used inpart or trivialized for compromise. Art is a series of “technology ofreturn” that is, the means by which to return from points such as“Art is a capitalist game and is meaningless” or “I’m gonna die
someday, and there’s nothing left.” The wilderness of emptiness andrelativity is never an ultimate objective, even if it is your current
destination. While it indeed could be meaningless, there is stillsomething that you want to do. That’s why you turn on your heels toreturn, instead of compromising in the wilderness and pretendingthat it is your destination.

Consider compromise as being “halfway happy.” What it
potentially harbors is the time of future. This year, αM project
presents exhibitions with five artists, who each through theirindividual approach, attempts to study and share technologies
of return for believing in the future in this day and age in which
they live and die.

αM Project 2020 — 2021

1

Halfway Happy
Vol. 5

Daisuke Takahashi
RELAXIN’24
32021.10.2 SAT — 12.18 SAT
13:00 ‒ 20:00
Closed on Sunday, Monday, Holidays.
Entrance FreeDaisuke Takahashi
Born in 1980, Saitama Prefecture. Graduated from Tokyo Zokei
Univeresity Painting Major, Department of Fine Arts.
Selected exhibitions include The Way of Painting, Tokyo
Opera City Art Gallery (Tokyo, 2014), Present-Day Paintings:
Two-Dimensional Works of Four Artists, Kawagoe City Art Museum(Saitama, 2015), NEW VISION SAITAMA 5 The Emerging Body,
The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama (Saitama, 2016), Sleeping
Painting, Viewing Space / URANO (Tokyo, 2018), Self-Portrait,
Art Center Ongoing (Tokyo, 2018), Ota Art vol. 3 “Sazaedo
2020 — Modern spiral and a hundred paintings,” Art Museum &Library, Ota (Gunma, 2020), Blue paintings / Why does the scenerychange as I walk, Second 2. (Tokyo, 2021)

Guest Curator

Arata Hasegawa

Cooperation:

ANOMALY

5761 Untitled (pineapple / Let there be light!)

2021 | canvas, acrylic, oil | 1610×1305 mm
2 Steam Train

82021 | canvas, acrylic, oil | 975×1305 mm
3 Drawing2020‒2021 | paper, colored pencil, pencil, water-based marker, ballpoint pen, oil
4 Drawing

2021 | paper, water-based marker | 323×442mm (each, 5 works)

91165 Toy (giraffe)

2021 | canvas, acrylic, oil, oil bar | 1945×1620 mm

106 Building Around the Corner2021 | paper clay, acrylic
7 Despair (then I put a pineapple on my head)

2021 | board, acrylic, oil | 460×385 mm
8 Train Cards [tentative]

entrance2021‒ | colored paper, laminated film
9 Untitled / One Yen Coin

2020‒2021 | board, oil | 235×283 mm
10 Untitled / One Yen Coin

13122020‒2021 | board, oil | 1620×970 mm
11 Untitled / One Yen Coin

2021 | board, oil | 510×650 mm
12 Toy (tiger)

2021 | board, oil, oil bar | 1940×3030 mm
13 PW6/PB29

2020 | board, canvas, oil | 580×815 mm
14 Untitled (drawing)2018 | cardboard, gesso, oil bar | 795×1100 mm
15 Despair (then I put a pineapple on my head)

142021 | board, acrylic, oil | 880×607 mm
16 PW46/PB28/PY42.151.154.40/PG7

62020 | board, oil | 465×385 mm
17 Untitled (B・UP・G)

2013‒2014 | board, oil | 140×200 mm

171516

I thought to myself, paintings are in motion.

12Ed. HOLBEIN WORKS,Ltd. Technical Division, The Science of Paints[Revised Edition], Chuoukouron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2018, p. 180.
NEW VISION SAITAMA 5 The Emerging Body, The Museum of Modern Art,
Saitama, 2016. Excerpt from text featured between pp. 56–57.

RELAXIN’

The fifth installment of αM Project 2020–2021 Halfway Happy
is Daisuke Takahashi’s solo exhibition, RELAXIN’. The exhibition is comprised of various “paintings” that Takahashi has
created over the past several years. Its title is derived fromthat of an album by the Miles David Quintet, which Takahashi
often listens to while engaged in the production of his work.
This exhibition hopes to share with viewers the ways in which
the artist Daisuke Takahashi engages in diverse maneuvers
that involve the stretching, pounding, and folding of paintings.
The act of painting itself is indeed susceptible to change, likethe way in which the white pigment recreates its own whitenessbeneath the light of the sun, or perhaps even on a much larger
scale than this process of transformation.
In recent years Takahashi continues to produce paintings
that illustrate different qualities to the extremely thick painterly
surfaces which had previously been characteristic of hisexpression. In correspondence to this change, specific motifs
come to emerge upon the picture plane. For instance, it ispossible to recognize specific lines and words in the works
presented on this occasion, such as a colored pencil drawing
featuring a plant observed in the decorations of the 1-yen coin,and a painting of periodizations like “Jomon/Yayoi... ” There isalso a self-portrait of the artist balancing a pineapple on hishead (which he had apparently done as a means to calm
himself down when in a state of panic). There are also paintingsof animals and vehicles that he depicts dynamically throughapplying paint directly from the tube as opposed to using abrush. Allow me to take a moment to venture on a slight detour.
Five years ago, Takahashi wrote, “When I set out tomake a painting, I couldn’t find a motif, in the usual sense ofa subject I wanted to paint 2 .” What does he mean here by“the usual sense”? In the text that follows he makes a drastic
jump by formulating a link between motif and motivation(impulse, motive). Takahashi states how the motivation to“make a painting” is reflected within his abstract paintings.
He chooses to produce abstract paintings not due to theabsence of motif, but because he considers the entire
paintings as his motif=motivation.
Let us look at another work. Building Around the Corneris a work in which Takahashi spent day after day applying paintto a block of paper clay. A building of a former chiropracticVol. 5

With oil paintings the phenomenon of yellowing, which
undermines the overall lightness of the work, is unavoidable (especially should it be placed in a dark place in theearly stages following its production). However, since thisis a reversible structural change, the extent of yellowing
can easily be restored to that of its time of production byplacing the work in a bright place or (gently) exposing its
face to the sun 1 .

clinic stands en route from the station to the artist’s studio.
The walls of the building are painted in colors of pale green
and yellow green, and what is highly eye-catching is the clinic’s
sign featuring a pink gorilla that once served as its mascot.
Takahashi transcribed his impression of this building to amass of paper clay. He engaged in a repeated and continued
process of opening the bag of paper clay, taking its entire
contents out, and painting it in a single color. Such a rectangular mass itself has also appeared in the form of relief-likebrushstrokes in his previous works, and had indeed stoodout amongst his paintings. In Building Around the Cornersuch elements seem to sprout and grow from an extremely
strange place.
As one’s daily life becomes increasingly hectic, the time
for producing work diminishes. One’s concentration is constantly interrupted, and without it being possible to set aside
an adequate amount of time, there is no choice but to work
bit by bit during what remains of the day. The drawings, theblock of paper clay painted in a single color, and laminatedcards presented on this occasion, are all series of works thatincorporate repetition. This repetition and the very fact thatthey are not oil paintings, are fundamentally supported by
the drive and impulse (motivation) to “continue making
paintings without having to deny one’s everyday life.” What isreflected in the selection of forms and materials is a certain
feeling of confidence of being able to continue painting whileat the same time experiencing the exhaustions and irreplaceable joys of living with family.
That being said, RELAXIN’ also features oil paintings.
The largest painting in the exhibition titled Toy (tiger), is an oil
painting measuring about 3 meters × 2 meters, which
Takahashi was suddenly inspired to paint while tidying up thetoys his children had been playing with. In this sense, there
seems to be a discordance between the artist’s words andactions. I feel that the highlight of this exhibition is the very
range and amplitude of this contradiction, at which we cannot
help but laugh. Paintings are indeed in motion.

Halfway Happy

Upon visiting the artist’s studio in the town of Ogawa-Machi,
Saitama Prefecture, I came across a fairly large painting
propped up beneath the rain gutter. The painting appeared
reminiscent of a piece of laundry that had been washed andput out to dry. I asked the artist whether it was alright to dosuch a thing, by which he replied that he was exposing thepainting to natural sunlight so as to restore the yellow discoloration of the white paint to its original color. It is perhaps
common knowledge for those working with oil paints that thesun can have such an effect. I consulted a book that specialized in this field.

αM Project 2020–2021

Independent Curator

September 6, 2021
Daisuke Takahashi

Arata Hasegawa

Trying to produce work while engaged in the affairs of everyday life, I am
more likely subject to disillusionment or impatience rather than feelings of joy.
There are by far more challenges confronted than environments thatencourage me to enthusiastically pursue my own practice.
When producing a painting I am able to “envision its completion” in a split
second, yet depending on the circumstances, it could take several years
to actually finish it.
I cannot quite find the right words to describe it, but in my case there is apoint at which I feel that I should “no longer persist.”
There are many things that I must let go of. It takes a great deal of timeand energy for me to devote myself to my work and engage in the fierce struggles
that are ensued. Meanwhile I venture out on my bicycle with my daughter.
I hold my son as he pushes his head towards me.
Until now I have only worked with oil paints, but perhaps it is time tobid farewell to such preferences I had once considered important. At any rate,I wonder how many more tableaus I can continue producing hereon forth.
Having said that, I am by no means entirely worried or depressed, butinstead, I consider it more as an opportunity. What do I mean by opportunity?
What is it an opportunity for? Art? Myself? My Family? For us?
I suspect that it is an “autonomous opportunity,” which you could seemingly
forget about or let pass without harboring much anticipation or disappointment.

Re: Current Thoughts on My PracticeCurrent Thoughts on My Practice