Press Release2024.2.14

Takuma Ishikawa
Tragedies and Colors
March 2 - March 24, 2024
Talion Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition by Takuma Ishikawa, "Tragedies andColors."

Takuma Ishikawa has been creating and producing works by capturing the critical nature of themedia itself, which lies between fact and fiction, documentation and expression in photography
and video. The artist, who has been showing photographs that evoke the origins of films andclassical paintings, and in recent years, especially video works in which a series of photographsare connected as a single frame of a video, has returned to photography since 2020, when theCOVID-19 pandemic broke out. Ishikawa, who says that the transformation of his behavior andconsciousness during the COVID-19 pandemic has made him reevaluate the relationshipbetween his life and his work, is reconsidering how the medium of "photography", with its

characteristics like a memorandum that fragments time and thought, affects him and how it canbe effective in art.

This exhibition is titled "Tragedies and Colors" and deals with images using subjects from thepersonal living area. It consists mainly of a new series of works that connect to social narratives
through the construction of their visual effects and allegories. During the exhibition, two artists
who are familiar with Ishikawa's practice, Motohiro Tomii and Aya Momose, will be invited togive a talk titled "The Right of Passivity".

Takuma Ishikawa｜Tragedy and color Ⅰ | 2023 | Inkjet print | 50.8×33.8cm (set of 2, each)Artist’s Statement
The image is inherently unreal. It is in this point that the power of the image lies. In other words, in its
resistance to giving substance to its content. The incarnation is the giving of flesh, not the giving of abody. In the incarnation, the substance is absent. — Marie-José Mondzain

1Each tragedy has its own unique color. They are not always dark monochromes. Harshness
may lend saturation to a tragedy, and cold tragedy may exist in sweet candy colors. It may berarer to feel monochrome. Just as tragedies exist even in the most beautiful landscape, and justas tragedies contain human existence, each has its own individual colors.
2The world was turned upside down and paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people
died every day, their activities and outings were restricted. It was dark and closed. During thatperiod, there was a moment when I thought I could not bear to be any more serious. So, color
was necessary. To give color to tragedies is to perceive the seriousness of the world and at thesame time to escape from it.
Then I decided to go back to making photographs. Photography as an art form is already in aplace of being left behind, as if abandoned. This was a condition that allowed me to create as if
I were breathing.

3The world is full tragedies, from gossip to serious news. New wars, disasters, incidents causedby discrimination, and so on are daily appearing on the timelines of social networking sites. My
photographs do not convey the news of the world, nor do they inspire any kind of action.
As a creator, I am not a party to anything, nor do I go anywhere. It's not about being a victim; it's
about being privileged. However, the news from around the world and the attention economy
that is inseparable from it have an obvious impact on the production. So I decided to observe
my own passivity, which I feel through the medium of photographic production, in my daily life
when various news pops into my mind.

4Tragedies and colors were the subject matter of Abstract Expressionist painters such as
Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. I imagine Rothko and color in particular. My work, however,is far from their sublime or heroic gestures. My passivity is hyperactive, light and small.
Takuma Ishikawa

Takuma Ishikawa
1979Born in Chiba, Japan2004

M.A. Musashino Art University, Tokyo

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019"I in the Novel" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)

2017

ALLNIGHT HAPS 2017 "I Operation of Contact" directed by Kohei

2016"Lessons and Conveyance" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)

2014"Ethan Hunt’s Flashback" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)

2012"The World and Solitude" Gallery X (Tokyo)

Takahashi, HAPS (Kyoto)"Including Vacuum" Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (Aomori)"Suppose it as your home (reaching)"
Installation view at TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)
2022 | Photo : Keizo Kioku

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022"Suppose it as your home (reaching)" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)

2020"Room and Garden - The Form of Distance" Musashino Art UniversityMuseum (Tokyo)

2018"The thing of grabbing clouds" switch point (Tokyo)

2017"To Die in Vain (or Not)" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)"The Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2017"Multiple Future" Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo)

2016"responsive/responsible" teco gallery (Aomori)

2015"Camera Knows Everything" Yumiko Chiba Associates (Tokyo)

2014"Fuku Fuku Line" Gendai Heights (Tokyo)

2013"From the Ground" GALLERY SIDE2 (Tokyo)"Imago Mundi" Fondazione Querini Stampalia (Venezia, Italy)

2012"Similarity and Unsimilarity" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)

Buried things are removed out| 2022
Inkjet print | 25.4×20.3cm

SELECTED CURATIONS & PROJECTS
2023-2024 "Redevelopment of Development" gallery aM (Tokyo)
2021

Curated by three figures "Future of Art" Shibuya Hikarie 8/CUBE 1,2,3

2015"The Camera Knows Everything" Yumiko Chiba Associates, TALION2013"I've Been Dreaming for a Long Time." TALIO GALLERY (Tokyo)(Tokyo)GALLERY, HAGIWARA PROJECTS (Tokyo)
Prologue of the Exhibition Curated by Takuma Ishikawa "Tell all theTruth but tell it slant" TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)
SELECTED COMMENTARIES & WRITINGS
2023-"Critical Seeing：For Insight into New Society" Tokyo Art Beat

2023

"Interview for Activity Support Student Vol.49 Miyuki Oka “War and One"Lessons and Conveyance" Installation view at
TALION GALLERY (Tokyo)
2016 | Photo: Shizune Shiigi

day ー What can be seen by changing observation conditions"I Kuma

Foundation Web article (Interviewer)"Photographs of David Hockney Photocollage / Cubism / Conservation
and Restoration of Memories” Bijutstecho, October 2023
"Transcending Realism and Gaze of Drawing : Dialogue about EgonSchiele’s Sketches" Eureka, February 2023
2022

"Fourteen “novels” against the larger narrative. “Seven/Seven: The
Fraught Landscape”" Tokyo Art Beat
Crossing the border | 2015 | video

ー[ Exhibition Informations ]Title"Tragedies and colors"

ArtistTakuma Ishikawa

Date

March 2 - March 24, 2024 11 am - 7 pm
Closed on Monday, Tuesday and Holidays

Venue

TALION GALLERY (2-2-1 B1, Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo)

Directed by

Tsuyoshi Ueda (TALION GALLERY)[Gallery Talk "The Right of Passivity"]
Date

March 2, 2024 17:00-19:00

GuestsMasahiro Tomii, Aya Momose, Takuma Ishikawa

Venue

TALION GALLERY 2-2-1 B1, Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo

Capacity30

Admission

Free (Reservation only)

Reservation

Please email us to info@taliongallery.com with your name, number ofparticipants, email address, and phone number.

[ Inquiries ]TALION GALLERY
Email: info@taliongallery.com Tel/Fax: +81-3-5927-9858
171-0031 B1 2-2-1 Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo URL: www.taliongallery.com