Takahiro Iwasaki
28 May – 25 June
Cairn Gallery

I first saw Takahiro Iwasaki’s work at the Barbican last year; his piece was tiny in comparison to the other exhibits and might have been overlooked or even stepped on had it not been roped off in a corner of the gallery space. In order to grasp it properly I had to stoop down and fish out my glasses. What had appeared at first glance as an arbitrary clutter of string and found objects was in fact a miniature landscape arranged with great precision. A mountain range had been constructed from carved erasers and pencil leads formed pylons suspended in an impossibly fragile web of string and tape. What was striking was not only the care taken in the assemblage of this minute world but that such subtlety might proffer an entirely new mode of looking. The installation and the choice of title ‘Differential/ Integral Calculus’ might suggest a concern to connect a universal ideal with the ready-to-hand, to create a space where multiple viewpoints are possible; a Lilliputian world in which the artist asks us to understand ‘differentiation’ as an ‘insect’s eyes’ and ‘integration’ as a ‘bird’s eyes’.

In Iwasaki’s work it is typical to see organic forms set against the artificial or tawdry, where discarded cigarette ends are built up into bamboo forests. He also conjures spaces in which notions of the real and virtual become blurred, a meditative exploration of reflection being recurrent in many pieces. These concerns often arise from familiar situations in which the reflection of a floral curtain on a polished tabletop observed in the morning light of the artist’s apartment holds the unexpected connotation of a tranquil Japanese water garden.

Iwasaki also takes pleasure in the constraints of working with everyday, found items and continually invents new situations in which such diverse materials as polystyrene, rubber bands, apple peelings, flowerpots or soap may be arranged to form elegant, tactile surfaces. A carved eraser or slab of chocolate is able to hold the flawless impression of marble just as a cellophane cigarette wrapper might resemble a precious jewel as it reflects light on the gallery wall.

Such pieces as the microcosm landscape of ‘Differential/ Integral Calculus’ utilise incredibly fragile materials while managing to avoid any hint of preciocity. Instead the materials used invoke a fascination for transient phenomena where objects are always partly provisional, not wholly polished but inviting a participation in which ‘the opportunity of re-creation is given by a blow’. The tiny size of many works puts a brake on the hyper-inflation of much contemporary art, while also refreshing the sense of scale. Iwasaki reveals a mysterious world in which systems are open- ended, where ancient Oriental temples are dissolved and inverted in their own reflection.

Takahiro Iwasaki studied at Hiroshima City University and Edinburgh Colllege of Art. This is his second solo exhibition in the UK. He has previously exhibited in Japan, Germany and Scotland and was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2005. He was listed as emerging ‘new talent’ by Charles Darwent for the Independent.

Tamsin Clark 2006

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