Radium – Roentgenwerke
“Radium – Roentgenwerke AG,” whose white walls—credited with “hyper technik” (superlative technique), “solid shock” (solid impact), and “clever beauty” (gifted beauty)—leave a striking impression. It is a gallery accessible from Asakusabashi Station and Bakurocho Station. A simple and very stylish building.
A little while ago now, I went to see the solo exhibition of “Hitoshi Tsuboyama” at this gallery.
Hitoshi Tsuboyama
Hitoshi Tsuboyama is an artist born in Sendai and based in Fukuoka. In his works he expresses a way of drawing that captures three-dimensional form like the “contour lines” marked on a topographic map. It is a so-called “low-resolution realism,” a mode of expression that lowers the resolution.
A technique of expression that lowers the resolution, as if resisting a modern society in the full bloom of the digital. Captivated by the coloristic expression reflected in the depicted “eyes,” I let my thoughts wander over the “expression through imagination” that only low resolution makes possible.
There’s a fascination in how, when you step up close and then draw back, the work comes to look like something quite different. The eyes seem to shimmer and waver, and I found myself transfixed for a while.
There were also works that enlarged the eyes even further—works that look, in a sense, “cropped.”
Works
As I gazed intently, I found myself captivated by this work, “The one Iris #2.”
The magma-like red and orange that dominate the eye seem to express human passion and energy. Meanwhile, the bit of blue peeking through is a cool, composed, more measured side. And the neutral white makes you feel the air. It reads like a woman who projects all of her emotions into her eyes and gazes intently back at you.
Unfortunately, it’s a large work of size 100, priced at over one million yen—out of my reach…
Summary
The expression of eyes (Iris), realized through the highly intriguing approach of “low realism,” stimulated us viewers’ imagination and was a delight.
Does the less information there is, the more room there is for the imagination to fill in? It made me want to see many more works in this technique.
Just what kind of works will he release from here on? My curiosity knows no end…
