Asako Takahashi

Bio

Asako Takahashi was born in Japan and studied art at Tama Art University. From 2014 to 2020, studied jewelry at Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Münch. Takahashi has participated in group exhibitions since 2011 such as Marzee International Graduate Show 2020 at Galerie Marzee and Hope - Uma Régua de Azul at Galeria Reverso.

Statement

About Image collection
The subject of this work is identity. I think identity has two important aspects. One is individual “personality,” and the other is group “nationality”. I expressed these two aspects as jewelry. First, regarding “personality”, I focused on the element of recording (memories) in my daily life via photography. In a various moment, people take many photos to create his or her own personal archive of memory. Photos primarily function as an external memory medium that reminds them of the images and emotions of each moment. In this series, I used some photos of my own archive and impersonalized them by concealing elements identifying individuals. When you remove the elements of identifying individuals from photographs, what does the remaining image say? They become just like an ornament pattern. As a means of impersonalizing, I selected techniques and patterns for surfaces according to Japanese traditional craft-works, because it leads to another of my identities, “nationality.”
In Japan, my country, conventions of aesthetic sensibility derive from crafts. For me, growing up in Japan, this custom has a significant influence. Therefore, it was natural for me to use Japanese decorative patterns when thinking about nationality. This work is an expression of both my personal story and it is a mirror reflecting my environment.


About the Painting Black collection
The title “Painting black” has two meanings. First, as a general meaning, the act of covering something in black paint has a negative aspect that erases the original features. An object that is painted black loses its unique texture and converts into a unified object. This act unifies the initial value of an individual. From my perspective, as a Japanese person, on the other hand, this painting black works as a valuable decoration, as represented by lacquer. Using black paint as a craft technique originally played a role in increasing the strength of the material. A Japanese aesthetic sensibility emerged as “the beauty of usage”. However, as time went by, the decorativeness of painting black was more valued than its functions, and the black paint called Urushi had value as a brand. Therefore, in this work, I refashioned various ready-made pieces into jewelry and used painting black on them to add new value as a symbol of Japanese value. Then, I painted only half of the work in black and drew the gold line on the boundary to emphasize the added value of decorativeness. In this work, I attempted to convert the negative meaning of “Painting black” into a positive value with the above perspective.


About Front and Back collection
The theme of this work visits the question of what makes a free choice in modern times, utilizing the characteristic form of a brooch and expressing the “public face and private face” by using the front and back. Are we really choosing things of our own intentions in daily life? In many cases, does the decision of our choice depend on the environment, stance, situation, and era? In modern times where the tendency to share personal interests with others is stronger, such as through SNSs, this work was born from the concept that such hues might be enhanced.
This brooch serves the purpose of expressing one’s intentions toward the outside world. In addition, since the brooch is located close to the face or the heart, it acts as a mirror representing one’s self and is often described as the second face. For that reason, to express the public face affected by the surrounding environment on the front face, achromatic color, matte for the absorption of light in texture, and gloss for reflecting light in texture were chosen. The shape of the brooch also randomly combined geometric shapes. Then, in order to express a private stance on the back, I selected an image from photos taken by myself. Image processing was then applied to the photo to make it an abstract image, daring it to become a texture emphasizing color.

CV