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Statement
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“I am continually changing along with others.”

Many of my paintings are abstract, but a very concrete image of “the other” is always involved in their expression. I draw and paint pictures by mixing a variety of materials and techniques. One of my main techniques is “a slide show of my private photographs”. First, I shuffle about 40,000 photos on a PC, which are the records of my relationships with others since I was a new born baby. Then, gazing vacantly at changing slides, I paint and draw, connect memories, overlap them, and carefully bring a whole picture to light.
In the "Grains series" that I have been painting since 2008, I expanded images based on my photos and diary, which I finely fleshed out with small circles and coloured surfaces like multiplying cells.
These works are focused on “many others” I have met before.

On the other hand, I also meet a person face to face, and paint a picture as if we were playing chess. You and I draw lines and lay on colours by turns, and, like a word-association game, offer images to one another, which we weave into one story.
In this kind of work, the main focus is on “the other” in front of me.

By thus working with a variety of others, what will emerge beyond my intention?
I rather enjoy what is incomprehensible to me, go astray with others, think, and stray, and, beyond its repetition, hope to find the image of myself.

I paint a self-portrait.
I paint my ever-changing self
along with the ever-changing other.

Every time I paint a picture, I wish to deepen my self-awareness, anticipating a new encounter.

“I am you, and you are me … “


Tomoaki Tarutani

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