Year: 2022
Medium: spray acrylic, thermoformed PETG
Dimensions: 182.9 x 137.2 cm (72 x 54 in.)
Acquired from The Pace Gallery LLC, 2022
The “Art d'Ameublement” series can now be considered one of Tajima’s representative works, along with the jacquard weaving of “Negative Entropy”. The paint that sprayed inside the thermoformed transparent PETG resin box appears as if it has been sealed in a gaseous state. The title translates to “Furniture Art” in French, which is inspired by Erik Satie's “Furniture Music (Musique d'Ameublement)”. Just as Satie aimed for music that is “never intentionally heard”, Tajima may have created forms in this work of something that cannot be consciously seen. The unfamiliar noun in the subtitle is meant to be the name of an imaginary island. It is perhaps a place where an unknown island has trapped the air. The smooth and glossy work without sharp corners reminds the image of a balloon filled with gas. The subtle colors that adhere very thinly to the inner part of the work are so thoroughly dense and light that spray particles are visible up close. It gives an illusion that the colors inside will disperse now the work is removed from the wall. In the past, Marcel Duchamp displayed an empty glass ampoule as an artwork named “Air de Paris”, containing air from Paris. But was that really the air from Paris? Duchamp's work was not an expression of “not being recognized” like Satie's, but an expression of “unable to recognize” correctly by anyone. Similarly, the gas from the unknown island trapped within Tajima's work is also beyond our means to verify its nature. Thus, our only way to engage with it is through thinking and imagining- the intellectual activity that only human beings are allowed to have. This might indeed demonstrate a pure form of art.
