Year: 2001
Medium: paint on wood (camphor tree)
Dimensions: 150 × 46 × 24 cm | 152 × 30 × 37 cm (59 x 18 1/8 x 9 1/2 in. | 59 7/8 x 11 7/8 x 14 1/2 in.)
Acquired from New Auction, 2022
Tanada’s works are created by the “ichiboku-zukuri” technique — carving from a single block of wood. Unlike “yosegi-zukuri”, a method in which each part is made from separate pieces of wood and assembled for a high figurative flexibility, Tanada’s sculptures inevitably have strict figurative limitations given the restriction of not exceeding the volume of a single block of wood. Same in this work, the sculptures are expressed as delicate human bodies in a vertically relaxed pose; this characteristic is likely related to the above fact. In this work, the overall gentle, undeveloped, and slender physicality of the bodies is gracefully expressed. The two boys are depicted in harmony, reminiscent of the “om” with a distinct facial expression. One figure, named “nail”, has its thin forearm deformed into something like a sharp stake painted in light blue. While the other, named “tongue”, sticks out his tongue in the same color of light blue. This hatchet carving technique, which is an expression leaving the carved lines on purpose as a pattern, is used on the red lower body and from the head to the neck and around the flank. However, since most of the upper body is finished with a smooth texture, this partial roughness of the body instead enhances the vividness of the work. In contrast to “nail,” which shows a gentle contrapposto with arms slightly spread out to the left and right, “tongue” is bent forward from the waist with both arms and the tip of his tongue sticking outward. Their poses reveal the contrasting relationship as yin and yang, stillness and motion. This work was exhibited at the artist’s solo exhibition “Rise” held at the Nerima Art Museum in 2012.
