Year: 2022
Medium: oil on canvas, wood panel
Dimensions: 80.5 x 80.5 x 6 cm (31 5/8 x 31 5/8 x 2 3/8 in.)
Acquired from Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery, 2022
Tada addresses the gap between the reproducibility of materials (texture) in virtual space and reality. No matter how realistic the graphics in a game may seem, they remain as a virtual image. In the “trace” series, various objects are recreated using paint, yet this is no longer an act of drawing. It is, in effect, a sculptural approach executed through the medium of pigment. The foundation of the series lies in Tada's outstanding drawing skills as a painter. However, it might be a little perplexing to call these works paintings when in front of a work that looks so much like an object. At first glance, this work appears to be nothing more than a strip of slightly stained wooden flooring affixed to the wall. It is as if the sense of discomfort from something generated virtually in a game has been brought directly into real space. Standing before the flooring hanging on the wall, the viewer is invited to reflect on the rhetoric of “nonexistence existence.”
