takano_ryudai

black closer to white,

Emmanuel Guillaud &

Ryudai Takano

Artist

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It was three years ago in his solo exhibition when I first met Mr. Guillaud.

He had introduced me to the French press before that time. The only thing I knew about him was that he was a professional photographer from France and had been living in Japan for a few years.

Everything else about him was a mystery to me.

At his exhibition, there was a slide show with parks at night and emergency stairway. I had seen many photographs of night till then, but his photos were different from all the others and had a strong sexual overtone.

There is probably no other person, who captures dark moods like him.

I still remember that I was shocked when I met him because his work was so different from his gentle and cheery appearance, which intensified his mysteriousness.

I suggested this exhibition to Mr. Guillaud last year just before he went back to France. I may have been a bit sentimental as he was leaving, but I had a feeling that we might be able to do something interesting together. Take the title of our exhibition. Mr. Guillaud, whose mother tongue is not Japanese, made a slight mistake in Japanese kanjis when he was noting down for himself "Kuro to Shiro" ("Black and White"). It became "Kuroi Shiro" ("Black Closer to White") and we immediately felt this unexpected combination was right.

The works of Mr. Guillaud, who treats many darkness of night, are in color. Nevertheless, the pictures he captures are almost colorless and most of the field is black.

On the other hand, my works, which are monochrome, have sunlight as the theme. Thus the screen is predominantly white.

The difference between the two of us are like "Night and Day", "Artificial Light and Sun Light"and "Darkness and Shadow". What we have in common is that in our works, the objects are not emphasized. From a distance, our works may look like black and white photos.

While we were talking about the above, Mr. Guillaud wrote "Black Closer to White"("Kuroi Shiro"). He happened to refer to the condition, where both of our works are mixed, in words. I was fascinated with the co-incidence and imagined the layout of exhibition where our works are mixed and become gray-colored in observer's mind.

With each of us from France and Japan respectively, the difference in distance and environment are evident. If our works are mixed and create a gray color, it follows the law of a nature, "it will become gray if all colors are mixed" in a different way. I cannot help thinking that this may be a miracle.

Gray is not only one of many colors, but may have a special importance. I will be happy if we could present such an idea in the exhibition.

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