"I want to paint abstract paintings that have never been seen before.
To make this happen, I believe one method is to find and depict objects in paintings without clear subjects. But this seems like a contradictory concept and makes the creative process very challenging, almost drowning me in the paint without objects.
Therefore, I incorporate videos into my paintings. These clips are from my everyday life, capturing moments that are interesting, beautiful, and joyful. These images act as a magical potion, influencing the paintings. It's like finding a powerful healing potion 'Elixir' in a beloved childhood video game." –– Tomoko Hasuwa.
Artist Tomoko Hasuwa (b. 1981) uses a method of filming real scenery from her experiences, abstracting them by adjusting distortion, color, and light, then projecting them onto surfaces to explore new forms of abstract painting, incorporating previously unobservable light and color. Despite facing difficulties in forming perfect connections with others in a diverse society, she continuously creates works with "imaginative space," encouraging viewers to evoke their own childhood memories or important figures within the blurred contours.
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1981 and is currently living and working in Tokyo. She graduated from the Graduate School of Arts at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2006. Tomoko Hasuwa does not choose still photographs as her source material as most painters do, and she does not emphasize the precision of the lines of her compositions either. Rather, she often uses computers to loop her own motion pictures, capturing them with the naked eye and breaking down parts of them into a series of "sequential works," to create a visual effect similar to a residual image (persistence of vision). Some of them are partial images, others are fragments of memories or glimpses of life, allowing the viewer to blend other colors with his or her own vision, thus juxtaposing them with his or her own spectrum of life as well as finding a touch of déjà vu.
She has participated in artist residency programs initiated by ARE Holland-Artist Residencies Enschede (Netherland, 2016), and Intercambiador ACART (Madrid, 2014). Her most important solo exhibitions include FES, YIRI ARTS, Taipei (2020); Super Hero, YIRI ARTS, Taipei (2017); Licht, Gallery Fukka, Tokyo (2017); Licht, XPO, Enschede, Netherlands (2016); Parallel, YIRI ARTS, Kaohsiung (2016); STOROBO, Yoyogi Art Gallery, Tokyo (2014), and EL DORADO, Quinta del sordo, Madrid (2014). Selected group show include HOPE- Charity Exhibition, YIRI ARTS, Taipei (2016); TAKE A CHILL PILL, La farmacia, Madrid (2014); Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2012, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma (2012); Hamamatsu Art Prize, Akino Fuku Art Museum, Shizuoka (2009), and Winter Discoveries, Lamia Ink, New York (2004).
