Tadaaki Kuwayama and Rakuko Naito (centre) with their family
HOT TAKE 1: I would love to have it in my sitting room and get up in the morning and look at it. I think it would comfort my eyes.
HOT TAKE 2: It comes across as being more like craft to me. It’s very skilful – all of it you can see the amount of work and skill involved. So everything is incredibly repetitive which is why to me it’s more like craft. There aren’t any variations within the piece, it’s all one thing. That’s just what I observed. Very creative. Art is a big word, and covers so many different kinds of things. Delightful as well, really delightful. I can’t imagine the detail and the time it takes to make all of these things.
HOT TAKE 3: There’s something very controlled about it -very disciplined. They’ve got complete control over their material.
HOT TAKE 4: It looks like little mice. I love textiles – somehow I find it can say so much. Maybe we’re just so used to media which is not tactile – paintings and videos – with textiles it sort of comes closer to home.
I was in Japan earlier this year and I visited an exhibition in Tokyo that also had quite a lot of textile. I think people maybe want to have more handmade, homemade materials. They want have something which you could create at home. Knitted things, or macrame. It’s almost like a pushback from everything which can only exist on a computer or in your phone in your handbag. Something which you can touch and bring home. I think it’s always going to be that way, something becomes super digital, super minimal, and then pushback comes, almost like a pendulum.
HOT TAKE 5: I love all the negative space that’s inside of it, like all these little spaces. Kind of safe spaces, little intimate places. Also the pairing of the two artists and the difference of materials is kind of jarring, but in a gentle way. It highlights the different material choices. They both make a different impression. One is very bright and the other is quite restrained.
HOT TAKE 6: I love patterns and minimalism, also textures. It compliments the art for sure the way it is laid out. I’m still trying to figure out what it’s about.
HOT TAKE 7: I love that it’s the older work. I’ve only see his new stuff. I actually find it less minimalist. I think his new stuff is more radical. Young artists probably have to find their way. What I know is more radically minimalist than this.
HOT TAKE 8: I really appreciate the work. I’m always thinking about the physicality, and I would frame them. They don’t have any protection. There’s no glass on the front. The dust will go into it and you cannot clean it. I think it needs to have a glass panel in front. Sometimes for this work the material is long lasting, but it’s the dust that’s the problem. When you try to clean it, it can get damaged.
HOT TAKE 9: Sometimes I can’t tell if an artist is Korean or Japanese, it seems that they are becoming more similar. Of course when I look at the name, I can tell, but in terms of the work, there seems to be more interaction and influence between them.
HOT TAKE 10: The work is kind of calming. I liked the contrast between the two artists as well. The intricacy of her work and the delicacy of his work, but in a different way. They’re both very rich. In terms of no glass protecting the work, it’s funny – I’m really into that.
I feel like I’m living with the art, it’s not hidden from me. dNo barriers. I have a painting that I love so much at home and it’s also not framed. I feel like it’s living in my apartment with me.
KUWAYAMA / NAITO is on view through 26 May at The Mayor Gallery
21 Cork Street
London W1S 3LZ
more information here
