(Above) Tomoko Takahashi, Desk-Top Garden Sculpture (2000). Photo © Nigel Green.
Exhibition: Tomoko Takahashi – Introspective Retrospective, De La Warr Pavilion, until September 12 2010
Her installations are impossible to recreate. Her sculptures are impossible to transport. The art of Tomoko Takahashi is ephemeral, provisional and very, very messy.
Visitors to her show at De La Warr Pavilion are greeted by Clockwork, a work so intricate and apparently arbitrary this is only its third manifestation since 1998.
Tape on the floor threads a dotted path through a sea of interesting trash. To the left is a predominance of dusty scraps of paper, which segue into the contents of someone's attic or shed as the bewildered gaze travels right.
In every direction, there are unwanted clocks, both damaged and operational. So the whole room ticks like a bomb. Surely not since Dali melted these objects have they played such a disconcerting role in a work of art.
Her sculptures may be smaller but they are no less chaotic. Plant pots and computer equipment compete for space on a large office desk. Toys and games are crammed onto a workbench. And it all somehow hangs together.
Tomoko Takahashi, Clock Work at De La Warr Pavilion (2010)
The work is apparently careless, and yet there is method in it. Items are fixed together, or held in balance. Look closely and you can spot nails balanced on their heads.
Motifs also reoccur. In Paperwork upstairs she lines a large wooden crate with pages photocopied from manga comics. Takahashi has sifted her raw materials to bring up images of clocks, the sea and surveillance cameras.
Elsewhere we find the London-based artist branching out to live works. She organises a ticker tape parade without any floats at a Brixton fire station and the Japanese lessons she was commissioned to offer must have been a riot.
Handwriting plays an important role in this show. The artist has scrawled exhibition notes on the wall and annotated some of her more saleable photographic works. There are even two terminals where you can try Wordperhect(sic), Takahashi's handwriting word processor.
As a result the show has a fair amount of misspellings, crossings out and calligraphic quirks. It adds the personal touch to this one-woman battle with chaos.
Images © Nigel Green
Admission free. Open 10am – 6pm (until 8pm Thursday – Saturday until end of August.)
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