Honda Takeshi (b. 1958)
Walking in the Mountains—March
Charcoal pencil on paper
Signed by the artist on the reverse
1994
228 x 526 cm (overall)
Signed by the artist on the reverse
1994
228 x 526 cm (overall)
Honda Takeshi has been working on the Walking in the Mountains series since the 1990s.
As indicated by the title, Honda would literally explore the mountains of the Tono area (Iwate Prefecture), where he is based, on foot and with his camera in hand. Once the black and white pictures are developed, he covers them with a grid, then mounts paper on a wood panel and applies a fairly large grid as well, so that in the following step he can trace the details with a charcoal pencil from the photograph to the paper with meticulous, painstaking accuracy. To complete a single work requires any time from multiple months to up to a year of long hours of daily, dedicated labor. Walking in the Mountains—March is an especially large work that consists of three separate panels, and apparently even Honda himself had not seen it fully set up prior to 1994, when it was installed for his first solo exhibition.
According to Honda, there is “takt” and “task” in his drawings. With “takt,” the artist refers to the notion of measure (bar), like in an orchestra, that is, the coordination of the individual parts of the process that are the consequence of Honda’s artistic intent such as the decision to produce a work in the first place, the preparation of photography, the decision for black and white, the act of tracing the details from the photograph and so on. The “task,” then, is the laborious transferal of the photograph into a drawing on paper. This implies to let go of one’s conscious intent but to fully immerse oneself into the drawing. Honda doesn’t use an eraser: the white of his works is the white of the plain paper, everything black is charcoal. There is no intermediate gradation, hence his technique results in an art that is fully binary, as if composed of ones and zeros only, or presence and absence. This minimalist approach liberates the artist from conceiving his works merely as “painting/drawing.” Instead, through the passage of time at work, he enters a seemingly weightless state, as if his own physical presence dilutes into transparency. This state is certainly related to Japanese Zen or the world of haiku.
The mode of creation in the works of land art proponent Richard Long or photographer Hamish Fulton is considered “walking art,” yet according to Honda his own works are more like “walking awareness.” Just like when proceeding through the mountains one step at a time, the process of adding stroke after stroke entirely removes human attachment from the image. Honda’s drawings represent a world of utter tranquility with their quotidian grasses that transform in front of us into something genuinely inorganic, removed from color, sound, smell or even the sensation of wind, a sedimentation of time glowing in a soft light.
Honda Takeshi (painter; b. 1958)
Painter, born 1958 in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Since his move in 1987 to the city of Tono (Iwate Prefecture), Honda’s practice has centered on the nature of the Tono area. In 1999, he visited the United States as Research Fellow the Agency of Cultural Affairs’ Artists Abroad program. Honda received the Kanayama Heizo Prize. His works have been acquired by the Agency of Cultural Affairs. Honda exhibits nationally and internationally and continues to live in Iwate.
As indicated by the title, Honda would literally explore the mountains of the Tono area (Iwate Prefecture), where he is based, on foot and with his camera in hand. Once the black and white pictures are developed, he covers them with a grid, then mounts paper on a wood panel and applies a fairly large grid as well, so that in the following step he can trace the details with a charcoal pencil from the photograph to the paper with meticulous, painstaking accuracy. To complete a single work requires any time from multiple months to up to a year of long hours of daily, dedicated labor. Walking in the Mountains—March is an especially large work that consists of three separate panels, and apparently even Honda himself had not seen it fully set up prior to 1994, when it was installed for his first solo exhibition.
According to Honda, there is “takt” and “task” in his drawings. With “takt,” the artist refers to the notion of measure (bar), like in an orchestra, that is, the coordination of the individual parts of the process that are the consequence of Honda’s artistic intent such as the decision to produce a work in the first place, the preparation of photography, the decision for black and white, the act of tracing the details from the photograph and so on. The “task,” then, is the laborious transferal of the photograph into a drawing on paper. This implies to let go of one’s conscious intent but to fully immerse oneself into the drawing. Honda doesn’t use an eraser: the white of his works is the white of the plain paper, everything black is charcoal. There is no intermediate gradation, hence his technique results in an art that is fully binary, as if composed of ones and zeros only, or presence and absence. This minimalist approach liberates the artist from conceiving his works merely as “painting/drawing.” Instead, through the passage of time at work, he enters a seemingly weightless state, as if his own physical presence dilutes into transparency. This state is certainly related to Japanese Zen or the world of haiku.
The mode of creation in the works of land art proponent Richard Long or photographer Hamish Fulton is considered “walking art,” yet according to Honda his own works are more like “walking awareness.” Just like when proceeding through the mountains one step at a time, the process of adding stroke after stroke entirely removes human attachment from the image. Honda’s drawings represent a world of utter tranquility with their quotidian grasses that transform in front of us into something genuinely inorganic, removed from color, sound, smell or even the sensation of wind, a sedimentation of time glowing in a soft light.
Honda Takeshi (painter; b. 1958)
Painter, born 1958 in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Since his move in 1987 to the city of Tono (Iwate Prefecture), Honda’s practice has centered on the nature of the Tono area. In 1999, he visited the United States as Research Fellow the Agency of Cultural Affairs’ Artists Abroad program. Honda received the Kanayama Heizo Prize. His works have been acquired by the Agency of Cultural Affairs. Honda exhibits nationally and internationally and continues to live in Iwate.