Takuro Osaka, a pioneering light artist in Japan, has demonstrated the unrestricted potential of light as an art material by a series of works which visualize cosmic rays showering down on the earth. In this series of works, cosmic radiation which has traveled for millions of light-years and finally reached the earth – a tiny planet in the cosmos – goes through a scintillator and is transferred to glimmering LED light. Those lights are merely a reaction to a natural phenomenon detected by technology. Yet, by imagining temporal and spatial context of the cosmic ray, the gleams of light obtain exceptional intensity and diachronic and synchronic universality. The light by Takuro Osaka annuls the difference between art and technology and leads us to a point of view where the whole earth is relativized as a local system.

When there was a total eclipse of the moon on the opening day of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Treinnial 2000, Osaka operated a “Lunar Project” in which eighteen enormous mirrors installed in a terraced rice-paddy captured the light of the moon. This project shows that his consistent approach and interest in luminous phenomenon is also channeled to the cosmos. Moreover, his approach can be developed even in the middle of the universe, which has never been set as an art scene before. As a matter of fact, his project had been co-operated by JAXA three times in 2008, 2009 and 2011 as an art experiment in the International Space Station, floating 400 km above the earth. An astronaut once said that it is light that makes art possible to be realized in space, and the light-works by Takuro Osaka keep their universal intensity and radicalness under extreme circumstance, such as being out in space.

In this exhibition at TALION GALLERY, Osaka develops the series of light works as three main works which visualize three different types of cosmic radiation. One is cosmic rays pouring down onto the earth from space, another is Gamma rays rising from the ground, and the third is radiation in the air detected by a Geiger counter. Under this present situation when the update of measured value of radiation is reported everyday, his integrated method shows us a different perspective on today’s significant issues.

Takuro Osaka
Born in 1948. One of the pioneers of light art in Japan. One of his important works is “Series Cosmic Rays” in which signals of cosmic radiation is tranfered to glimmering light of LED. “Lunar Project” is also one of his major art project in which eighteen enormous mirrors installed in a terraced rice-paddy captured the light of the moon when there was a total eclipse of the moon. His project was operated in the International Space Station as an art experiment in 2008, 2009 and 2011. Selected solo exhibition: “Fullness in the Earth” POLA ANNEX MUSEUM (2005/Tokyo), “Am Anfang war das Licht-Takuro Osaka” Skulpturemuseum Glaskasten Marl (2004/ Germany). Selected grounp exhibition: Tsumari Art Triennial (2000/Niigata, Japan), “Techno Landscape” I.C.C (1999/Tokyo), “Essential” Chiba City Musum of Art (2001/Chiba).
Professor at the School of Art and Design, Tsukuba University
Representative member of Space Art Community “Beyond – Space Art and Design”


To Hiraku Suzuki, the act of drawing is equivalent to creating a new civilization from scratch or to showing the possibility of an alternative human history. “Drawing includes making a path where people come and go. It can be an animal trail, constellation or tracks of stars”, he says. He does not draw as a kind of expression of his inner world nor exchange of meanings, but as “an origin of technology” or “an origin of letter”, which is the first sign that could relativize a given sense of time and space. It is the dawn of the civilization or the beginning of the world before technology, opposed to nature when a letter was just a mass of lines. Hiraku Suzuki palpates the history of ages before or after language.

He develops his works in various forms including drawing on paper, installation, wall drawing and performing live drawing. His keen sense of body captures numerous invisible signals surrounding us and he smoothly synchronizes himself with the constant change of reality. By using minerals and materials such as a pen and a piece of paper, he discovers countless signals floating around us and interacts with them. What makes this interaction possible is his keen sense of body by which he transforms his surroundings into small palpable pieces of signal, and then internalizes them. When Suzuki draws things, everything becomes sensible, noticeable and movable. He recently drew attention for his cross-genre activities, like his participation in “Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?” show at Mori Art Museum, collaborative projects with Rei Kawakubo, the designer of Comme des Garcon and numerous sessions with various musicians. However, he endeavors to constantly pursue drawing as a universal human activity. To Suzuki, fragments such as small pieces of an asphalt road and the persistence of vision of sunlight filtering down though the trees are the kind of signs that pass from the past to the future.

This year, he has been accelerating the development of his artistic career. After three month in London and his great success with a solo exhibition at Wimbledon in August, he flew to New York to produce art for six month from September with a grant from the Asian Cultural Council. “The game finally started”, he remarked. In this exhibition at TALION gallery, various works – including a new series of drawings produced in London, a set of his first sculptures, and fresh drawings that he just made in New York – will be unveiled to the public. The three dimensional works, which he has never made before, are a set of several sculptures made of aluminum. He made them in a traditional foundry in London by pouring melted aluminum into a mold with instruction by local craftsmen. The sculptures represent the moment when a human being first carved a letter on a material like a fictional Rosetta Stone. As he comments, “although I have never used that method before, I think it was quite suitable to my style.” Those works will be one of the most important works in his artistic practice.

Hiraku Suzuki
Born in Sendai. MA, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo. Produces unique drawings discovering invisible signals with natural or surrounding materials. Develops various artistic practices such as wall drawing, installation, frottage, performance of live drawing and movies, expanding the range of his drawings. Selected solo exhibition: “Glyphs of the Light” WIMBLEDON space (2011/London), “U” island MEDIUM (2011/Tokyo), “GENGA & Recent Drawings” Galerie du Jour (2010/Paris), “NEW CAVE” Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya (2008/Tokyo). Selected group exhibition: “Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?” Mori Art Museum (2010/Tokyo), “100 Stories About Love” 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (2009/Kanazawa).


The catalogue of the exhibition is available in the form of an iPhone application at the iTunes Store. Taking advantage of the e-catalogue, the contents include performance videos and interviews with the artists.
"Far Away from the Surface" e-catalogue for iPhone App. (TALION 01)
Compatible with iPhone,iPod touch,iPad
Requires iOS4.2 or later
Price: ¥800-
Size:80.7MBLanguage: English and Japanese
*Installation shot of the exhibition will be updated in December 2011.