Natsuyo Takahashi

“I wanted to consider the balance between respect for the individual and of the society in which I live from the act of ‘gathering’”, artist Natsuyo Takahashi says about her art. The action of gathering is key in Natsuyo’s works in both concept and style. By working on a series of ‘TYPE’, the artist performs experiments that aim at unifying the individual and the social, the personal and the universal, without losing her stylistic identity. Natsuyo works with acrylic plates and silkscreen prints, by inserting words and geometric shapes on blank backgrounds. In her works, she makes use of the kanji: Chinese characters that, assembled together, create words that have the meaning of the kanji itself. Such acrylic panels are then layered so to obtain a certain tridimensionality The words that Natsuyo chooses are words that everyone sees and hears in their daily life, such as ‘life’ and ‘love’ The works “Chill Out , Go Out , Hang Out”, “episode type016” and “私 -me-” present this feature, experimented in different sizes, shapes and colours. Although words and letters are the main pattern of Natsuyo's artistic activity, the universality of their meaning becomes secondary, as they need to be understood as conveyors of feelings. This is how a change in font, typeface or colour attempts to let different individualities emerge, showing their thoughts, tastes and personality. If, on the one hand, Natsuyo enjoys creating in a completely experimental way, energetic works of art that become a mixture of words and colours; on the other hand, she places food for thought on the revaluation of the individual, personal expression and the subjectivity of reality amid a social gathering. What transpires in Natsuyo’s experimental works is the representation of a multitude of different consciousnesses that live together.