EAT by Takanobu Kobayashi is an epilogue of a decades-long and continuing project which Kobayashi initiated since he moved to Bangkok in 1996. The exhibition will consist of paintings and photographic installation. This is Kobayashi’s second solo show with 100 Tonson Gallery.
Takanobu Kobayashi is regarded as one of the most influential contemporary Japanese painters. His work has been included in many major surveys and exhibition throughout the world. Kobayashi first moved to Bangkok in 1996 with the grant from Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan. He is known for his serene and luminous landscape that could put the viewer into the state of blankness. The meditative quality of his work surprisingly sees a sudden change when he moved to Bangkok a year before the economic crash. Instead of painting spatial landscape and sunlight flooded canvas, he chose to paint simple tablewares illuminated by fluorescent light, a low-rent apartment building at night and soundless rendering of vehicles on the street. Kobayashi’s psychological renditions of the cityscape are most genuine and able to carry dense commentary on Bangkok’s economics, social and mental complications.
In this exhibition, Kobayashi is presenting his well-known series of paintings of tableware along with photographs of his actual meals taken over the years. The tableware/dishes series first appeared during his time in Bangkok. Within his daily routine, he would frequent his favourite food stall and amazed by the people there. He said “I’ve always like food, Witnessing people eating stuff at food stalls, for example, was something that amazed me. Rather than an interest in people, it was something that I felt when seeing people eating”. Kobayashi sees his empty plates as a point of departure, it forms a point of contemplation for the viewer and since it’s meaning is not predetermined, it offers a horizon of the consciousness to be expand and interpreted by the viewer.
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