Honda Takeshi (b. 1958) | Mountain Life – Shoji (Yama no kurashi – shoji)

Purchased from the artist

A modicum of light gently filters through the paper shoji, yet we are in an immensely dark room of a rustic mountain abode. The paper is worn and broken in places revealing further pools of darkness from the outside. Through the accretion of charcoal, Honda Takeshi creates an intense variety of shades in this monumental, monochromatic work.

Honda’s process involves the use of black and white photographs as a basis for his charcoal drawings. After photographing his subject, Honda draws fine lines over it as it were graph paper. A magnified version of this stencil is pasted onto a panel that he will complete his final drawing, painstakingly depicting each square from the photograph and meticulously matching it onto the enlarged grid.

In his work, Honda attempts both practically and visually to negate the self. He removes himself from the subject by not painting in situ, creating landscapes akin to carbonised fossils as if excavated by the viewer. His subjects are places that are relatable anywhere in the Japanese mountain countryside, a conscious decision to conceal his presence in order to capture the very existence of the object depicted. His process at times takes several months to a year to complete.

Honda was born in 1958 in Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. In 1987, he moved to the surrounding mountains of Tono, Iwate Prefecture. His works have been exhibited domestically and internationally, including the Iwate Museum of Art, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and The Drawing Center (New York).