unpacking takeshi teruya

as i get older and become more and more aware of the long tail of objects that have accrued to me, i realize how little i actually need. in fact 'need" becomes a term that i am examining more and more closely to determine how much of it is braided with the term 'want'. understandably, almost predictably after my dad's flying away, i have become much more motivated to release the many 'things' that clutter my home and my field of vision - both internally and externally.
the artwork of takeshi teruya resonates with me (and likely not in the way he would have anticipated) with its clustering of objects at the end of a long tail. take for example this work entitled : "split echoes drawn by the day-to-day beacon (geographies returned to over time)". drawing together spraypaint, gouache, pencil, ink and cut paper collage on paper . . .





or the even more visually stunning . . . "harnessing of abandoned markers turned to signs (slippery mechanism)" again melding spraypaint, gouache, pencil, ink and cut paper collage on paper.





much as in my own life, a quick glance at teruya's work would reveal clutter but it is in the closer examination that the fractal detail of the clutter ascends from the blur of the collective and makes for itself such an astonishing and intricate testament to what we hold onto.