Shohei Takasaki´s debut in Sydney - Monumental Disposition - displays five new fragmented performative paintings reduced to a domestic and modest size. Dispersed across the main gallery wall is Untitled (January 30 2026), Untitled (February 12 2026) and Untitled (February 24 2026). What happens on any particular day? What makes a single day meaningful? 

February 24, on this precise day in 2020 an American mathematician named Katherine Johnson died at the age 101. Admired by her peers and the world for significantly contributing to NASA and the equations which landed humans on the moon to the birth of Businessman and inventor Steve Jobs co-founding Apple Inc. in 1955. The anti-monarchical Revolution of 1848 reached France, where the insurgency was successful leading to the abdication of King Louis Philippe I. Furthermore, February 12, Immanuel Kant the father figure of the Enlightenment died in 1804 to the conviction of an art crime by two thieves. Pål Enger and an unidentifiable accomplice broke into the National Gallery of Oslo in 1994 and stole Munch's The Scream. Lastly, January 30, on this day in 1969 the Beatles performed together for the last time on a rooftop in London.  These selective highlighted events share a cultural and historical synchronicity with Shohei Takasaki`s performative date paintings.  

The sun rises and descends. A single day simply derives its significance from the present moment. The past is memory and the future remains an abstract thought. While existing is the passive state of physical survival, living requires active engagement, purpose and experiential fulfilment. In the words of On Kawara, I am date painting, I am still alive. 

When contemplating the concept of time and the body Takasaki mirrors the disciplined, present-seeking practices of his birth nation's forebears Sho Shibuya and his predecessor On Kawara as a beacon of truth. A conundrum deeply rooted in the virtue of Japanese culture. The contemplation of a single day and the emotional record of the body and how we inhabit time is perceived in Japanese culture as the art of complement. Rather than direct praise relying on humility, harmony and situational subtlety. The notion lies in the act of ´doing`. Human actions, decisions, intentions. Lived experience. The creation outweighs the creativity. Personality without individuality. Takasaki considers this honourable act of the physical and mental embodiment of intention as his point of departure.

Deceased philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty implies intentionality not as an abstract thought, but as ´lived experience`. Bodily comportment provides action with their meaning. Large scale performative painting consists of a freestanding surface which is comparable to three, four times Takasaki´s bodily proportions. How does Takasaki prepare for such a physically encompassing and enduring gesture? Limited materials, time constraints on the stage shared with musicians, noise and the audience gaze, the restrictions are paramount. Intimidation becomes fleeting, pressure loses its grip, transforming into a passing, temporary discomfort. For Takasaki, the decisive action is seemingly guided by automatism. The body is Takasaki´s vehicle of painterly expression. It is his primary medium for transcribing the inner emotion defined by the living, breathing collection of his experiences into colour, form and gesture. 

The spectacle channels the body. Takasaki proclaims when performing he enters a trance, a rhythm guided by a certain resistance - stripped of ego, malice, or superficiality - momentarily in defiance against all odds. The monumental disposition takes shape and pure anticipation unfolds. Elements of the everyday creep in from surreal shapes into pieces of complete abstraction.  Imagery of still life and figures suggesting an anecdote relating to gender, violence, domesticity, and the cycle of birth and death. Flames, wildly overgrown plants, grids, plates of food to compelling surfaces derived from debris - excess paint, sweat, dust and dirt. What happens on any particular day. What makes a single day meaningful. The silent traces of mortal time.

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