Chihiro Taki

Chihiro Taki is a young artist now living in Osaka. She studied painting for four years in Florence after graduation from Tokyo University of the Arts. She returned back to Japan at the end of 2018.
　Artist's paintings from her series “Diary of Dreams” reflect her dreams and fantasies. Taki recalls some experience from memory or sleep when she fantasizes and daydreams. Dreams remind the artist of her desires that she didn’t realize or fears that she pretended not to see. Drawing such a “dream” is an important act to fight fear and digest feelings. What appears in the picture is her alter ego, which is worried about becoming an adult. Taki wants to remain a girl in her dreams today and dreams are always an attempt to see the future.
　Basically Taki works in two different techniques: tempera with oil or pencil with watercolor and gouache. The artist often works with gold or silver. Sometimes she makes a thick impasto like in “Napping” or tiny little golden dots as eyes in “Sleepless Night”. The attention to detail and nuances is crucial for creating fascinating and charming paintings that give a sense of reality in fantasy.

”Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always remembered my dreams very well. Sometimes I’m not sure whether something happened in a dream, or in reality. The world of dreams is like the world of art, where I’m free to go places I’ve never been, swim through the skies, or anything else I choose. I remember scary dreams especially well. It’s when I feel fear or pain that I find it even harder to look away. I feel that pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. I enjoy the feeling of paralysis.

I’m enamored with the invisible being I feel then. I’ve slept in a way that makes it easier for that “person” to come. I feel like I can rid myself bit by bit of this unrequited love for a person who I’ll never meet each time I draw.
To me, the time I spend dreaming is just as important as the time I spend awake. By drawing the dreams that my heart and mind create, I’m able to love even the worst and most shameful parts of myself.”

Chihiro Taki

Works

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Diary of Dreams: My Daughter who Wants to Play a Piano with Me as a Dressing Desk 2022 Gesso, oil painting, golden leaf, paper on wooden panel 13.9 x 17.9 cm