Top Story: 26.July 2006

Kyoto POP Artist Speaks Through Light & Shadow

NHK's POP JAM DX interviewed Takagi Masakatsu 28th of June. The Japanese pop artist shared his thinking and feeling about creating contemporary art through means of video and music.

"When I first started making videos, I was always reacting to light. I was obsessed with light, and captured everything with light", the Kyoto artist said in the beginning of the interview.

Takagi Masakatsu travels around the world and records people's everyday lives, and when he returns to Japan, he molds the recordings into an aesthetical multimedia work that moves the audience in all levels.

Indeed, Takagi's works reflect light and shadow, white and dark in human beings and society. Human or animal forms often emerge in his videos, and dissolve into abstract colors and shapes. Music and video are having interactive conversation - constantly sensitive and changing. Takagi stops audience to listen and see the sublime and gentle psychedelics - created with such a fantastic artistic sense.

His video works are truly amazing, both with technique and content. Screen turns into a moving painting of watercolor and mixed technique - sublime, relaxed and so fantastically fresh and stylish.

Questioning and thinking about relationship between city and nature is one of Takagi's themes, as well as wondering the humanity and also the inevitable dark side of people. His works are dreamy but still have the cutting edge of the reality - like in fantastic video of Birdland, where bird shapes appear to wires. Perhaps the wires symbol the Tokyo's street scene (where you can see those hanging wires hanging almost everywhere). Takagi is often called as "multimedia documentarian" or "renaissance man of our times".

His music has influence Brian Eno, Bjork or John Cage. It's drifting and dream like, but has the edge of cool ambient chillout. Takagi

has classical pianist training and is a musically as well visually, multitalent. He also did video works for SMAP X SMAP, Haruomi Hosono & Yukihiro. Takahashi live tour in Japan. This March he published his collaboration with Cornelius in Sound & Recording Magazine 2006 April issue.

Takagi is truly a sensitive artist in the very meaning of the word - his figure has feminine and sensitive aspect. As he said in the interview, "The work shows who I am. It's like a self-introduction". Takagi prefers to express himself not through works, but through visuals and music.

Takagi Masakatsu has published 13 own publications including albums, artbooks and DVD's. His latest collection BLOOMY GIRLS, published by Buluemark + Epiphany Works, is a journey to his earlier works. Later this autumn Takagi's works can be seen in Spain and Italy.

Music-map.com showed that people who listen Takagi Masakatsu also listen So Takahashi, Nobukazu Takemura and Gas. Takagi is his family name, by the way.

Learn more about Takagi Masakatsu in his official website: www.takagimasakatsu.com
Check also NHK's PopJam DX: www.nhk.or.jp/popjam
Takagi Masakatsu was also recently introduced in Apple's site: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/

See also: Yoshinori Sunahara, Miharu Koshi

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