After spending more than 30 years in France, Keiichi Tahara continues to query about light. When he arrived in France he was fascinated at discovering France’s light to be piercing and sharp opposed to the veiled and diffused light that he was accustomed to in Japan. The materialization of the light became his principle interest to capture the light itself.
Among his first works (Environnement and Fenêtre) already show irruption of light as material. A look is not focused on an object, it “swims” in space and light as the subject, object and emotions merge into a single entity. Observing the light is to decompose the look, to search for the form of the light itself and not the light from the object. In the Eclats series, the photos were developed in a very large format and placed between two thick glass panels, playing with light in its’ presentation.
He distinguishes between white and black light ; white representing feelings, capturing the sensibilities and emotions. Landscape is lit by this light and sculptured by this light. Black light comes from within ; it incites imagination and creativity as a result of acquired experiences and knowledge. These lights merge like a succession of memories and traits. After the pure transparency, it is a question of finding the memory of the light through the materials like stone or aluminium. His various projects of luminous installations in the city are completely related to his center of interest. The sculptures of light take take an important place in this desire of materialization of the light. When it gives materiality to the light it releases and lets it spread so that it reaches the scale of the territory which it wishes to transfigure then in turn establishes tension which allows revelation.
The Jardin de lumiere (The Garden of Light) his one most representative installations is in a public space near Sapporo, Japan and is buried in a meter of snow six months of the year. The sixty-six crystal columns and liquid plates play with the light as it resonates, moving giving a mysterious presence, quivering echo of notes of a secret agreement between the visible and invisible, darkness and daylight, beauty and divinity.
In 2000 he created a luminous installation in the archway of St Martin’s Canal in Paris。He also created installiations which were intregrated photos on glass, stone or metal. He participated in various artistic events where he created specific installations : Beychevelle Castle (Bordeaux, 1993), At the Castle of Angers, (1993), the Cathedral of Cahors, (1994), In the Park of Montreau (1996), and the International festival of the Gradens in Chaumont-on Loire. In 2001, he created the Jardin Niwa and is permanently displayed outside at the European House of Photography in Paris and Portail de lumière (The Portal of Light) at the Institute of Technology in Carlow, Ireland. In 2004 he sculptured Empreinte of light de Lumier”（Light Expression）, and was the Prize winner project for the light installation: Ode à la Méditerranée, (Ode to the Mediterranean) which was completed in December 2005 at the Departmental Records and Lending Library of The Rhone Delta (Marseille, France) In expanding in the theme of expressing light to the collaboration of construction Keiichi Tahara works Hikari no Choukoku (Sculptures of Light) were displayed at the Tokyo Garden Fine Arts Museum in November 2004. Completed in January 2006, was his creation URF Physique Sciences, an external wall design for The Paris Seventh University new school building
career eng | 田原 桂一 Tahara Keiichi LightScape
