The first talk session featured artist Motohiro Tomii and architect Ryuji Nakamura. Acting as moderator, Takeo Paper Show 2014 director Kenya Hara explained that Tomii, with his approach of creating sculptures by exploring the concepts of sculpture without being restrained by a sculptural framework, and Nakamura, with his approach of searching for the delicate realities of a space instead of producing architecture based on strength, both seemed to be ideal people to talk about the SUBTLE theme. Tomii described how when he attempted to express the destiny of paper as being easily and irreversibly damaged, and considered how to symbolize that tension, the corner of a sheet of paper was all that was required. Nakamura explained that his exhibit was produced as an experiment to discover whether or not fine control over details eliminates the vagueness that is one of the characteristics of paper. Finally, Hara commented that both Tomii and Nakamura demonstrated their ability to take subtle and original ideas and communicate them powerfully through a practical work. The session successfully brought out the commonalities between these two creators of the same generation who work in different areas.

Guests for the second Talk Session were artist Jinah Ham and designer Haruka Misawa. Both have been influenced by Kenya Hara: Ham at Musashino Art University, and Misawa at Hara Design Institute, Nippon Design Center. Hara explained that he selected Ham because of her talent, already evident when she was at university, for sensitively capturing the world through drawing, and selected Misawa for the abilities she has demonstrated through her work at the Hara Institute, and wanted to apply those talents through a deep understanding of the SUBTLE theme. Ham described how, for her, drawing is thinking. More than anything, the act of drawing makes use of the ability to communicate. Ham found it difficult to draw within the constraints imposed, but eventually produced an exhibit that she was satisfied with. Misawa explained how she had long been fascinated by the beauty of pencil shavings. “Flower of Paper condenses that attraction through layers of paper. Paper Aircraft represents an image of the world where plant seeds dance in the wind.” Demonstrating his expectations for Ham and Misawa as potential leaders of the next generation of creators, Hara commented, “They both go about the world with antennas primed for pure sensitivity. That approach is alive in their exhibits. I hope that it will not be dulled as time goes by.”

For the third Talk Session, guest speaker was photographer Yoshihiko Ueda, who produced the “PAPER: A PORTRAIT” series. Kenya Hara introduced him by saying “Ueda’s photographs are powerful enough to give the viewer an instant grasp of the essential nature of the world. The aim of this exhibition is to look once more at the fundamentals of paper. I wanted to create an opportunity through Ueda’s gaze, to renew our acquaintance with things that we already ought to have known about paper.” Ueda said, “When I was working on this project, I realized that I’d missed a good opportunity, and began to wonder why I’d never tried to photograph paper before. Paper has a universal beauty, but that knowledge is usually shut away deep inside our bodies as a hazy memory. The photographs took away the haziness and made the outline clear again. When I realized what was happening, I suddenly gained a strong desire to capture what I saw.” Concerning the resulting photographs, Hara commented, “Ueda’s photographs become classics from the moment he takes them. These classical images, primordial but novel, inspire us to think deeply about the essence of paper. I am sure they will still be an unfading asset for Takeo fifty years hence.” Ueda added “The universality of paper was a surprising discovery for me. I have a feeling that I’ll never be able to take these pictures again, so I want to make sure never to lose them.” That rediscovery of the world brought about through photographs seems to have triggered a life-long dialogue.

The fourth talk session featured graphic designer Kazunari Hattori. According to Mr. Hattori, he had speculated on various angles from which he might comprehend the theme, SUBTLE, and in the end decided to focus on the two-dimensionality of paper, an aspect by which he is truly charmed. Touching on his production method for work that consists of infinitesimal lines, Mr. Hattori explained that he used the computer’s simple calculation function to add to lines that looked like they’d been created by doodling with the mouse. He spoke of including in graphics the fortuitousness and improvisational aspects of his usual work.
The later half of this session focused on 15 years of work, including some pieces from his debut ad campaign for Kewpie Half Mayonnaise and some from his solo exhibition Visual Communication. He alluded to his mode of design as one that results in work that looks “as if it were created by a talented amateur completely unacquainted with conventional methods”.
Of Mr. Hattori’s mode of expression, Mr. Hara said, “his work looks like it’s just full of instability and chance, but deep down, there lurks a powerful confidence. It seems as thin as a thread, but the confidence behind it acts as a magnetism that may have been the power that attracted and mobilized a number of contemporary talents.” Mr. Hara concluded the session by saying that the day’s talk would be part of the key to helping understand Mr. Hattori’s world of the senses.

The fifth talk session featured designer Akira Minagawa and graphic designer Yoshiaki Irobe. Mr. Minagawa explained his piece as representing the exhibit pedestal as a desk in an attempt to express the paper’s physical location. He said he thought this would help naturally give rise to something now rare in our daily lives: a conversation with paper. Mr. Irobe approached the exhibit as an opportunity to have as much fun as he could by using ambiguity as his theme, in opposition to the lucidity of his usual work. In order to make letters that emerged nebulously, he decided to let the fluorescent colors affixed to the back of the paper reflect onto the white pedestal through lattice-like cutouts. At first, he explained, he was only trying to create reflections, but these, combined with shape changes produced by the lattice cutouts, introduced depth into the piece.
Talk turned to recent work. Mr. Minagawa explained how his unique synesthesia, in which he perceives--in colors--depth, distance, temperature and weight provides the backdrop for the drawings on which mina perhonen’s textiles are based. Mr. Irobe introduced several recent pieces, including the VI and signage for Ichihara Lakeside Museum, exhibiting a skillful composition of light on water’s liquid surface. The conversation grew deeper with Mr. Hara interpreting the speakers’ creative attitudes with the comment, “intense confidence and elaborate planning support works that at first appear naïve.”

Graphic designer Yoshihisa Tanaka was the guest speaker for the sixth talk session. Mr. Hara sees Mr. Tanaka as, “a creator who perceives subtly and visualizes appropriately things that are done at a small scale and with great motivation, and therefore one who would take the theme SUBTLE seriously.” Concerning his work for this exhibition, Mr. Tanaka said, “I thought about paper’s place today, when the Internet has taken over as the master of information communication, and hit upon its archival quality.” He explained that he irradiated paper with ultraviolet rays, so the paper seemed as if it had been bleached by the sun, in order to produce these archival cases, designed to express the decaying aspect of paper.
In the later half of the session, Mr. Tanaka introduced recent work and that which he had produced and published as part of the collaborative duo “Nerhol”. Mr. Hara touched on the photo collection mushrooms from the forest 2011, [sic] by photographer Takashi Homma, featuring mushrooms from Fukushima forests where high doses of radiation were detected. Mr. Hara praised the work, saying, “With a single strikethrough on the title, Mr. Tanaka brilliantly expressed himself with this collection, creating quiet yet intense criticism by taking the straightforward approach of showing the situation as it is. The bookbinding beautifully defines both the title and the photographs.” The talk ended with Mr. Hara’s comment that he was very much inspired by the work of this creator 22 years his junior.

The guest speaker for the seventh talk session was Mr. Kaoru Kasai. As for the background of the idea for this piece, Kasai said, “At Mr. Hara’s suggestion, I attempted to reproduce the idea for the diploma of merit for the Tokyo ADC Awards that I created 20 years ago. The jewels running through the paper serve as a testament”. Also, he admired the tenaciousness of washi paper as it withstood the force of the jewels pushing up from behind, and was impressed by its appearance. Mr. Hara admired the fact that the contradictory nature of washi, weak but strong, strong but soft, is superbly expressed through extremely small points.
Next, Mr. Kasai showed examples of his recent work, including some from SUN-AD. As for the format of the book, Kotobuki-ya Copywriter Ken Kaiko, he explained, “I decided that to attract our contemporaries, I should make sure it would give off exactly zero sense of the literary.” For the poster Hiroshima Appeals, he based his work on the theme of a clear, summer sky, because he thought that the bright impression would produce, in contrast, a sense of the grievous sorrows related to Hiroshima. Mr. Kasai sees the future as the challenge of awakening in people sensory perceptions like those of animals. This conversation allowed us to glimpse the genesis of sensitive, subtle creation, which gives such precise insight into the human mind.

We’re nearing the end of our talk event. The 8th talk session featured Mr. Koichi Suzuno and Mr. Shinya Kamuro from TORAFU ARCHITECTS and Mr. Keisuke Toyoda from architectural design farmnoiz. Mr. Hara introduced the pair with the following comment. “For this event, we looked forward to a demonstration from TORAFU of a unique design ability, as evident in their airvase [a paper bowl designed to hold air], and from noiz, an evocation of the potential of paper as arrived at through technology.” As for the work, TORAFU offered two pieces that both demonstrated the tension that arises from contradictory aspects; in one, thread confined to paper formed a liberal curve and in another, thread liberated from paper strained in a geometric fashion. Mr. Toyoda from noiz explained that in their creation, they were conscious of the theme, SUBTLE, while making full use of algorithms to portray paper as stones, gravitational fields, and tongues.
Next came presentations about various individual pieces, including the wide variety of evolutions of TORAFU’s airvase, as well as noiz’s FLIPMATA, whose architectural surface is rhythmically manipulated by air pressure. At the end of the session, the participants talked about the future. TORAFU expressed a desire to see architecture anew from a brand new point of view, contrary to the conventional one in which the focus is on objects and interiors. Mr. Toyoda from noiz pointed out that a downtown in which buildings are continually in flux is no longer a dream, as the technological groundwork has already been laid.

The 9th talk session featured graphic designer Yumiyo Miyata and animation director Atsushi Wada. Mr. Hara noted that Ms. Miyata’s work looked rough at first glance, but in fact had been very carefully formulated, indicating formidable confidence in her ability to express ideas. As for the piece by Mr. Wada, Mr. Hara explained his animation style is particularly subtle. For us his work is always not just a piece of storytelling, in which we feel as if time were flowing mysteriously. According to Ms. Miyata, she wanted to create a piece that would make you feel all tingly inside. She said she wanted to make a frank expression just using paper, without overdoing it. Mr. Wada explained, “I emphasize the narrative and suggestiveness in the actions and attitudes of my characters. I thought that If I were successful at expressing myself in my own way with my own original style, my piece would naturally become a subtle product. ”
The conversation turned to an introduction of their work. Mr. Hara analyzed Ms. Miyata’s poster Tatezome [New Year’s tea ceremony] thus, “This work is just right for the tea ceremony, which intends to induce an image, as it creates negative space that allows each viewer his or her interpretation. As for Mr. Wada’s latest work, Anomalies, Mr. Hara said, “The neutrality of the allegory in this animated film frees us from all thought, making it easy to laugh” He concluded by saying, “Unless we sever ties with information from the outside, our true selves will never stand up. I see this in both of your works”. The conversation helped clue us in to the kinds of approaches that both embrace and lead to creativity.

The tenth and final talk session was crowned by a presentation by the calligrapher Kyuyo Ishikawa. According to Mr. Ishikawa, “It has taken me a long time to be liberated from the standard, established format of expression to represent the words that mean wavering life, through calligraphy.” He touched on his work for this exhibition Shinsaku Wakana I in which he attempted to represent a single letter using a single, full line. “Take heart (kokoro) for example. By stretching the first letter, ko of kokoro in a quivering manner from the left side of the paper to the right, I attempted to represent the busy mind of the hero, Hikaru Genji, who was on his way to his downfall.” Mr. Ishikawa carefully explained the background to the approach that generates this irregular calligraphy. He introduced pieces like the Tale of Genji Monogataril II Hanachirusato, in which the letters seem to be bursting out of the paper, and Tsurezuregusa (essays in idleness), in which the characters are laid out en masse like capillary vessels. Referring to his own unique phrase, “the feel of the brush”, he portrayed his various perspectives, saying, “The apex of the brush symbolizes concentration. I work letting all my cells concentrate on that single point.” “Drawing is the act of bruising with a cutting tool called brush. This original image comes from the person plowing the soil or the working to make a person become a person.”
In the end, Mr. Hara said, “I was able to read from the story and movements of Mr. Ishikawa the volition of creating words and feelings while the brush undermining something. This was a precious opportunity to help us take another good look at calligraphy, and at paper as the medium, both of which result in the development of an innovative brilliant, imaginative initiative.”