Bulidings or blocks? Ladscape or object?
Tanaka’s “Blocks” series tell us that people’s eye can see one image from several aspects at the same time. The red, yellow, blue and green blocks allocated in the white background create a beautiful pattern just like a designed graphic or logo. Meanwhile, as our viewing point is the same as the blocks is settled, the blocks stands out like a high building, as if we are viewing Manhattan from a seaside or a new architecture build in a white desert. When the artwork is screened on our brain, we start asking ourselves what we can sense from it. We unconsciously try to decide whether it is a landscape or just a little block captured as an object for a moment and it ends up recognizing that there is no meaning to choose one answer. There are several aspects existing in this work.

A scenery structured by simple elements.
Before starting to create this “blocks” series, Tanaka was photographing an actual scenery in the forest thinking of what is the constituent element of the “landscape”. And one day, came up with the idea of expressing a minimal scenery which consists of height, width and depth with wood block toys, and this “blocks” series were born. Simplifying the elements may end up create an abstract image but Tanaka has successfully created the work both including the abstract and concrete image all together. Carefully seeing the artwork, you will notice that while some works are expressing the depth by capturing the blocks from an oblique perspective, the other works include a light shadow telling us there is a space behind the block.

Happenstance hidden in a calculated photograph.

When an artist capture an settled object, it tends to be carefully managed and every elements are highly calculated how it should be captured. Tanaka has settled wood blocks with deep consideration too. However there is a happenstance hidden in this work. It appears when the work is printed. See the boundary of the blocks in different colors. There is another color appearing since the photograph is missing its pint. For example, a yellow line is slightly leaking between the red and green. How boldly the color appears will differ in each print and complete uncontrollable. Tanaka chose photograph as a medium since there are some restrictions which includes unpredictable affects appearing in the print and it makes the work more exciting.