Kondo is an artist who uses traditional Japanese painting techniques and composes a new structure with modern motifs. In this work, Kondo is carefully and precisely depicting objects such as a plant, a cup, an electric light, a mountain and so on. It is drawn by following a traditional technique called “Tsukuri-e”. In this technique, outlines and colorations should be done in a specific order and you are only able to add colors but not remove them. In a nutshell, there is no redo. This work has an intensity from that sensitive process but in addition to that, the colors and the presence of the motifs calms us down.

Traditional Japanese paintings use colors brought from all kinds of natural materials such as soil, minerals and plants. These materials themselves are not viscous enough to be sticked to canvas and need to be mixed with a glue to be used as a paint. The glue is also brought from nature, made by boiling bones or skins of cows, rabbits, deers or fish, and all of these different materials make for a unique color.

For the paper, Kondo uses “Torinoko-shi” meaning “Bird-Child-Paper” named after its yellow tinted color which looks like an egg yolk. This paper was used since the Heian Period (8th BC) and also used for the famous “Scenes from The Tale of Genji”. Because of its delicate surface, it is good for depicting detailed expressions.