I create my work using a method called self-transformation. I am trying to question the morphology and its transformations behind natural phenomena continuously.
When I went to Germany as an exchange student, I couldn\'t speak German well enough. Day after day, I just went to the atelier and went back to home. At that time, I noticed a flower unknown to me that bloomed on the roadside and I felt a strong vitality in the leaves that supported the flowers. I tried to transform myself into one of its leaves. To just stand there, trying to support the flower - This was much harder than I thought. But I felt like I could understand just a little bit about the leaves although I could not talk to them In this way, self-transformation has become a wordless communication for me.
At the same time in Germany, Jochen Breme, a sculptor whose work is based on \" embryology\", introduced me to Goethe\'s plant metamorphosis theory. This led my \"self-transformation\" to the next step, \"relationship between place and form\".
\"Place\" is one of the important motifs in my work. When I create, I visit the places I have specified as motifs and gather information through real experiences. The results of these studies have been embodied as paintings and video works in recent years.
Sonoda Takashi
Last update : 08 Jun. 2022
Works
EDELWEISS
2019
Video 23 minutes
/I went to the Alps to find out where edelweiss colonize.
Despite mid-March, it was snowing everywhere. Edelweiss is a glacier-dependent species that came over from Siberia during the glacial period.
In this work, I turned into a glacier. I made a discovery then. It\'s another layer of ice crystals between the snow and the ground. And the shape of the crystal was like a flower. For that, I tied Edelweiss and Ice together. Viewers see the memory of the glacier in the glacier structure.
And the title is Edelweiss.
NORWAY
2020
Video 3 minutes
/Trying again to just stand. To transform into a part of the place.
I transformed into a birch tree in Norway. The border from Germany to Norway was not closed, while the freedom of movement through Corona was restricted.
The forest border of the birch tree, which in Norway can only grow to the height of a human being. The birch is a pioneer species, a plant that opens up places where no other plant can grow. I think that means it is exposed to a handful of different stressful situations.
Orange und Schwarz
2021
Video 3 minutes 20 seconds
/Winter in Alfter, where I live, is exceptionally dark. I was unconsciously attracted to the sunny places.
The blackbird, a native bird with a bright orange beak and pitch-black body, walks around outside even in winter. It looked like the night was running after the sun. but the distance between the night and the sun never gets shorter, because the night (the body) and the sun (the beak) move forward together.
In this work I have turned into blackbird. And I walk longr time in Alfter. In search of the sun.