Keeping a diary
『つれづれ』(Tsuredure）by Haruka Sato
Summer / Oil on Canvas , 2021. 14cm x 18cm
My art is my diary. They are my memories banked in canvas-roadmaps to the winding corridors of the past.
Windows / Oil on Canvas , 2020. 27cm x 22cm
Flower Collars / Oil on Canvas , 2020. 16cm x 23cm
In Keeping a diary, I revisit old works that I made prior to and at the beginning of the pandemic. Often, we think of artworks as discrete pieces, which are separate from one another. But like pages in a diary, I think that all my projects are connected by the same line.
Fishes / Oil on Canvas , 2021. 22cm x 33cm
When I retouched my past works, I am taken back to multiple timeframes strung together by a singular memory. Through reworking my old paintings, I became more aware of the flow of my production.
♢ / Oil on Canvas , 2021. 33.5cm x 24.5cm
It was refreshing to stop and return. It's not uncommon for me to go back to my memories, through photographs and sketches, but I rarely modify the paintings that were once completed. In doing so, I found a way to update my memory and affirm myself in the past.
The Altar at Binondo / Oil on Canvas , 2020. 23cm x 16cm
By the sea / Oil on Canvas , 2020. 24.5cm x 33.5cm
Time is formidable. Through keeping records like diaries we challenge its motion. We keep steady what is always moving. And in this remembering that we mark our very existence.
Haruka Sato. 2022
The Mountain / Oil on Canvas , 2020. 16cm x 23cm
This is a picture of my grandmother's house. The shadows created by the window curtains and the bamboo blinds leaning against them is one of my favorite spaces where I look at the transitions of everyday life. Even when I am not there, I can always relax just by remembering it, especially the curtains by the window.
Hakura Sato is a painter based in Tokyo who mostly works with oil. In this show, she reconstructs and derives inspirations from mundane moments such as the view from the window, tea time with friends, and going to the sea. Each work is a repository of memories, and is part of an archive of experiences from the sublime and wonderful world she lives in.
She visited Manila last February to March of 2020 (Pre-Lockdown) for the Cultural Exchange program of BMLab (a Manila-based Collective) and Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo.