Artist Statement 

 

For almost half a century, Yoshiyuki Kakedo's practice has returned to the repeated gesture of individually painted dots in oil and acrylic forming the thesis of the artists sujet. Each painted dot remains distinct. Together, they expand into fields of colour that oscillate between one and the seamingly intangible. The delicate relief holds light and shadow within the painting. The relief gives the painting an architectural rhythm that shifts with changing light.
The painting becomes an accumulation of traces, each marking the duration of a single gesture. Repeated over decades, each gesture carries its own variation, reflecting the changing conditions of human experience. Time is neither represented nor measured. It becomes materially present while remaining intangible, gently dissolving a linear perception of its passage. From close proximity, the individual gesture remains visible. With distance, the painted dots unfold into depth and vastness. The painting oscillates between intimacy and the collective, between the singular and immeasurable fields of perception. Informed by Tibetan epistemology, Kakedo's practice extends into the use of the five traditional colours blue, white, red, green and yellow, and the recurring architecture of the stupa. Kakedo maintained a life long Tibetan Buddhist practice in the Mahāmudrātradition of the Kagyu lineage, inspired by the teachings of Milarepa.