Homage to Delft - symposium 2009
'what is coming forth out of his fingers is the direct transcription of deep buried memories.'
You could be tempted to call Kudo Masahide a surrealist painter, because he wants to abolish the border between the unconscious and the conscious.
The surrealists also dreamt of abolishing these borders. Wether they always succeeded in their purpose – to get loose of the powerful consciousness – I would not decide. But it is for sure that Kudo Masahide has decided to give absolute power to his body; he lets his hand go without guidance, in a complete confidence given to that hand.
It is nice to see him at work. Concentrated, without reserve he lets his hand do the work, looks with confidence to the result of what the hand brings before his eyes.
In his view, what is coming forth out of his fingers is the direct transcription of deep buried memories. It is his conviction, as it was to the great painters of ancient Japan and China, that the body brings memories back.
Recycle Art - symposium 2008
'thanks to earth I can make my art.'
Kudo is a
very quiet person. He meditates for several hours per
day and feels at one with nature. He feels intimately
connected to the environment. However, it is the first
time he has really thought about the recycling of materials.
That doesn’t mean he has not worked with old materials before. However he likes
to work with vivid materials with a history. He prefers to work with books and
printed matter - particularly with western words which he can mix with Japanese characters.
Recycling means a lot to him. He thinks that daily life and nature are based on
recycling and that it shows us the cyclical nature of life.
Masahide will take the range of ideas from the ‘Recycle Art’ project with him to
Japan and feels that from now on he will look at old and used materials in a different way.
