FOBIA
Description
FOBIA - Part performance art, part site-specific installation, FOBIA is a completed collection of works after 3 weeks of site-specific, process driven artistic production. Takeda has woven a safe space structure inside the gallery and invited attendees to meet with him and divulge their deepest fears, phobias and anxieties, conversations which guided Takeda’s artistic process. Each encounter with an attendee resulted in the production of a physical, tangible visual manifestation of the stories shared. Through layering of images, words, projections, ink, photography, and the literal and metaphorical carving of trauma into wood, Takeda seeks to transmutate fear and memory into art. The gallery has remained open for regular hours during this process, and the community is welcomed to visit and observe or participate.
Takeda is best known for his large scale weavings, so when asked what led him to envision FOBIA, he responded that “often irrational, sometimes even biological, our phobias are deeply rooted in our history and memory. They manifest in social, health, psychological, religious, political dimensions... Xenophobia, Claustrophobia, Homophobia, Bacteriaphobia, Anuptaphobia, the list goes on with their seemingly complicated scientific wordings, and yet they play an important role in our society today.”
Gallery Director Alessandra Moctezuma is thrilled to be hosting Takeda’s latest creation at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery. “It is such a great opportunity to expose our student body and the community at large to artwork in process. These participatory projects allow a level of engagement that is unparalleled, literally bringing the audience into the artwork, and allowing them the opportunity to shape the direction of the work.
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