LIVING TEXTILES: THE IMMERSIVE PRACTICE OF KATSURA TAKASUKA
| by Maria Rosaria Roseo |
In Katsura Takasuka’s practice, textiles are never neutral matter: they are an archive, a system of thought, a critical device, and a means to interrogate the future. From the beginning of his career, textiles have not functioned for him as a mere medium, but as an originating space from which to question the present. Born in Tokyo in 1986 and trained in textile design at Tokyo Zokei University, where he also completed a master’s degree in 2011 and where he now teaches, Takasuka develops research that uses textiles as a key to explore the relationship between humans and nature, considering the genesis and production of materials as processes deeply rooted in human history. Through the study of silk, cotton, hemp, and wool, and their processing techniques, he progressively distances himself from an anthropocentric perspective, advocating for an impartial and balanced vision of the interdependence between human and non-human life.
For Takasuka, working with textiles means understanding who produced them, the specificity of the region, and the historical tendencies of the time in which they were made. In this depth, he identifies a tool to question what kind of future humanity intends to construct.
The Japanese cultural context, marked by earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons, contributed to shaping in him a vision based on coexistence with an uncontrollable nature rather than opposition to it, embedding in the collective body the idea that humanity and nature should not be separated. From childhood, he has observed the beauty of insects, plants, and minerals, recognizing in his practice a search for a beauty that emerges from humans as part of nature itself.
In the artist’s vision, art, science, and technology are not separate disciplines but components of a single creative movement. Science enables understanding and designing, technology shows how this understanding becomes collective practice, and art arises from the interaction between these forces, transforming knowledge and action into a vision oriented toward the future. In this context, art assumes a symbolic value: like seeds sown in the present, works carry the potential to develop over time and impact the future.
FULL ARTICLE IS INCLUDED IN ATLAS – CHAPTER ONE, AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT WWW.AL3VIEATC.COM/SHOP/ATLAS-CAPITOLO-UNO/ OR BY CLICKING ON THE COVER
