Our Thursday series features must-read books from each store of art book shop NADiff. This week's pick is "One Way or Another," an art book published in conjunction with Tabata Koichi's exhibition "Quinces and the Inside and Outside" (December 2, 2017 - January 27, 2018). NADiff's book buyer introduces it.




■ "One Way or Another" by Tabata Koichi

This book was published in conjunction with Tabata Koichi's exhibition "Quinces and the Inside and Outside" (December 2, 2017 - January 27, 2018) held at the Yutaka Kikutake Gallery in Roppongi.

Koichi Tabata has been developing his "one way or another" series as a new endeavor using oil paintings and drawings. By dividing ordinary still lifes of plants, fruit, teacups, cakes, etc., he expresses a simple visual "gap" on a flat surface, moving back and forth between two and three dimensions. As you turn the pages woven into the interior, animation emerges between the divided paintings, stimulating our sense of time and threatening our perception of the visible image, creating a dyslexic sensation and prompting us to question the very nature of painting.






This book is a continuation of Tabata Koichi's previous style of capturing painting and animation in a three-dimensional, essential way, and is an art book with a unique atmosphere. Turning the page always leaves you free to feel either nothing or something.