"TADANOBU ASANO 3634: Tadanobu Asano Exhibition," showcasing 700 drawings by actor Tadanobu Asano, will be held at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art from December 7th to March 31st, 2019.

©Tadanobu Asano
Tadanobu Asano says he began drawing during the long, isolated wait times for the film "The Vanishing of Luomanthus," which was shot in China in 2013 and released in China in 2016. He began drawing with ballpoint pen on film scripts, the backs of schedules, memo pads with hotel logos, medicine bags, and more. Over the past five years, he has produced a massive 3,634 drawings, and continues to do so. Some of these drawings have also been posted on his social media accounts.

The exhibition features 700 drawings by Asano himself, spanning a wide range of genres, from hard rock to sketches, doodles, manga, American comics, and abstract art. Immersed in a sea of drawings, almost drowning, and appreciating them as if swimming through them, one can mysteriously sense Asano's subtle changes in his mind and his thoughts. Drawings have the fascinating ability to trace the artist's thoughts, while allowing the viewer to follow them as well.

Drawing, which began as a way to kill time before filming, likely served as a kind of walk to clear his mind, and perhaps even evolved into the automatism (automatic writing) that surrealists invented to avoid focusing on beauty. It also evokes Andy Warhol's mind-blowing soundscapes at the 60s' Daiichi Factory, where he created his works.

Although Asano is not a professional painter, when he catches a glimpse of the thoughts of one of Japan's most idiosyncratic artists through his paintings, he is astonished by the freedom that humans possess to go anywhere, and is deeply encouraged.