E 129 1969

Editor: This is Tadasky's "E 129" from 1969, rendered in acrylic paint. It’s a mesmerizing composition of concentric circles against a square, blue background. There's something almost hypnotic about it. What strikes you when you look at this? Curator: The overwhelming blueness immediately connects me to conversations about identity and visibility. Considering that this work emerges from the late 60s, during a period marked by profound social and political upheaval, particularly around questions of race, power and sexuality, what could it mean for Tadasky, a Japanese artist working within a Western artistic framework, to embrace this overwhelming blueness? Is it a commentary on feeling hidden, othered? Editor: I hadn't considered that at all! I was focused on the visual, the way the circles play with perspective. Curator: Exactly. We need to interrogate visual languages. Circles, especially in that era, often symbolized wholeness, unity. Yet, here, that ideal is presented within a restrictive, angular, square format. Does that tension, between the freedom implied by the circle, and confinement, the square, speak to any socio-political struggles? Perhaps think of the women's movement... Editor: Oh, that’s fascinating! The push for liberation, existing within pre-set societal boundaries. So, the work becomes more than just a visual experience, it becomes a statement? Curator: Precisely. The insistent repetition of circles, could it be read as a quiet act of resistance, or perseverance? Perhaps the colour blue signals melancholy but also strength. This allows us to explore how artworks, even abstract ones, can be deeply interwoven with broader cultural narratives, expressing the unsaid, the unspoken anxieties, or desires, of a specific time. Editor: I'll never look at a blue circle the same way again! Thanks for widening my perspective. Curator: And thank you, it is through this dialogue we all broaden our perspective.