In the thematic exhibition "Penetrating Paper: Geschnitten – Gelocht – Gefaltet... (PP: Cut – Perforated – Folded...)" in spring 2017, Takayuki Daikoku, whom I have represented in my gallery since its foundation in 2011, has introduced a new series of works: the "" (Faltzeichnung). Since then he has devoted himself more intensively to this new genre and created an entire cosmos that will certainly bring further surprises in the future.

Now, for the first time, a larger group of works of this recent creative period has been assembled. Only recently, on the art fair paper positions berlin, have I confronted some of his sheets with works of Gil Shachar.

The main work in this group is the large triptych "RGB" measuring 180 x 283 cm, composed of numerous small square folded drawings. The invitation card shows the work’s dimensions on the inside: the artist stands in front of his work and is literally enveloped by its haptic and textured lustre.

From a distance, this work appears like lacquered leather wallpaper embossed with a lozenge pattern. The grid lines, the visible part of his foldings, are the folding edges of the paper. They unfold three-dimensionally into space with each of the strips showing an own grid colour. On the left the bars are green, red in the centre, and blue on the right. Thus, the colours are the key to the puzzle about the work’s short title: "RGB" (red, green, blue). The lozenge fields shimmer glossy leathery, slightly metallic, owed to the graphite that the artist has applied as a last working step. However, not the entire surface is treated evenly in this way.

Rather, in the centre of each square, red shines through as basic colour, occasionally supplemented with green. An intriguing interplay between red, green and metallic graphite black is created, framed by the basic colour of the lozenge pattern and dramatized by the structures of the biomorphic form individual to each leaf. At this point at the latest it becomes clear that this must be a work of Daikoku, when one is familiar with his abstract and biomorphic drawing. The refinement of the graphite drawing has been strategically sacrificed in favour of the work as a whole, the triptych, as the artist must have inscribed the pattern with the biomorphic motifs with a pencil or the like into the still wet foundation. If graphite is now applied in the dried state, sometimes more intensively, sometimes less, a dark, oscillating colour skin is created which is reminiscent of shimmering fish skin or leather wallpaper. Through the artist’s treatment the paper has entirely lost its character and has turned into a new material, which to touch and to feel seems to be the genuine interest of the observer, as we are not only visual people, but have other senses, too. Fairly soon, the hand attempts to fathom the material, as we have often experienced at the paper positions berlin.

It is actually logical for the sculptor Daikoku to explore the third dimension also with his paper works, just as other artists of my gallery – Ursula Sax and Gil Shachar, to name only two of them – have done.

The diversity of his new work group is revealed in concentrated form in "RGB". Moreover, it shows in many different ways in the individual smaller sheets, which are either stepped zigzag shapes, as the folds run horizontally, forming strict orthogonal grids, or there are folds within the paper field that do not go as far as the edges, but create a very special ‘landscape’ of elevations and depressions in the paper.

The cosmos of this new creative field is currently being explored by the artist. This is just the beginning!

Takayuki Daikoku’s present solo-exhibition in the gallery’s street parlour is accompanied by the solo-exhibition "Lumière" of Hitomi Uchikura. This artist also shows a work series based on paper, yet with a different artistic approach. However, both artists show to what extent paper as a creative material and source of inspiration is rooted in Japanese culture.