Modern Painters Review
Mika Tajima
Mika Tajima
Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami Beach, Florida
December, 2008
A 1969 New York Times article reported a debate between the United States and the Vietcong about, of all things, the proposed dimensions of the diplomatic round table that was being built for the singular purpose of having peace talks in Paris. Focusing on the diplomatic table that we hear about but never see, Mika Tajima’s exhibit, titled Deal or No Deal, embraces this odd circumstance as the stepping off point to initiate a conceptual framework expressed by a personal visual logic made of bright orange and green circles and lines that ubiquitously permeate a roomful of human sized slatted wooden panels. Some of the panels are reflective playing with the eye between what is there, what is reflected and what is cutout creating optically rich surfaces. Smaller wall constructions riff off of the larger panels layering graphic prints of the same shapes and colors with black and white plastic transparent circular cutouts that are mounted flawlessly into painted frames. These objects possess the seamless finesse of the factory-made even though Tajima makes each piece personally with the assistance of master woodworkers.
The Bauhausian utopian expectation that the merging of form to function would heighten and “save” civilization goes awry in the apparent crucial quibblings over the specs of the Vietnam Peace Talks table. While taking into serious account the need of art in society, Tajima proposes whether fantasy and desire successfully translate into a form that can both be practical and beautiful without being absurd or alienating.
