The fact that we can perceive the world as is, or live and think in this world is nothing but "re-playing" the experienced world by modifying and editing the minute elements constructing this world. This "re-playing of the world" has continuously been done in the art world, but was rare to cut into the "re-playing of the world" itself. It is true that there was once a quite radical attempt by a number of artists who used their bodies to cut into this dimension of the world. Here you see the existence of a gap between the so-called "avant-garde" artists and Takahiro Tanaka.

The reason why the world needs to be continuously re-played will best be explained if you see it from another view point, that the world is seamlessly changing itself. If you can perceive the idea, there would be no need of superficial radicalism. One can see in Tanaka's photography and installations that if you can awaken your "sense" towards the details of the world on a neuropsychiatric level, the world in front of your eyes will change its existence.

I am not trying to categorize his attempt on conceiving this world as Minimalism. It could rather be said that this artist seems to be conceiving the world as a mechanical arrangement of numerous parameters, and fine tuning it according to the occasions.

It is somehow like the Audioists who perceive not only the sound source, but the voltage, connection, and even the humidity, temperature, and the material of the wall as the prime source of "listening to music". Within their hands, the fairly common sounds, even though it is the same common sound, revives as a totally new sound that we wonder if our organs have been altered.

There, to "listen" doesn' ft always have to be perceived by the ear. Without understanding the metaphor "listening with one's eyes" or "skin" in a strict way, it is hard to explain this experience.

"Seeing" Takahiro Tanaka's works gives the same feeling. It is not a coincident that when admiring his work, there is a point when one can't be sure if he is looking at the subject, or listening to it. Tanaka is extracting the world as an audio system to its limit. Experiencing his work creates a climax of our transient and intangible life.

Noi Sawaragi (art critic)