Happiness, red 

Curator: Well, isn't that striking. Immediately, I'm drawn into its bold, almost joyful quality. There's something wonderfully unfettered about the way the red is laid down. Editor: It is quite gestural, isn't it? Here we have "Happiness, red" by Kazuaki Tanahashi, an acrylic on canvas that leans heavily into abstract expressionism. You can see the thick impasto and vigorous brushwork, almost like the application itself is the subject. Curator: I love that, application *as* subject. It does make you wonder about the labour, the physical act of creating this. Were they angry? Impassioned? I almost feel a flicker of fury along with the joy. It’s intriguing. Editor: The material processes really emphasize the artist’s intention here. Abstraction allows the viewer to really grapple with the visceral impact of the acrylic and gestural strokes on the canvas. Consider too the potential relationship between the "happiness" of the title and red paint itself: the color has many strong, potentially contradictory cultural meanings. Curator: Contradictory indeed. A child's fire engine and blood spilt both shout in red. Is Tanahashi thinking about how something joyous and alive can, in a heartbeat, transform into something potent with a dark undertow? Maybe a reflection of how precarious joy can be. Editor: Precisely. Red signals life, warning, and love—it's no accident that it's used so prominently across art and industrial design, carrying layered social associations with it. By titling this piece “Happiness, red”, Tanahashi points to those very tensions and invites our own engagement with materiality and interpretation. Curator: Which leaves you pondering it long after you leave the room, right? A burst of sunshine... tinged with just enough shadow to keep you grounded. That’s… happiness, perhaps. Editor: Yes, a potent reminder of the weight and possibilities of that loaded word.