832 1983

This is Funasaka Yoshisuke’s “832,” and it looks like he’s playing with how we see—or maybe how we expect to see. I love how the gray backdrop almost vibrates, a kind of optical static. The grid is so precise, but then those little colorful figures are all wiggly, each with its own personality. They're like dancers, not quite in sync, each moving to their own internal rhythm. I keep thinking about how Yoshisuke might have approached this. Did he map out the grid first, then let the figures find their place within it? Or was it the other way around? The color palette is really interesting too. How the soft pastels interact with the stark geometricity of the grey grid, creating a sense of tension. I keep wondering about the relationship between abstraction and representation in Yoshisuke's work. It makes me think of Agnes Martin, but with a sense of humor. It’s a reminder that art is a conversation, across time and place, and that it's okay to ask questions, to not have all the answers.