Biography

Chisato Tatsuyama (b.1991), originally from Yokohama (Japan), moved to France in 2019. She exhibits her artworks between France and Japan since then. Her artwork consists of collage illustrations that she creates as standalone pieces and also for collaborations with music bands, coffee brands, and the fashion industry.

Passionate about drawing since the age of 16, Chisato created abstract expressions incorporating mental landscapes and visual elements, often using collage techniques with recycled paper and fragments from her own previous drawings.

Artistic Approach

Chisato works on the themes of harmony, beauty, innovation, their sometimes accidental combinations and life itself.

As a student, she began scrapping “cute” images from fashion magazines. Gradually, Chisato realised that it was possible to express more ideas by using a mixture of backgrounds, images of bodies or objects, transforming the way we perceive them. This method later became the starting point for her current production method.

Her way of doing things was at the beginning against the standards and notably those of the beauty magazines. If her adolescence was linked to the understanding of the strong values of the minorities, her twenties showed her from her point of view of vulnerable woman, the difficult realisation of a distorted Japanese social structure. Her early thirties began with her move to France and the birth of a new identity as a foreigner. It was through these transitions that she became aware that everyone, in one way or another, is a singular being and in some way a “minority”. Her way of seeing the world changed: she realised that there was no such thing as a majority or minority, only individuals who could not be described, or could only be described with difficulty, through the framework of modern society. Regardless of their origins or education, humans go back to the nature, to the original landscape of their hometown for example. Realising that the nature is the source of all living things, she wished to heal herself by incorporating motifs derived from nature into her work.

Her technique consists of assembling pieces cut from old magazines and other materials she has collected. Their combinations create accidental harmonies and connections that blend innovation and novelty into a new form. The boundary that emerges when a piece is glued to paper represents the creation of a new life form. Each piece may be small, but when combined, they create a new beauty, both accidental and warm. The same is true with people, other life forms and nature.

It is also true of collaborations with other people. Each image placed on a new medium while building an idea of a landscape shared by everyone, especially during collaborations, is an innovative and motivating experience. Chisato wishes to continue to create her own work but also to collaborate with many different actors to expand her perspectives.

Exhibition

• Chisato TATSUYAMA exhibition – Lyon, France – 24/04/2023 – 23/06/2023

• “Papers Traveling” exhibition – Tokyo, Japan – 26/08/2022 – 27/08/2022

• “La souffle” exhibition – Lyon, France 28/11/2021 – 20/12/2021

• “Sérendipité” exhibition – Tokyo, Japan 18/12/2020 – 21/12/2020

Artworks

The Breath of The Spring

Collage/printed paper, silver paper

29.7 × 21 cm

Jomon (2021)

Collage/printed paper, painted paper

29.7 × 21 cm

New Year (2021)

Collage/printed paper, painted paper

29.7 × 21 cm

Skin (2020)

Collage / printed paper, painted paper

22.5 × 21 cm