information
on : 12 November 2022 thorugh 25 December 2022
at : MOU Onomichi City University Museum, Onomichi, Japan
Opening times: Friday-Tuesday, 10am~18:00 Closed on Wednesday, Thursday
Admission: free
Organized by :Onomichi City University Education & Reserch Project
Cosponsored by: Onomichi City Board of Education, Chupicom Onomichi, Onomichi FM Broadcasting Co., Ltd., The Onomichi Shimbun, The Chugoku Shimbun
With additional assist from: Ueda Gabou
Media partner: Glass Magazine
Curated by: Yutaka Inagawa (self-curation)
• Artist talk | 12 November 2022 17:00~18:30
Moderator: Naoko Sumi (Curator, Hirosima City Museum of Comtenporary Art)
Press Release (en)
The MOU Onomichi City University Museum is thrilled to present eASY mECHANISM | 符と思う, a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Yutaka Inagawa.
In this exhibition, Inagawa uses a wide range of mediums—including newly created video work, digital prints of varying styles, sculptural configurations, reworked paintings, and installations—to create fictitious realms of multipolar or porous conditions in which evoke a sense of connectivity and complexity in the expansive landscape that defies easy categorization.
The 18-minute-long, single-channel video Meet the Sealion is filmed in Onomichi, Japan at the former residential house of the 20th century artist and mentor Wasaku Kobayashi, with preserved furniture and housewares serving as emotive, personal mementos of Wasaku and his family. The video is comprised of 23 segments that correspond to the paragraphs of a poetic script derived from a sequence of heated tweets Inagawa was following in early 2022.
Along with the ethereal video work, Inagawa brings a sense of life's flux and response to the physical characteristics of an exhibition venue which was also formerly a house converted into an art space in the same neighbourhood. Multiple everyday influences, including his immediate environment and societal concerns, serve as a springboard for approaching a realm that is overwhelmingly elusive. In a similar manner, paintings that have been transformed take on new features and structures and are displayed as one of modular units that swing between "completed artwork" and "still malleable materials". A series of satin prints, in contrast, bring the concept of digital skin to life. The digitally accelerated hues and textures that constitute the digital's malleable materiality are woven into the high-sheen substance of these large satin fabrics. In addition, a feeling of entropy permeates the whole installation due to a series of unitary constructions called Sculptural Pedestal, which reconstitute the fluid interplay between the spatial / architectural elements of the exhibition space and the artwork.
It should be noted that the show's title, eASY mECHANISM | 符と思う, is a significant structure in and of itself. It is designed to have several dimensions. The title is composed of Japanese and English words juxtaposed, with the structure modelled by the exhibition's complexity and aimed to reflect the same underlying strategic architecture. The Japanese part is nonsensical and has no equivalent in any other language, yet it does have some connection to spirituality or what might be considered pseudo-spirituality. The English part places an emphasis on the idea of a language's capacity to serve as a container.
This exhibition's strategic approach reflects Inagawa's recent practice as an artist-curator, which involves the development of transcultural exhibitions and projects utilising unorthodox conventions and frameworks. Inagawa is in charge of the overall direction of the show, including the exhibition's layout as well as the design and content of promotional materials, giving the exhibition the air of an artist-curated exhibition.
By dissolving the binary nature of the perceptual system, eASY mECHANISM | 符と思う creates a rich, multifaceted sensory experience.