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Keisuke Tanaka "Seizan"
Yamamoto Gendai
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Artists
Keisuke Tanaka
Keisuke Tanaka was born in Chiba prefecture in 1976 and studied sculpture at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He makes primarily wooden sculptures: a 10 sq cm pillar of camphor "carcass" was carved into a new object entitled "Mountain Reborn."
Wooden sculpture is said to have started in the 6th century around the same time that Buddhism was founded. While fabric is often used to express the movements of wind, and the dynamism of human activities through the protuberances of veins and arteries, Tanaka takes sculpture in new directions through the act of carving and whittling away wood and creating landscapes in the process.
The exhibition title is a quotation from an ancient Chinese poem that evokes sympathy for "Seizan" mountains as burial places.
Tanaka's work also uses acrylic with a light touch to color his sculpture, giving his work a certain sturdiness at first glance: viewers can make out the outlines and contours of a forest that seems to have been lifted straight out of an animated film or manga comic. While possessing the ready charm of a railway model that appeals to kids and adults alike, this is no pastoral scene. The bird's eye view that the sculptures afford gives viewers a sense of the composite makeup of life itself, its workings, the business of life and death.
This exhibition features a large-scale work measuring 3 meters across that invites viewers to a mountainous setting in early summer, the buzzing noises of insects all around. Looking down at mountains and up towards the clouds, viewers experience something of the floating sensation experienced by a deity, or a dead person. Or else one has a premonition of the sacred, as if entering by a lone path into a forest inhabited by spirits of the deceased.
Wooden sculpture is said to have started in the 6th century around the same time that Buddhism was founded. While fabric is often used to express the movements of wind, and the dynamism of human activities through the protuberances of veins and arteries, Tanaka takes sculpture in new directions through the act of carving and whittling away wood and creating landscapes in the process.
The exhibition title is a quotation from an ancient Chinese poem that evokes sympathy for "Seizan" mountains as burial places.
Tanaka's work also uses acrylic with a light touch to color his sculpture, giving his work a certain sturdiness at first glance: viewers can make out the outlines and contours of a forest that seems to have been lifted straight out of an animated film or manga comic. While possessing the ready charm of a railway model that appeals to kids and adults alike, this is no pastoral scene. The bird's eye view that the sculptures afford gives viewers a sense of the composite makeup of life itself, its workings, the business of life and death.
This exhibition features a large-scale work measuring 3 meters across that invites viewers to a mountainous setting in early summer, the buzzing noises of insects all around. Looking down at mountains and up towards the clouds, viewers experience something of the floating sensation experienced by a deity, or a dead person. Or else one has a premonition of the sacred, as if entering by a lone path into a forest inhabited by spirits of the deceased.
Schedule | Oct 4 (Sat) 2008-Oct 24 (Fri) 2008 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Oct 4 (Sat) 2008 18:00 - 20:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Venue | Yamamoto Gendai http://yamamotogendai.org/  | ||||
| Location | 3F Terrada Art Complex, 1-33-10 Higashi Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from Tennozu Isle Station on the Tokyo Monorail or Rinkai line. From JR Shinagawa station, take the Toei bus (towards Yashio Park Town), and get off at Tennouzubashi. The venue is 3 minute walk from there. | ||||
| Phone | 03-6433-2988 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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