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Kohei Kobayashi "Right is Blue, Blue is Left, Left is Yellow, Yellow is Right"
Yamamoto Gendai
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Artists
Kohei Kobayashi
Kohei Kobayashi was a leading figure in the Nagoya art scene of the late 1990s, as well as a main member of the independent artist space Art Space Dot. Recently, he has been working actively as a video artist, participating in the Roppongi Crossing exhibition at the Mori Art Museum (2007) and the Waiting for Video exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (2009). This is Kobayashi's second solo show at Yamamoto Gendai, focusing on two new works that further develop the ideas explored in "2-7-1", which was previously shown at the Waiting for Video exhibition.
Kobayashi's works have changed dramatically since his last solo exhibition at this gallery. Previously, his works featured bleached human shadows, footage of white dioramas depicting anonymous, nowhere-like places taken with a security camera, or skillfully-edited videos of meaningless, restless movements.
By not correcting the shaky hand movements and displaced frames in his videos on purpose, Kobayashi draws attention to the triviality of the everyday. His works seem to be experimental attempts to surrender the fate of the work to pure coincidence. Despite the casual, unpolished appearance of these scenes, however, there is typically a distinguishing moment in which the authorial device embedded in the work is revealed, as if a magic show was unfolding silently within the city in which the work is set. The props for this "show" are common objects: rounded aluminum bowls, slippers slid into a pair of sneakers, plastic bottles standing by the side of the road. This time, the setting for his work is a residential "New Town", in which people go about picking up rubbish matter-of-factly, mowing the grass or riding on their bikes. Although these are mundane actions, the situation that arises when these people knowingly perform them in front of a camera transforms itself into something completely different, thanks to Kobayashi's "choreography".
Kobayashi's works have changed dramatically since his last solo exhibition at this gallery. Previously, his works featured bleached human shadows, footage of white dioramas depicting anonymous, nowhere-like places taken with a security camera, or skillfully-edited videos of meaningless, restless movements.
By not correcting the shaky hand movements and displaced frames in his videos on purpose, Kobayashi draws attention to the triviality of the everyday. His works seem to be experimental attempts to surrender the fate of the work to pure coincidence. Despite the casual, unpolished appearance of these scenes, however, there is typically a distinguishing moment in which the authorial device embedded in the work is revealed, as if a magic show was unfolding silently within the city in which the work is set. The props for this "show" are common objects: rounded aluminum bowls, slippers slid into a pair of sneakers, plastic bottles standing by the side of the road. This time, the setting for his work is a residential "New Town", in which people go about picking up rubbish matter-of-factly, mowing the grass or riding on their bikes. Although these are mundane actions, the situation that arises when these people knowingly perform them in front of a camera transforms itself into something completely different, thanks to Kobayashi's "choreography".
Schedule | Sep 26 (Sat) 2009-Oct 24 (Sat) 2009 Opening Hours Information
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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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