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Ryuichi Ohira “Magnificent View”
Nanzuka Underground
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Artists
Ryuichi Ohira
Ryuichi Ohira develops his works by breaking down and reassembling the non-physical, from things that affect people’s automatic behaviors, to presences that have been made the subject of worship and faith from ancient times to today.
His scientific review of what people perceive as the sublimity of shapes and spaces, of an unexplainable air or presence, is apparent in his works. For instance, “Belt Partition” (2005), a piece that emphasizes and reaffirms the effect of motif with a realistic replication of a partition, made out of carved and painted wood, that creates compartments and dividers; “Sanctuary” (2010), a piece in which two golden surveillance cameras carved out of wood are arranged in the manner of guardian dogs on shrine grounds, symbolically implying a sacred space; and the aforementioned piece dedicated to Kamigamo Shrine, “Tongarimaru” (2013), in which he pursues an abstraction of the conical tatesuna (cones of sand), which are regarded as the shrine’s yorishiro (a place where spirits manifest), breaking them down into two primary geometric forms—the triangle as seen from straight on and the circle as seen from above.
This exhibition will consist of an installation of small to large, flat and three-dimensional woodcarvings and sculptures. There are some charred with abstract engravings, lines carved arbitrarily during the production process, and some charred with symbolic, figurative engravings; Ohira adopts carbonization as a method that enables him to come and go freely between the intentional and the unintentional, without being subject to chance, daring to venture to uncontrollable realms within his work. One can sense that through these experimental works he takes on the anti-art ideas that came forth from Automatism, Dada, and Fluxus, the “sacred objects” and “secular objects” written about in Mircea Eliade’s books, and Walter Benjamin’s concept of “aura,” pursuing the question of how the ineffable beauty and sublimity spoken of within all of these arise. Ohira presents us with the world of these pieces, burnt and blackened from his experimentation, under the guise of a “magnificent view.”
His scientific review of what people perceive as the sublimity of shapes and spaces, of an unexplainable air or presence, is apparent in his works. For instance, “Belt Partition” (2005), a piece that emphasizes and reaffirms the effect of motif with a realistic replication of a partition, made out of carved and painted wood, that creates compartments and dividers; “Sanctuary” (2010), a piece in which two golden surveillance cameras carved out of wood are arranged in the manner of guardian dogs on shrine grounds, symbolically implying a sacred space; and the aforementioned piece dedicated to Kamigamo Shrine, “Tongarimaru” (2013), in which he pursues an abstraction of the conical tatesuna (cones of sand), which are regarded as the shrine’s yorishiro (a place where spirits manifest), breaking them down into two primary geometric forms—the triangle as seen from straight on and the circle as seen from above.
This exhibition will consist of an installation of small to large, flat and three-dimensional woodcarvings and sculptures. There are some charred with abstract engravings, lines carved arbitrarily during the production process, and some charred with symbolic, figurative engravings; Ohira adopts carbonization as a method that enables him to come and go freely between the intentional and the unintentional, without being subject to chance, daring to venture to uncontrollable realms within his work. One can sense that through these experimental works he takes on the anti-art ideas that came forth from Automatism, Dada, and Fluxus, the “sacred objects” and “secular objects” written about in Mircea Eliade’s books, and Walter Benjamin’s concept of “aura,” pursuing the question of how the ineffable beauty and sublimity spoken of within all of these arise. Ohira presents us with the world of these pieces, burnt and blackened from his experimentation, under the guise of a “magnificent view.”
Schedule | Aug 30 (Sat) 2014-Sep 27 (Sat) 2014 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Aug 29 (Fri) 2014 18:00 - 00:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Venue | Nanzuka Underground http://www.nug.jp  | ||||
| Location | 3-30-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from exit 5 at Meiji-jingumae Station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines, 10 minute walk from the Takeshita exit of Harajuku Station on the JR Yamanote line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-5422-3877 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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