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Ryo Shimizu “Grassroots Prophet”
Loko Gallery
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Artists
Ryo Shimizu
This is the first of two solo exhibitions curated by the gallery that will feature the work of a Japanese and Israeli artist. It is part of a partnership program with The Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, whose theme this year is “Invisible,” and the overarching concept is “Displace.”
Here Ryo Shimizu focuses on the relationship between space and its background, using primarily Japanese characters to express this. Since 2011, he has been working on installations using architecture, video, text and voice, based on fieldwork he has carried out in Japan and abroad.
The title of this exhibition, “Grassroots Prophet,” comes from the idea of “a reverse causal relationship,” that is, the notion that the past has no influence on the present or the future, but that the future affects the past. Chinese literary scholar Shizuka Shirakawa argues in his book “Kanji (Chinese characters)” that, “Kanji encloses a memory of the era of words far away before characters were born.” While Kanji and characters conceal such magical elements, it can also be said that they are tools that penetrate into everyday life, or symbols without consciousness. Shimizu employs characters as a creative medium because he believes that the “unconsciousness” or “atmosphere” that is lurking behind ordinary spaces from ancient times can be visualized.
In this exhibition, Shimizu focuses primarily on interviews with “Wansei” - Japanese nationals born in Taiwan while it was a Japanese colony - whom the artist encountered during his artist residency in Taiwan. Exhibited in an installation format that makes use of the multi-layered structure of the gallery space, he will also present a video of a session with Yoko Nakada, a Wansei known as “Reverse singing grandma,” this work borrowing typical example sentences from English teaching materials.
[Related Events]
Artist Talk
Date: Feb. 10 (Sat), 19:00-
Speaker: Keisuke Ozawa
*Event in Japanese.
Here Ryo Shimizu focuses on the relationship between space and its background, using primarily Japanese characters to express this. Since 2011, he has been working on installations using architecture, video, text and voice, based on fieldwork he has carried out in Japan and abroad.
The title of this exhibition, “Grassroots Prophet,” comes from the idea of “a reverse causal relationship,” that is, the notion that the past has no influence on the present or the future, but that the future affects the past. Chinese literary scholar Shizuka Shirakawa argues in his book “Kanji (Chinese characters)” that, “Kanji encloses a memory of the era of words far away before characters were born.” While Kanji and characters conceal such magical elements, it can also be said that they are tools that penetrate into everyday life, or symbols without consciousness. Shimizu employs characters as a creative medium because he believes that the “unconsciousness” or “atmosphere” that is lurking behind ordinary spaces from ancient times can be visualized.
In this exhibition, Shimizu focuses primarily on interviews with “Wansei” - Japanese nationals born in Taiwan while it was a Japanese colony - whom the artist encountered during his artist residency in Taiwan. Exhibited in an installation format that makes use of the multi-layered structure of the gallery space, he will also present a video of a session with Yoko Nakada, a Wansei known as “Reverse singing grandma,” this work borrowing typical example sentences from English teaching materials.
[Related Events]
Artist Talk
Date: Feb. 10 (Sat), 19:00-
Speaker: Keisuke Ozawa
*Event in Japanese.
Schedule | Jan 16 (Tue) 2018-Feb 15 (Thu) 2018 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||||
| Website | http://lokogallery.com/en/grassrootsprophet/ | ||||||
| Venue | Loko Gallery http://lokogallery.com/en/ | ||||||
| Location | 12-6 Uguisudani-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0032 | ||||||
| Access | 7 minute walk from the North exit of Daikanyama Station on the Tokyu Toyoko line, 10 minute walk from the South exit of JR Shibuya Station. | ||||||
| Phone | 03-6455-1376 | ||||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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