By staging a variety of actions that intervene in everyday life, Masaru Iwai creates work that plants "art" into the lives of local residents and visitors to his exhibitions. Recently, he has been creating performances and actions that involve the act of "cleaning" as a global standard, based on the concept of the "cleaner's high."
Iwai's materials include detergent, garbage, "korokoro" carpet cleaner, as well as other cleaning tools and waste and scrap materials. These things are then transformed into works that transcend the space of the gallery in an attempt to relate to larger contexts and issues.
The act of "cleaning" is associated with a symbolic purging or process of purification, and Iwai's acts of cleaning, inserted in radical ways into mainstream society, provoke friction and resistance, reactions which then serve to spur his creative practice on to more daring exploits. Previously, Iwai used video as a medium for capturing the provocative stances he adopted during his "cleaning" performances. By confronting audiences directly with this act, Iwai's performances not only elicited certain sensitivities to develop between individuals, but also created a certain visceral impact on social relations between those who were present. This exhibition is an opportunity for audiences to experience first-hand the radical nature of these messages implicit in Iwai's work.
January 23rd (Fri) 19:00-21:00 (drink order)
Artist talk with Ongoing director Nozomu Ogawa
+ Artist performance
January 25th (Sun) 19:00-23:00 (drink order)
Music event with Makoto Oshiro (self-made instrument), Ryu Furusawa (saw), Yoshiyuki Ichiraku (drums), Chihei Hatakeyama (donations welcome)
January 30th (Fri) 19:00-23:00
Art Center Ongoing 1st Anniversary Party
No comments yet