Past Exhibition

Unreliable Reality – The Where of This World

The Shiseido Gallery is pleased to announce that it will host an exhibition by the artist collective known as “Me” (meaning “eye” in Japanese). Titled “Unreliable Reality – The Where of This World,” this exhibition will run from July 18th (Fri) through August 22nd (Fri), 2014.

Me is an artist collective comprised of Haruka Kojin along with Kenji Minamigawa and Hirofumi Masui, the latter two being members of the “expressive action squad” called “wah document.” Wah document's main mission is to execute ideas for works of art collected from the public. In 2012, Minamigawa and Masui began taking up such ideas put forth by Haruka Kojin and formed Me. In 2013, they attracted wide attention at Setouchi Triennale with their project called Maze Town - Phantasmagoria Alleys, in which they renovated an abandoned house into completely different spaces by placing numerous walls and doors to create an experience of “strange-feeling spaces.” That same autumn, in an external project of the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, the Me joined with local citizens to undertake a project called Day With a Man's Face Floating in the Sky, which as the name suggests aimed to create a giant sculpture of a man's face floating in the outside air (this project is still underway). For Arrangement of Conditions exhibition at Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium, they used a variety of devices to change the art gallery into a space reminiscent of a warehouse.

This exhibition will be the Me's first in Tokyo, and for it they create a new installation work to transform the space of Shiseido Gallery into a distinctive space. Their inspiration comes from a vision that Kojin had as a five year-old girl. As she was rolling on the ground gazing up at the sky during her kindergarten exercise period, she gradually began to feel that she was about to “fall” into the sky, and the feeling grew so strong that she had to look around to see if the other nearby children were still on the ground. “I felt it was really difficult to keep my body stuck to the earth just standing on my two feet, connected to it with nothing but the soles of my shoes.” While we live in a world where we take gravity for granted, at one point or another (usually as children) most of us have probably wondered how we stay attached to the round Earth without falling off. And if we think about how the Earth rotates while also revolving around the sun, it will occur to us also that we are never really in the same location in space for even an instant. Considering our own existence from such perspectives, it does indeed seem quite marvelous that we are able to stay here on this planet without being drawn out into the great expanse of the universe. Nevertheless, we do call this condition our reality.

As an opportunity to turn our attention to that “unreliable reality,” this exhibition will create within the gallery such indoor spaces as we may recognize as having seen before. Even as visitors experience these and layer in their own memories, a certain sculptural contrivance will gradually add an additional sense of strangeness, one likely to be akin to the feeling that Kojin had as that child looking up at the sky. The Shiseido Gallery cordially invites you to visit this imagination-opening, senses-swaying experiential exhibition, as it explores the “where of this world” we live in.

■“Me” Profile and Past Exhibitions

Me is an artist collective comprised of Haruka Kojin and members of wah document.
Active since 2012, it makes viewers' eyes (“me”) into travelling companions, creating works that intuitively carry awareness to the boundaries of as-yet unseen realms.

2012 Sumida River Art Project, Site-Specific Night Safari / Sumida River, Tokyo
2013 Setouchi Triennale, Maze Town – Phantasmagoria Alleys / Shōdo Island, Kagawa
2013 Fictional Scaper / The Zou-No-Hana Terrace, Kanagawa
2013 Utsunomiya Art Museum external project, Day With a Man's Face Floating in the Sky / Utsunomiya Art Museum, Tochigi
2014 Arrangement of Conditions, Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium, Fukuoka

■“Me” Staff Profiles

Director
Kenji Minamigawa

Born in Osaka in 1979. Lives in Saitama. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts (M.F.A.), 2009.
In January 2006 launched wah document as a team dedicated to bringing reality to artistic ideas publicly solicited from others.

2009 Sumida Riverside Hall Gallery, Sumida River Interesting / Tokyo
2012 Water and Land – Niigata Art Festival, Just-for-Fun Factory / Niigata

Artist
Haruka Kōjin

Born in Hiroshima in 1983. Lives in Saitama. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts (M.F.A.), 2009.
Exhibits works both in Japan and abroad, including the United States, Brazil, and elsewhere. Known for creating “strange feeling spaces” (ikūkan) extracted intuitively from everyday scenes, and recreating these as phenomena installations within the spaces of art museums and galleries.

2008 Quando vidas se tornam forma (When Life Takes Form) / Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo
2011 New Environments Created by Architecture and Art—The Future of “Feeling” / Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
2013 Setouchi Triennale, Contact Lens, Reflectwo / Inujima, Okayama

Producer
Hirofumi Masui

Born in Shiga in 1980. Lives in Saitama. Graduated from teachers training course at Bukkyo University, 2008.
Adjunct professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design since 2009. Active member of wah document since November 2006.

■Reference Photos

  • Collage for the exhibition, 2014
  • Drawing for the exhibition, 2014
  • Drawing for the exhibition, 2014

Gallery Talk with Me

Date & Time: August 3rd(Sun), 2014 14:00 - 16:00
Place: Word Hall, Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Building, 9th Floor
Capacity: 60 guests (selected by lottery if requests exceed capacity)
Participation Fee:None
Inquiries: The Shiseido Gallery (Tel 03-3572-3901 or Fax 03-3572-3951)

“Unreliable Reality –The Where of This World” Exhibition Details

Organized by Shiseido Co., Ltd.
Duration: July 18th (Fri) to August 22nd (Fri), 2014
Location: Shiseido Gallery
Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Building, B1, 8-8-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Tel:03-3572-3901; Fax:03-3572-3951
Hours: Weekdays 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM,
Sundays and holidays 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Closed Mondays (including holidays falling on Monday)
Admission is free

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