EARTH WIND & FIRE
Takuro Kuwata ｜ Teppei Sako ｜ Shingo Tanaka
2020.09.04（fri.）- 2020.09.27 (sun.)
open on fri., sat., & sun.12:00-18:00
weekday appointments are available
NUIT BLANCHE 2020：2020.10.03（sat.）15:00-21:00
KYOTOGRAPHIE 2020
Special thanks to CANON | KOSAKU KANECHIKA | nordique
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eN arts, established on the concept of “Life with Art”, has introduced both domestic and international artists over the years. Viewing works of art in atypical spaces, such as art museums and galleries, is wonderful. When you encounter an astonishing work, your heart might flutter, and a work that you truly love can even cause you to lose the ability to move when you stand before it. Have you never wished to share your life with such works?
Our exhibition this month, Earth WIND & FIRE, presents a theme: “Contemporary art work in a real living space to ENJOY the art you love.” Exhibited are: EARTH – the ceramics of Kuwata Takuro, WIND – the video works of Sako Teppei that can make one sense the wind (This is my personal view), and FIRE – works in varying mediums created using different methods to express “fire” by Tanaka Shingo. Please enjoy “LIFE WITH ART”, a show for we which transformed eN arts into a more home-like atmosphere as the works of these leading artists are coordinated with Northern European furniture.
Naomi Rowe | eN arts
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Takuro Kuwata: Graduated from Kyoto Saga University of Arts, Ceramic art course, graduated 2001; Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center, graduated 2007. Kuwata creates unique, original pop-style ceramics using traditional techniques including one that produces cracked glaze during the firing ( Kairagi) and a second that involves stones which explode after being mixed with clay and fired (Ishihaze). His works have even gained notice in the world of high fashion. In a bold statement, Kuwata’s works were incorporated in some of the clothing presented at the Loewe Fall 2020 Collection.
Teppei Sako: Studied at Glasgow School of Art as an exchange student, 2010; Completed doctoral program at the Graduate School of Art, Kyoto Seika University, 2017. Winner of the 38th Canon – The New Cosmos of Photography, Grand Prize, 2015. Sako entrances his works’ viewers by creating videos that appear to be an extension of photographs as he manages to stretch out time of a definitive moment captured in a snapshot or as he incorporates a multitude of photographic fragments into a work.
Shingo Tanaka: Kyoto Seika University Graduate School of Arts, graduated 2008. Exhibited at VOCA 2019: The Vision of Contemporary Art, Ueno Royal Museum . From even before entering his studies, Tanaka has continuously focused on the theme of “fire,” using flames as a material, a method, and as a tool. As an artist exploring “fire” from different perspectives, he ventures back and forth in the narrow area between the act in which people control fire in “burning” or “melting” and the space “burning” and “melting” in which human guidance does not occur as he creates new works.
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Takuro Kuwata
- Takuro Kuwata “ Tea bowl ” | 2017年 | Porcelain, glaze, pigment, platinum | H170xW142xD140mm Photo by Keizo Kioku ©Takuro Kuwata, Courtesy of KOSAKU KANECHIKA
Kuwata, focusing on traditional teacups, seeks originality and new expression by going beyond typical boundaries in ceramics. Although firmed based on traditional methods, Kuwata fuses the traditional and the contemporary in his artistic dialogue between time, place, history, and nature. The outcomes are works unseen before, unique in a way that can both challenge and stimulate. With brilliant pop colors and boldly deformed shapes, Kuwata’s works overflow with creativity, garnering extraordinary praise both in Japan and abroad.
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Teppei Sako
- Teppei Sako “ICE ” | 2019 | 15 min 22 sec | video
With an ‘ah”, the camera shutter is clicked thoughtlessly when coming across something in town. The “ah” simply determines that the subject is photographed completely as is. Snapshots taken using this method are adapted to video (i.e., a continuous series of photographs). The definitive moment of the snapshot, the “ah”, is extended in video to an “ahhhhh”, completely exposing the natural form of the subject, unvarnished. While examining the limits and unique characteristics of a photograph, Sako creates works using “something akin to a photo”.
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Shingo Tanaka
- Shingo Tanaka “ re:trans #064 ” | 2020 | H305 x W300 x D55 mm | mixed media ©Shingo Tanaka
When in contact with fire, all materials are consumed, and their forms are thus altered.
Paper and wooden materials are turned into carbon, petroleum-based products are liquified, metallic items are warped – the reaction of materials to fire varies. By repeating, stressing, and layering in my creative process, I exhibit unfamiliar shapes and uniquely textured materials.
At the same time, it is not only the materials used, but the flame/fire itself is being influenced as fire must consume something to continue to exist. When you consider this internal paradox, one must say that the production of my works involves simultaneously both creation and destruction. By layering materials and then exposing them to be combusted, the iterative process involves both creation and devolution mixed together, and both are equal in the creative process.
From works possessing these characteristics, with the duality of creation and destruction, I try to explore the border of deliberate action and chance.
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-WORKS-
-INSTALLATION VIEW-
