IHN Gallery in Seoul is showing the second installment of JeongMee Yoon’s photographic series “The Pink and Blue Project.” The idea behind the series was simple enough—to examine what conditions children’s blue and pink preferences: is it nature, nurture, marketing?—but Yoon’s execution is both meticulous and imaginative. The first set of photographs, in most cases taken in 2006, shows their subjects (little girls and boys) encircled by their color-coded possessions—pink and blue, respectively. Shot with the wide-angle lens, the images initially overwhelm by the mass of monochrome objects big and small. In the pink prints in particular, the girls seem to blend into the field of pink dolls, dresses and books.
The Pink Project I – Maia and Her Pink Things, 48×48″, Light Jet Print, 2006, ©Jeongmee Yoon, Image courtesy of the artist
The Pink Project II – Maia and Her Pink & Blue Things, 48×48″, Light Jet Print, 2009, ©Jeongmee Yoon, Image courtesy of the artist
Fast forward another three years, to 2009, and the same children pose in updated interiors. The boys, of course, are still proudly showing off their cars and sports parphanelia. The girls, many having “graduated” out of pink and into blue, are now independent from their background. No longer cute live ornaments swathed in pink and matching their arranged surroundings, the girls appear to take charge over the multitude of objects around them. It could be just the function of color (colder blue does not subsume their pinkish skin), or it could be my own reading based on the ubiquitous assumption that pink=marketing of girlhood=compromised personality. In either case, Maia and Her Pink Things, (2006) compared to Maia and Her Pink & Blue Things, (2009) is a case in point. In the early print the girl is subsumed into the pink arrangement, in fact the pink bear and the Disney princess are more visible than Maia herself. In the later version, where she is posed on the dividing line that splits the room diagonally into pink and blue parts, the pink portion is in the background, appropriately, providing an interior version of atmospheric perspective. That is the limit of its function in the image. Meanwhile, the blue segment (of which Maia is now a part—she is wearing a blue top), lets the viewer know unequivocally the relative place of the person and her possessions—Maia is the focus here.
You can see more of Yoon’s work on her webpage.
“Lullaby,” 2009, 12 minutes, edition of 5, image courtesy of the gallery
Kyoto-based photographer Miwa Yanagi is known for her series of images that examine actual and mythical female identities. Her heroines are devoid of commonplace anxiety of time-triggered decay; they only gain from aging that brings the long-sought liberation from their circumscribed societal roles. Yanagi’s 2009 cycle of digital photographs “Windswept Women” was chosen to represent Japan at the 53rd Venice Biennale and generated quite a range of critical reactions. Last year she was also exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and at the National Museum of Art in Osaka. Her latest work is now on view at the Rat Hole Gallery gallery in Omotesando. The centerpiece of the eponymous show—a twelve-minute video “Lullaby” is in a dialogue with several of the artist’s silver gelatin prints from the fairy tale series of 2004–2006.
I will follow-up with a link to the full review of the Rat Hole Gallery exhibition in the next few days.
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Akiko Yanagimoto, Self-portrait Buddha, 2008, ceramics, 18 x 16 x 10.5 cm
This inaugural joint exhibition of several artists represented by ZENSHI and Yuka Sashahara opened last night at the old ZENSHI location. Its title—”Lucky Fortune”—references the auspicious events of the New Year, and the works in the show offer a range of light-hearted and playful ways to celebrate it.
Installation view, © Kosuke Ichikawa / Courtesy of the artist and FOIL GALLERY, Tokyo
As promised, here is a link by my Artforum review of Ichikawa’s “Murmur” show. The exhibition will be on view through February 6th at the Foil Gallery in Higashi-Kanda. When you visit the gallery do not forget to stop by Taro Nasu and gallery αM. Taro Nasu is closed until January 26 but will be reopened for a new Ryan Gandler’s solo show.
If you want to watch an interview with the artist and see some of his earlier work please click here.
Posted
on January 19, 2010, 3:22 AM,
by jfriedman,
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G-Tokyo 2010.
For two days only, on January 30th and 31st, the Mori Arts Center Gallery (Mori Tower, 52nd floor, Roppongi Hills, 6–10-1, Roppongi, Minato-ku) will be hosting an exhibition of contemporary art. Fifteen prime Tokyo galleries will contribute their artists’ works, so this will be a excellent opportunity to witness what is happening on Tokyo gallery trail in a single day, in a single location. Unlike in the galleries themselves you will have to pay to see the art, but the line up should be well worth ¥1000 of entrance fee. The participating galleries are: ARATANIURANO, Gallery Koyanagi, Gallery SIDE2, hiromiyoshii, Kenji Taki Gallery,Kodama Gallery, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Mizuma Art Gallery, Ota Fine Arts,SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, ShugoArts, Taka Ishii Gallery, TARO NASU, Wako Works of Art, YAMAMOTO GENDAI. For more information in English go to the G-Tokyo webpage.
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Posted
on January 17, 2010, 4:52 AM,
by jfriedman,
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Alin Huma,
Annie Wharton,
Chris JahnckeGallery Alpha M,
David Kennedy Cutler,
Jay Davis,
Joseph Ari Aloi,
Kengo Kito,
Kenji Taki Gallery,
Kenny Komer,
Kopp,
Mark Gibson,
Motus Fort.
Jay Davis
False Woods, 2009,
8×10″
Acrylic on vinyl
Image courtesy of the Motus Fort gallery
Davis is one of over half a dozen artists in the group show “Drrreeeeaaaaammmmmsssssssszzzzz!!!!” at the Motus Fort gallery. His four paintings on view are done in multi-layered acrylic which plays up the translucent quality of the pigment, exposing plane upon plane of glaring lights. These appear to slide in and out of the foreground, emphasizing dreamscapes that are stabilized, at least in thee of the works, by a grid of tree trunks. Davis’s pendant works Happy Boat (2009) and False Woods (2009) are separated by Dan Kopp’s Tree Mover of the same year. Thematic and iconographic similarities among these (the artists, according to the dealer Jeffrey Chiedo, shared a studio) set the three works in a dialogue that continues to unfold in the space of the show. The other works in the exhibition range from photographs, to gouaches to 3D objects, are by Kenny Komer, David Kennedy Cutler, Joseph Ari Aloi, Annie Wharton, Mark Gibson, Alin Huma and Chris Jahncke.
View of “Metamorphsis-objects today: Vol.7 Kengo Kito” at αM gallery
Just around the corner, the αM gallery (a non-profit, managed by Musashino Art University) was showing a very peculiar installation by Kengo Kito. The whole space is upholstered in plaid fabrics of contrasting colors, and most of the walk about space held an assemblage of umbrellas and parasols of various elks. As I squeezed between one of the walls and an umbrella cluster I could not help but think of Anish Kapoor’s current installation at the Guggenheim in New York. There, an imposing structure of Cor-Ten steel is placed so that in order to view (or experience) the piece one has to approach it from three separate vantage points accessible though three different galleries. The idea behind Kapoor’s approach is making the viewer reconstruct the work in its entirety based on a sequence of views. Kito’s piece, on the other hand, functions by way of simultaneous under and over stimulation as the tangibility of space is reduced by the same cloths that overwhelm the sense of vision. The exhibit, “Metamorphsis-objects today: Vol.7 Kengo Kito” is curated by Kazuo Amano of Toyota Municipal Museum of art.
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I will follow up this posting with a proper exhibition review, in the meanwhile, I strongly recommend you see Foil Gallery’s latest show which features fifteen works by Kosuke Ichikawa (in the photo above). The artist works in an unusual medium of incense, pigmenting or burning designs onto the sheets of washi paper. The images on display contain his memories of the woods as seen in the dark, with only a flashlight lighting the way. According to the artist, this was the first time when the subject of his work was a living thing. Hence the title of the show—”Murmur,”—the sounds still circulating through the paper avatars of nocturnal forest.
Untitled, paper and incense, mounted on wood panel, 1050 x 1060 mm, detail
The works are finely presented, with the artist’s latest creation (the image at the top) placed on the axis with the entrance, and another, a lush composition with endless shades of black—a focal point of the entrance space.
An absolute must see.
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