System of Surroundings – Kishio Suga

Kishio Suga (1944-) is a central member of the Mono-ha art movement that took place from the late 1960s to the 1970s. For over 50 years since, he has remained active at the forefront, opening up unique horizons in contemporary art through the essential world of his work expressed by means of the diverse existence of things. Suga has already established an international reputation as one of the leading artists of Postwar Japanese art, and has participated in more than 400 exhibitions in Japan and abroad. His works are also housed in over forty museums throughout the world including the Centre Pompidou, the Tate Modern, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, M+, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. In producing his work, Suga collects and selects “things” such as wood, stone, metal, and rope, and by approaching the relationships between “things” and “things,” “things” and space, “things” and people in various subtle ways, draws out and reveals the very depths of the diverse existence of “things.”I believed the world existed as an unbroken continuity wherein the distinction between individual ‘mono’ revealed themselves. I could not, therefore, tolerate conceptualization that gave priority to thinking and removed individuality and reality.” (Kishio Suga, “Latent Infinity” KISHIO SUGA, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015) Since the beginning of his artistic practice, Suga has always been aware of the fact that the existence of “things” which are individually dispersed throughout the world, indeed connect with to one another to create a cohesive whole. Observing stones and trees in their natural habitats of forests, groves, and rivers since his childhood, led him to realize that nature, things, and people are all equal and connected. Suga states,“Everything is indivisible. All things have their own place by existing.” This sensitivity is reflected in his work.

Installation view from “20th Anniversary of the Iwate Museum of Art: Kishio Suga: The Existence of ‘Things’ and the Eternity of ‘Site’” at Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka, Japan, 2022

Kishio Suga, System of Surroundings, 1998, wood, steel pipes, steel rods, 212 x 410 x 600 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery

Every game begins with “LOVE” – Udomsak Krisanamis

For 2023, 3 part installation at 100 Tonson Foundation Bangkok, Udomsak Krisanamis has created a checker board play house for a public to come in and play. The installation consists of original fabric chairs, silk screened checker board with bin caps, rack of records and a record player. 

Udomsak Krisanamis, Every game begins with “LOVE”, 2023, Silk screened checker tables, chairs with original fabric, bin caps, beer crates, works on canvas, works on paper, found materials, record player, records, sound system, dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and GALLERY SIDE 2

The Cowboy on the Grass – Yuichiro Tamura

Like issues of many social divisions, disparity, and environmental problems, there are piles of work that must be solved today. Contemporary artists who work hard on these issues every day and night are like the cowboys that ride the wild bulls and rope the raging horses. And if we were to describe them as so, artists, therefore cowboys, need a rest. Sitting on the green carpet, cowboys are resting as they like. Around their neck there is a tied bandana. And paisley, a familiar design for bandanas, is crawling on the bandanna. Paisley, which is said to give comfort to our human heart, is likened to protozoans such as a euglena or paramecium, a seed or spore of a plant, or an embryo, and is often associated with life and the spirit. However, paisley also crawls on bandanas worn by thieves and gangsters. Whilst involved in such violence, the life of paisley remains a mystery. To entrust oneself to such a paisley could provide not only the artist but also those of us living today with a fundamental rest and violent mystery on a global scale. “The Cowboy on the Grass” is a performative work in which three bandana-wearing cowboys sit on a huge green bandana-patterned carpet and rest in their own way. At the heart of the work is the encounter and mixture of the mysterious being of paisley and human beings, and the restoration of life and soul through it. The composition is based on “The Luncheon on the Grass” by Edouard Manet.

Yuichiro E Tamura, The Cowboy on the Grass, 2024, Carpet, cowboys, 500 x 500 cm
Courtesy of the artist and KOTARO NUKAGA

LINES LINES – Kengo Kito

MtK Contemporary Art presents “LINES,” an installation by Kengo Kito (1977-), complemented by a series of video works streaming on the expansive display backdrop. These videos are a collaborative effort between CG creator Keita Morie and sound artist Akiyoshi Yasuda. On the screen, primitive life forms appear, rotating and gradually transforming into organic forms, and finally a man and a woman are shown in a drama of metamorphosis of life. The author of the video is the video creator Keita Morie. He says that he created it based on the spiral shape and colorful palette of Kengo Kito’s hula hoops. Accompanying the video is Akiyoshi Yasuda’s electronic sound. He says likewise that he attempted to create music based on the works of Kengo Kito. The origin of music is said to be the voice of the mother heard by the fetus through the amniotic fluid. Akiyoshi’s sound, synchronized with Morie’s images, will lead our imagination to the world of the origin of sound. And then there is Kito’s “LINES,” which are regularly lined up as if towering from the earth. Standing in front of this work, the colors of the multiple lines blend together on our retinas, evoking the image of primordial vision in which we simply perceive the colors. And by walking around the work, the dynamic shifts in color gradations contribute to a holistic sensory experience. Our eyes, being compound, perceive the object three-dimensionally and recognize it as part of the living world. “LINES” can be said to be a work that allows us to experience the dimension of living colors.

Kengo Kito, LINES, 2024, movie, color coated aluminum pipe, 330.9 x 650 x 800 cm
Courtesy of the artist and MtK Contemporary Art

Puff Marshie (Hirosaki Version, Shanghai Version) – Yoshitomo Nara

Puff Marshie (Hirosaki and Shanghai Version) (2006), a seminal work by Yoshitomo Nara, portrays the head of a pensive girl in the form of a cream puff. Originally exhibited in 2006 as part of Yoshitomo Nara + graf: A to Z at the Yoshii Brick Brew House, Hirosaki, Japan, the soft lines and minimal form emphasize the character’s sweet-yet-mischievous expression—an attitude that has become synonymous with Nara’s childlike universe. Made at the end of an intensely collaborative period for the artist, Puff Marshie marks a return to a more solitary practice and a new approach to creating three-dimensional forms.

Puff Marshie (Hirosaki Version, Shanghai Version), 2006, Urethane on FRP, 300 x 150 cm, Edition of 3, 1AP
© Yoshitomo Nara; Courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation and BLUM, Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York