ACT 2021 - Artists Contemporary TOKAS - 3rd Edition - Tanaka Shusuke, Hirose Nana & Nagatani Kazuma, Watanabe Go
Stasis Field 2020 > 2021
Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
20 February – 21 March 2021
For this year’s edition of the ACT exhibition, the Tokyo Arts and Space invited once again Tanaka Shusuke, Hirose Nana & Nagatani Kazuma, and Watanabe Go, who were supposed to participate in “ACT Vol. 2 ‘Stasis Field’” that was eventually canceled due to the spread of COVID-19. The works on display represent their respective creators’ response to the significant changes in terms of value standards that the recent events have caused in society.
Last year’s “ACT Vol. 2 ‘Stasis Field’” had to be called off only a week after it opened, and the spread of the novel coronavirus made it impossible to continue. As globalization continues to advance, this new and unknown virus became a troublesome apparatus that hinders us from moving around the world freely, and that has very much turned the earth itself into one large “stasis field.” Even now that nearly a year has passed, we are still unable to return to life as we know it, and time continues to stand still.
The three featured artists present works that challenge our perception of things, by incorporating elements of deformation and/or distortion resulting from subtle temporal or spatial manipulations. Considering also the year-long postponement of their exhibition, here they examine from their own individual points of view the current state of society, with human activities being called to a halt by a new and unknown virus.
TANAKA Shusuke
In his works, Tanaka projects his feelings of amazement or discomfort by adjusting colors or intentionally emphasizing certain parts of sceneries he encounters in daily life.
In light of the fundamental changes that all kinds of limitations and restrictions have caused in social life, Tanaka Shusuke explains that he is now looking at things in different ways than he used to. The works featured here, including some that were derived from his exhibit at “ACT Vol. 2,” highlight these transformations in Tanaka’s perception as one effect of the current pandemic.
Born in Wakayama in 1986. Lives and works in Osaka. Recent exhibitions: “MOMAW Summer Museum Project #10: A Lot of Other Days Loaded in Today,” The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, 2020, “I try to forget, but I can't remember,” Borderless Art Museum NO-MA, Shiga, 2019, “TWS-Emerging 2016 ‘Section of the circle’,” TWS Shibuya, Tokyo.
HIROSE Nana & NAGATANI Kazuma
Dismantling the functions of daily commodities and other objects we use on a daily basis, Hirose and Nagatani create works that question existing values and established views of familiar things.
For "Still life", the installation they present in this exhibition, the artists made molds of various fruits, vegetables, light bulbs, cups and other daily commodities one by one, and used a special kind of porcelain compound that causes deformations of the sculpted objects during the firing process. By arranging countless objects in accordance with the venue’s spatial properties, Hirose and Nagatani transform the entire space of their exhibition, to explore how we normally perceive the world.
Profile
Born in Osaka in 1980 (Hirose), born in Hyogo in 1982 (Nagatani). Live and work in Dusseldorf. Recent exhibitions: “Out of the Ordinary,” Ulm Art Foundation, Germany, 2019, “Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial”, Niigata, 2018. Participated in “Research Residency Program 2017” (TWS).
WATANABE Go
Watanabe Go uses 3-D computer graphics for modeling books, dishes and other objects from his immediate environment, based on which he creates video works in which these objects transform in ways that defy material or optical laws.
For this exhibition, he focused on the route from his home to his atelier, as a time and space different from the “normal” that he became aware of as a result of the various restrictions imposed on him by the novel coronavirus. Here, the 35 minutes that the trip normally takes can be seen as a special kind of element that conjoins the “normal” environments of the artist’s private life and creative work, which are usually not connected. On display here is a double screen animation piece based on a number of previously made items that are installed in one corner of the artist’s atelier.
Born in Hyogo in 1975. Lives and works in Tokyo. Recent exhibitions: “Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2021: E-MOTION GRAPHICS,” “Azamino Contemporary vol. 8: Go Watanabe / dislocation,” Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, 2017, “light difference -face III-,” URANO, Tokyo, 2017.
TOKYO ARTS AND SPACE HONGO - TOKAS
2 -4-16 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
ACT（Artists Contemporary TOKAS）Vol. 3 "Stasis Field 2020 > 2021"
Updated 18-02-2025
