Artists

Isn’t “real” the notion that appears only when what is real is lost or about to be lost? If so, then thinking about the real is also thinking about the loss of the real. Ever since my teens, I have been feeling pain because the reality of the environment around me has become extremely diluted. One of the objectives of my artistic creation is to bring life back into this world that has lost its sense of the real and fallen into apathy. My method can be likened to a sandplay therapy. It involves, firstly, collecting miscellaneous images related to three questions: 1) What is it like to be living in the present, which is difficult to grasp really? 2) What is death? 3) What are the traits of human beings losing their sense of reality that are different from those of other animals? I represented these images with material objects and arranged them within the boundaries of a room or a box, weaving the questions into a narrative being created. Monkeys are important model materials used for arrangement. They metaphorically express the living parts of me that have been separated from myself, and they are also my avatars. I have thus far created dying monkeys, monkeys being reborn, immortal monkeys, and so on. For this work, I am placing living monkeys and other monkeys staring at them from a distance in the Cube. They are shown along with human models that exist in society and in time, feeling a strong sense of reality in a fictional system.

1955

Born in Tokyo

1980～1982

Trained in painting under KIKUHATA Mokuma at Bikkako (Tokyo)

1994～

Exhibited works mainly at solo and collective shows

Main exhibition

1994

Solo exhibition "A place like ruins," Gallery Kobun (Tokyo)

1997

Solo exhibition "Tracing edges," Gallery FLESCA (Tokyo)

1999

Solo exhibition "Incompetence," Key Gallery (Tokyo)

2003

Solo exhibition "A drawing collection: Monkeys walking down the road," Key Gallery (Tokyo)

2009

Solo exhibition "Water in this world," Span Art Gallery (Tokyo)

2011

Solo exhibition "Touching cows/bulls," Shinjuku Ganka Art Gallery (Tokyo)

2017

Solo exhibition "Transformation," SPC Gallery (Tokyo)

2018

Solo exhibition "Monkeys are inside the house," U-Forum Museum (Tokyo)

2020

Solo exhibition "Emergency evacuation," Gallery Brocken (Tokyo)

2021

Solo exhibition "Ancestral spirits," 1010 Art Gallery (Kanagawa Prefecture)

2003

Kame 3 Exhibition, Parco Gallery (Tokyo)

2006

Today's Anti-War Exhibition, Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels (Saitama Prefecture)

2017～2022

815 Exhibition, Gallery Kobun (Tokyo)