Layers of Optical Experience

Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) presents a series of exhibitions ACT (Artists Contemporary TOKAS) that showcase noteworthy efforts by mainly artists who have previously participated in other TOKAS programs. This sixth edition features the works of two artists and one group; Ohba Takafumi, Suga Yushi, YOF (Ohara Takayoshi, Furusawa Ryu, Yanagawa Tomoyuki) that visually interpret the structure of cognition in various ways. These artists’ works please the eye with intricate surfaces and textures, while requiring viewers to move around the venue and adopt different perspectives to apprehend them completely. The timing and nature of cognition following perception, the formation of memories, and the forging of associations with other events differ from person to person, and the variations among these process are what make our world so multifaceted. We invite you to enjoy these artists’ wide-ranging explorations and innovative creations in person at the exhibition venue.

Ohba Takafumi explores the cognitive structures of remembering and forgetting, translating these concepts into two-dimensional works. His seemingly simple creations are the result of intricate, multi-layered processes. In this exhibition, his main focus was on “false memories” of things that did not actually occur and “appropriated memories” that actually belong to others. He adopts a novel approach, drawing forth new landscapes by manipulating seemingly humdrum photographs taken by acquaintances and interrogating ostensibly shared memories of specific times, all while engaging in dialogues with others. The uneven texture of the canvas and application of platinum and aluminum in places generate shadows and lights that vary based on the angle of view. Faint images behind thin paper reveal fragments of memory through cut-out drawings, evoking the inherently multifaceted nature of a single phenomenon or event.

Suga Yushi is concerned with “how paintings come into being,” and has consistently explored the medium of painting. His recent works involve painting motifs modeled with 3D computer graphics, and his drawing technique gives the works their distinctive character. In this exhibition, with the theme of “liminal,” Suga unveils his first installation, displaying the computer-graphic models he depicts alongside his paintings. On the back wall, the exhibition space is recreated with 3D computer graphics, and a video incorporates motifs similar to those found in Dutch and Flemish paintings. On the side walls, paintings based on the video-projected spaces are arranged. Previously, Suga emphasized duality by presenting works in pairs, but in this piece he divides single canvases into two sections with different backgrounds, enabling more seamless transcendence of boundaries within the paintings. This visually registers as horizontal lines bisecting the paintings, suggesting divisions between modernity and antiquity, the real and the imaginary, while causing emerging images to ambiguously traverse the pictorial spaces.

The artist collective YOF, consisting of Ohara Takayoshi, Furusawa Ryu, and Yanagawa Tomoyuki, conducts pragmatic research on color and space and explores the scope of image extension in digital media, thereby interrogating the presentness of visual expression. YOF’s recent installations include those employing monitors to delve into interplay between the viewer’s gaze and the video space. In this exhibition YOF deliver novel visual experiences, manipulating colors through dynamic interplay between varieties of light emitted by light fixtures and monitors, and through interaction with the layout of the space. They investigate the inherent conceptual boundaries of objects by creating abrupt visual disconnects between the subjects and their surrounding environments in actual space, much as pictures are incongruously cut and pasted in digital imaging. On perceiving this subtle dissonance, which could be missed with a cursory glance, viewers may be inspired to question various elements of their everyday lives.

Organizer: Tokyo Arts and Space, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture. Cooperation: MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY.