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HOME > FOCUS>
Soju Tao, Michiro Tokushige Two-person exhibition at takefloor |
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Soju Tao, Michiro Tokushige
Two-person exhibition at takefloor
Jeffrey Ian Rosen |
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Soju Tao
Installation view
takefloor, 2006
© artist and takefloor |
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Michiro
Tokushige
Garden09
Oil on canvas, 80x117cm, 2005
© artist and takefloor |
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takefloor, located in Ebisu, is one of the more promising of a
recently emerging second generation of Tokyo contemporary gallery spaces. Owned
and operated by artist Kazuyuki Takezaki, takefloor has quickly gained an international
reputation as a home for young Japanese artists willing to experiment; artists
whose work is challenging and which is understanding of and engaged with contemporary
art discourse. This is not surprising, as owner Kazuyuki Takezaki has himself
exhibited with Paris-based gallery Yvon Lambert and in Tokyo with Roppongi based
gallery Ota Fine Arts.
Presently on view in the gallery, a room not much larger than three tatami mats,
is a two-person exhibition of artists Michiro Tokushige and Soju Tao.
Michiro Tokushige is the oldest in the gallery's growing stable of young artists.
Born in 1971 and having studied at both the Nagoya Institute of Technology and
the Nagoya Art University, Tokushige approaches art making in an openly experimental,
process oriented manner. This is evident in the present exhibition as the artist
has made a switch from his installation-based art of the past to the production
of paintings and (not on view) works on paper. More imaginative schematics than
paintings proper, Tokushige's works feature painted images of trees and fanciful
organic forms within a forest-like landscape. The paintings represent an attempt
by the artist to move from the more abstract, imaginary architecture of his installation
and sculptural work back to the "drawing board" and a return to more
straightforward representation. The resulting paintings are less "unfinished"
than in-process and the playful nature of the work is ultimately rewarding.
Born in 1977, Soju Tao was a student of the SLADE School of Fine Art, London.
Tao takes a similarly experimental approach to art practice; the artist subverts
any notion of quality in his work through the production of countless pieces in
a wide variety of media with widely varying stylistic results. On view at takefloor,
displayed in a series of closed binders which the viewer is invited to investigate,
is a series of works on paper which are part of the artist's ongoing project in
which work is produced and distributed by the artist's own pseudo-company "Hachimoku
Shokai". A direct engagement with the notion of cultural production, Hachimoku
Shokai effectively cancels itself out as a business; the company is unable to
control the production of its sole worker, the artist, and its resulting company
identity is undefined. Visitors to the gallery, as art consumers, may be presented
with a childlike drawing, a hastily constructed sculpture or a sound piece. It
is difficult to determine which, if any, defines the Hachimoku company aesthetic.
If one accepts the validity of Tao's practice then it would be difficult not to
find something to like within the seemingly endless selection of works contained
within the binders on offer at takefloor; regardless, the artist's vitality makes
for an engaging experience.
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Soju Tao
Untitled
Ink jet printing, pencil, 21x29.7cm, 2005
© artist and takefloor |
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Michiro
Tokushige
Installation view; Uma no Hone no Dokoka, 2005
© artist and takefloor |
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