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\u201cGo, go, go, said the bird: humankind cannot bear very much reality,\u201d a retrospective exhibition of works by Hirofumi Isoya, was shown from September 9 to October 16 at SCAI PIRAMIDE, a special SCAI exhibition space that just opened last June in Roppongi. The exhibition encompassed a variety of works in formats including photography, sculpture and installation, which together made up a media space with almost architectural qualities.<\/p>\n
Isoya\u2019s artistic background includes studying architecture at university. It was his interest in a curriculum pursuing the \u201ctotal art\u201d of Bauhaus, that had inspired him to study architecture. His eventual studies at university involved familiarizing with multifarious presentation formats ranging from design plans and drawings to models and movies, all of which ultimately informed the artistic style of his current work.<\/p>\n
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Displayed on the wall of the main exhibition space was a series of works incorporating photographs that Isoya has been working on for about ten years, depicting phenomena that caught the artist\u2019s attention within everyday life, and sceneries that involve slight creative modifications. In the process of selecting the photographs to be featured in this series, the artist converted the respective images into sepia, and put them into frames painted in one or two colors that were standing out in the original pictures. In other words, by first creating frames as sculptural objects of sorts, and subsequently adding photographs, Isoya reversed the usual process of framing photographs. When looking at the results, we are thus forced to reconfigure the colors and shapes in these images, and reconsider our interpretation of two- and three-dimensional elements. In some large works installed at various places on the floor, frames were propped against the wall, with sheets of needle felt sandwiched between the frames, floor and walls, and felt coming loose on the backsides of the frames. Felt was used here to enhance the works\u2019 three-dimensional effect, and at the same time, to direct the viewer\u2019s attention to the areas around and behind the frames. It is also a reference and homage to artists who pioneered the use of felt, such as Joseph Beuys and Robert Morris.<\/p>\n
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Installation view of \u201cGo, go, go, said the bird: humankind cannot bear very much reality\u201d (2021) by Hirofumi Isoya at SCAI PIRAMIDE, Tokyo. Photo by Nobutada Omote. Courtesy of SCAI THE BATHHOUSE<\/p>\n
\u201cActivation\u201d (2021) is a spherical object made from a material for which the artist mixed in equal parts present-day pottery clay and mud, for which he crushed fragments of approximately 5,000-year-old Jomon ware that he had collected. This particular ceramic art is created by using contemporary means to stir times and cultures of the past, including breaking bits of ancient culture in the form of Jomon ware. Nevertheless, the modern clay is something that was dug up out of layers of earth as well. It seems as though two different eras and their respective times were contained within the hollow spherical body, whereas its egg-like shape suggests that something may eventually hatch from it.<\/p>\n
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Hirofumi Isoya, Activation<\/i>, H 25\u00d7W 25\u00d7D 25cm, Ancient earthenware fragments from 3500-2500 BCE, clay Photo by Nobutada Omote, Courtesy of SCAI THE BATHHOUSE<\/p>\n
\u201cFlowers and Bees, Translucent Archive\u201d (2018), a work that emits a faint light, represents the artist\u2019s attempt to visualize the material\u2019s inherent aspect of time. He filled glass bottles with honey, into which he dipped fishing lamps as used for night fishing. The fact that the history of honey is said to be as old as the history of mankind itself, hints at the central position that honey has been occupying in human life since ancient times. Humans collecting honey have been depicted in mural paintings as old as 8,000 years. Honey has been used as an elixir of life, and honey bees have been adorning the crests of royal families. This is how humans have always sensed mystery and power in the effects of honey, and in the work of bees. Here the light filtered through the honey is a warm, amber-colored light that makes the viewer feel as if time flows in slow-motion. Just like bees gather around the light, and fish gather around the fishing lamp, in this case it is humans that are attracted to gather around the artwork.<\/p>\n
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Hirofumi Isoya, Flowers and Bees, Translucent Archive, <\/i>H 54\u00d7W 36\u00d7D 36cm, Honey, fishing light, glass bottle Photo by Nobutada Omote, Courtesy of SCAI THE BATHHOUSE<\/p>\n
In the center of the exhibition space was a 30cm-tall pedestal, with traffic lines running around it. Arranged on the pedestal were three pieces each<\/a>[1] of \u201cActivation\u201d and \u201cFlowers and Bees,\u201d about which Isoya explains, \u201cThe idea behind this number was to make the viewer aware of the things that both of these works have in common \u2013 things like taking organic matter and other things dissolving in the respective material, and incorporating them in timeless geometrical shapes.\u201d Using three items each was at once a way to convey the materials\u2019 density, and allow the visitor to examine the relationships between them from different angles. The light brown color of the pedestals emphasized the works\u2019 organic texture, while also harmonizing with the colors of the sepia photographs and the frames around them.<\/p>\n Installation view of \u201cGo, go, go, said the bird: humankind cannot bear very much reality\u201d (2021) by Hirofumi Isoya at SCAI PIRAMIDE, Tokyo. Photo by Nobutada Omote. Courtesy of SCAI THE BATHHOUSE<\/p>\n In the back of the exhibition space, \u201cPalilalia and Heat\u201d (2021) was mounted like a corner piece near the ceiling. An LED lamp for use at construction sites served as a light source, surrounded by red light and seemingly emitting heat, while a chain connected to the LED lamp was supposed to represent insects that gather around the light. The work was based on \u201cPalilalia\u201d that Isoya had made in 2013. In the original piece, the chain was used to visualize the trajectory of flying insects, and had insect specimen attached to it. It is said that insects keep flying around electric lamps because they mistake them for the moonlight, and this involuntarily repeated action is what the title \u201cPalilalia\u201d refers to. In the new work, the chain is coated with beeswax that contains scales of moths. This is how insects are part of the work yet in an invisible manner. As we humans have been pushing forward in the belief that economic growth is the only solution, we now have no other choice but to live with the invisible threats of things like radiation or viruses. Insects, have existed on Earth long before humankind, so how did they manage to overcome crises and survive? From its place in the corner, this work spreads its background and underlying idea across the room.<\/p>\n Hirofumi Isoya, Palilalia and Heat, <\/i>2021, H 54\u00d7W 82.5\u00d7D 5cm, LED light, chains, refined beeswax, moth scales Photo by Nobutada Omote, Courtesy of SCAI THE BATHHOUSE<\/p>\n The title of this exhibition is a quote from T.S. Eliot\u2019s \u201ctime\u201d themed poem \u201cBurnt Norton.\u201d In an uncertain world, people demand simple solutions. However, the world is diverse and complex, and there is never something like one simple solution. The quote is about a bird that encourages humans in pursuit of the truth and a convincing solution, to keep thinking rather than offer answers. Eliot\u2019s poem also includes the following line. \u201cWhat might have been is an abstraction. Remaining a perpetual possibility. Only in a world of speculation.\u201d<\/a>[2] According to Isoya, \u201doffering choices in the pursuit of \u2018one simple solution\u2019 is one thing that art can do,\u201d and while juxtaposing his own view with Eliot\u2019s, he charged the exhibition with an abstract quality that is open to free thoughts and ideas. The fact that the viewers can connect the exhibits to their own memories and experiences, introduce their own individual views, and imagine \u201cwhat might have been,\u201d will certainly elicit a broad variety of options.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/small><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/_sys2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4_1-1024x723.jpeg\")
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