White Painting series, 2017
Canvas
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“THE EUGENE Studio’s White Painting series (…) transforming the canvases into nomadic shrines to love and memory….White Painting series returns the monochrome to its iconic if uncertain place between a portal and a thing.”
Passion in Monochrome by David Geers (an art critic who contributes his writing to October and among other places)
“The canvas in the exhibit has no trace of paint or ink on it; however, it is impressed with the kisses of about 100 people. This work, which consists of asking randomly selected people around town– or by people in the specific community– to plant a kiss on the canvas, has been carried out in the USA, Mexico, Italy, Taiwan, Spain, and more, and the total kiss count has exceeded 600. Each canvas, empty as it may seem, is an aggregate record of the thoughts and feelings of people of different countries, regions, and faiths. ‘White Painting’ is a general title of this series, but each pieces is titled with the row of names of people who kiss on it.”
Image / Imagine #1 man, 2021
Statue
Sculputure
“No one has ever seen this sculpture―not even me. It has been in pitch darkness since the moment of its creation. I intend to keep it there forever.”
That sculpture was created in perfect darkness by the artist and a sculptor over a period of three months. Not even the artist has seen the completed work, and neither have any of the people involved in its presentation at this exhibition. No size or media information for the work has been revealed, and even the word “man” in the title only indicates that the sculpture depicts a person, with no specific gender intended.
A single sculpture, installed in a pitch-black space. Not even the most determined visitor peering into the gloom will ever perceive its form. In the room, you can also touch the sculputure #1 man.
Rainbow Painting series, 2021
Oil on canvas
Oil on canvas
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Oil on canvas
Installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
What appears to be one, if closer inspection is
possible, also appears to be a teeming, jostling group, each member slightly different from the next, separated, yet side by side.
This place might be a continent or a country; it might be a virtual network.
In any case, it is beautiful.
Group Portrait
Needed now: Not individual portraits, I thought, but portraits of people-in-plural, of groups.
Light and shadow inside me, 2021
Aqueous dye on paper
Aqueous dye on paper
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Aqueous dye on paper
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“Fold a single painting and expose it to the sun. Light and shadow result. Where the sun shines, colors fade, but shadowy parts are protected.
This work, reminiscent of an impressionist painting, is a painting made with itself.
Painting, three-dimensional form, and solar burn as a primitive element in photography: these things unite and create, along with intermittent sun.”
at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021
Critical, 2021
Water, sand, mirror, Dimensions variable
Water, sand, mirror
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“If the sea level were to rise, this would be the first place to sink beneath the waves.
The current seabed is not beautiful; this pure white seabed is imagined.
Amid reality, an imaginary horizon reaches endlessly out.
When gazing into the distance, or leaving the eyes unfocused, the brain urges the work of imagining on.
I discovered this in works I created
When people look over the horizon or beyond the sky, expectation and awe are combined in their imagination: This, I believe, has been the case since the earliest times.
This is both a seabed (kaitei) and a sea-garden (kaitei); both by the sea (rinkai) and critical (rinkai).”
Goldrain, 2019
Particle
Particle
Particle
Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland., 2017
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
“Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland.” is a sculpture work made for the exhibition “1/2 Century later”. The work reproduced a pure white room in the final scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and made it go through the process of destruction.Within a large glass case are dust-covered chairs, …
Everything reflects the shining light toward me, 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
Oil, wax oil pastel on brass
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Trace the images on a reflective surface and see the paths revealed. In the fifteenth century, Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the technique of linear perspective this way; I discovered it by accident, 600 years later, in homemade furnishings of brass. That was the
beginning of this work.
What’s more, because patches of the brass were sanded away, the reflections automatically attenuated with distance. Thus did I come to grasp aerial perspective, as discovered by Leonardo da Vinci, at the same time as the concept of bokeh.
Reflections of scenes and subjects, captured from multiple angles, layered.
This group of sketches is a superimposition of reflections of notes and records and such. These drawings play a note-like role, but it seems to me they also include parts like multiview photographs with no camera.
This work accepts everything that is reflected in it.
Color, light, landscape, subject, environment, viewer.
It comes to be through elements that are outside itself.
Mr. Tagi’s room and dream # four-handed, 2014
Steel, wood, oil / wood, brass, glass, artificial leather, plaster
nstallation, Performance Mixed media Dimensions variable
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Starting in 2012, for my college graduation work, I began work on a group of pieces on the theme “Imaginary sports history and moving bodies.” In retrospect, I encountered many different elements here: the
environment, probability, time, coincidence, gender, rules, and so on. I believe I was interested in the idea of a single community, in a similar way to that seen in my White
Paintings and Rainbow Paintings.
Our dreams, 2021
Video installation (Super 35mm digital black and white film)
Mr. Keith Williams, Ms. Pika Lee 4mins. 48sec. loop
Video installation (Super 35mm digital black and white film)
Mr. Keith Williams, Ms. Pika Lee 4mins. 48sec. loop
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
I asked them to play Debussy’s Rêverie, “imagined, in their heads.”
After that I revised the song to match their fingers, alternately shown on video, cutting through air.
This is, in short, a long-distance four-handed performance.
Something to bind together two people with no relation to each other at all.
I feel this is a work of communication. In the sense that they could not have connected otherwise.
Among the works at this exhibition, this is the only one conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, in June this year.
Mr. Tagi’s room and dream, 2014
Research, Installation, Performance Mixed media
Research, Installation, Performance Mixed media
Research, Installation, Performance Mixed media
“Research on the history of sports by a fictional sports scientist.”
“Mr. Tagi’s room and dream” are an installation work which is based on a distinctive research project to pursue the history of sports. This work explores the ideal status of sports / kinetic objects. Various academic societies cooperated in producing this work.
“Mr. Tagi’s room” is a theatrical installation where various objects are collected and arranged on the table and shelf retracing scattered keywords; accidentalness, chance, the origin of time– or domain, stadium– interlocution, exchange, aggregation, and gender. “Mr.Tagi’s dream” is a set of video works(produced along with workshop).
from the future, 2012–2013
3 channel audio video installation Video, Still
3 channel audio video installation Video, Still
“from the future” started by inviting a man from overseas who has no prior knowledge of the series of events in Fukushima. This is a video artwork filmed based on the imaginary story written and pictures taken there. Texts written by the visitor in broken English is shown in the video.
Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland., 2017
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland.” is a sculpture work made for the exhibition “1/2 Century later”. The work reproduced a pure white room in the final scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and made it go through the process of destruction.Within a large glass case are dust-covered chairs, …
Regrading of stories, 2021
Glass, Grisaille, mud, enamel on canvas
Glass, Grisaille, mud, enamel on canvas
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Collapse, recover, regrade.
Take what is soiled, polish it up, shatter it fine, arrange it again.
When this work was complete, I recalled the Great Hanshin Earthquake that happened when I was five, and the recovery that followed.
Something like the asphalt on the ground that buried history and narrative. That’s how it looked to me.
Phantosia (Shikkoku (EN: Pitch darkness-noh) , 2019
Instruction, Installation
Instruction, Installation
The National Art Center, Tokyo
Noh performance held in a pitch-darkness. Phantosia is an installation in which “noh performance will be held in a pitch-darkness.”
It was the first trial in thousands of years of noh’s history.
Agricultural Revolution 3.0, 2016
Installation, Mixed media
Installation, Mixed media
A research project on agriculture, biotechnology and a new garden city. This was held in multiple forms; research, installation and conversation.
Columbia University and University of Cambridge cooperated in the research and farmers, Wired, OMA NY, and more intellectual participated in the conference.
White Painting series, 2017
Canvas
Still from video
“THE EUGENE Studio’s White Painting series (…) transforming the canvases into nomadic shrines to love and memory….White Painting series returns the monochrome to its iconic if uncertain place between a portal and a thing.”
Passion in Monochrome by David Geers (an art critic who contributes his writing to October and among other places)
“The canvas in the exhibit has no trace of paint or ink on it; however, it is impressed with the kisses of about 100 people. This work, which consists of asking randomly selected people around town– or by people in the specific community– to plant a kiss on the canvas, has been carried out in the USA, Mexico, Italy, Taiwan, Spain, and more, and the total kiss count has exceeded 600. Each canvas, empty as it may seem, is an aggregate record of the thoughts and feelings of people of different countries, regions, and faiths. ‘White Painting’ is a general title of this series, but each pieces is titled with the row of names of people who kiss on it.”
Everything reflects the shining light toward me, 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Trace the images on a reflective surface and see the paths revealed. In the fifteenth century, Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the technique of linear perspective this way; I discovered it by accident, 600 years later, in homemade furnishings of brass. That was the
beginning of this work.
What’s more, because patches of the brass were sanded away, the reflections automatically attenuated with distance. Thus did I come to grasp aerial perspective, as discovered by Leonardo da Vinci, at the same time as the concept of bokeh.
Reflections of scenes and subjects, captured from multiple angles, layered.
This group of sketches is a superimposition of reflections of notes and records and such. These drawings play a note-like role, but it seems to me they also include parts like multiview photographs with no camera.
This work accepts everything that is reflected in it.
Color, light, landscape, subject, environment, viewer.
It comes to be through elements that are outside itself.
Critical, 2021
Water, sand, mirror, Dimensions variable
Water, sand, mirror
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“If the sea level were to rise, this would be the first place to sink beneath the waves.
The current seabed is not beautiful; this pure white seabed is imagined.
Amid reality, an imaginary horizon reaches endlessly out.
When gazing into the distance, or leaving the eyes unfocused, the brain urges the work of imagining on.
I discovered this in works I created
When people look over the horizon or beyond the sky, expectation and awe are combined in their imagination: This, I believe, has been the case since the earliest times.
This is both a seabed (kaitei) and a sea-garden (kaitei); both by the sea (rinkai) and critical (rinkai).”
This is also everything of this world, 2021
Tin
Tin
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Mr. Tagi’s room and dream, 2014
Research, Installation, Performance Mixed media
Research, Installation, Performance Mixed media
“Research on the history of sports by a fictional sports scientist.”
“Mr. Tagi’s room and dream” are an installation work which is based on a distinctive research project to pursue the history of sports. This work explores the ideal status of sports / kinetic objects. Various academic societies cooperated in producing this work.
“Mr. Tagi’s room” is a theatrical installation where various objects are collected and arranged on the table and shelf retracing scattered keywords; accidentalness, chance, the origin of time– or domain, stadium– interlocution, exchange, aggregation, and gender. “Mr.Tagi’s dream” is a set of video works(produced along with workshop).
Agricultural Revolution 3.0, 2016
Installation, Mixed media
Drawing, Copper
Shiseido Gallery
A research project on agriculture, biotechnology and a new garden city. This was held in multiple forms; research, installation and conversation.
Columbia University and University of Cambridge cooperated in the research and farmers, Wired, OMA NY, and more intellectual participated in the conference.
Everything reflects the shining light toward me, 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
Drum: Mr. Tagi’s room and dream # four-handed, 2014
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Trace the images on a reflective surface and see the paths revealed. In the fifteenth century, Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the technique of linear perspective this way; I discovered it by accident, 600 years later, in homemade furnishings of brass. That was the
beginning of this work.
What’s more, because patches of the brass were sanded away, the reflections automatically attenuated with distance. Thus did I come to grasp aerial perspective, as discovered by Leonardo da Vinci, at the same time as the concept of bokeh.
Reflections of scenes and subjects, captured from multiple angles, layered.
This group of sketches is a superimposition of reflections of notes and records and such. These drawings play a note-like role, but it seems to me they also include parts like multiview photographs with no camera.
This work accepts everything that is reflected in it.
Color, light, landscape, subject, environment, viewer.
It comes to be through elements that are outside itself.
Everything reflects the shining light toward me, 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
Oil on brass
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Trace the images on a reflective surface and see the paths revealed. In the fifteenth century, Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the technique of linear perspective this way; I discovered it by accident, 600 years later, in homemade furnishings of brass. That was the
beginning of this work.
What’s more, because patches of the brass were sanded away, the reflections automatically attenuated with distance. Thus did I come to grasp aerial perspective, as discovered by Leonardo da Vinci, at the same time as the concept of bokeh.
Reflections of scenes and subjects, captured from multiple angles, layered.
This group of sketches is a superimposition of reflections of notes and records and such. These drawings play a note-like role, but it seems to me they also include parts like multiview photographs with no camera.
This work accepts everything that is reflected in it.
Color, light, landscape, subject, environment, viewer.
It comes to be through elements that are outside itself.
Critical, 2021
Water, sand, mirror, Dimensions variable
Water, sand, mirror
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“If the sea level were to rise, this would be the first place to sink beneath the waves.
The current seabed is not beautiful; this pure white seabed is imagined.
Amid reality, an imaginary horizon reaches endlessly out.
When gazing into the distance, or leaving the eyes unfocused, the brain urges the work of imagining on.
I discovered this in works I created
When people look over the horizon or beyond the sky, expectation and awe are combined in their imagination: This, I believe, has been the case since the earliest times.
This is both a seabed (kaitei) and a sea-garden (kaitei); both by the sea (rinkai) and critical (rinkai).”
Everything reflects the shining light toward me, 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass
Oil, wax oil pastel on brass
Trace the images on a reflective surface and see the paths revealed. In the fifteenth century, Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the technique of linear perspective this way; I discovered it by accident, 600 years later, in homemade furnishings of brass. That was the
beginning of this work.
What’s more, because patches of the brass were sanded away, the reflections automatically attenuated with distance. Thus did I come to grasp aerial perspective, as discovered by Leonardo da Vinci, at the same time as the concept of bokeh.
Reflections of scenes and subjects, captured from multiple angles, layered.
This group of sketches is a superimposition of reflections of notes and records and such. These drawings play a note-like role, but it seems to me they also include parts like multiview photographs with no camera.
This work accepts everything that is reflected in it.
Color, light, landscape, subject, environment, viewer.
It comes to be through elements that are outside itself.
Critical, 2021
Water, sand, mirror, Dimensions variable
Water, sand, mirror
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
“If the sea level were to rise, this would be the first place to sink beneath the waves.
The current seabed is not beautiful; this pure white seabed is imagined.
Amid reality, an imaginary horizon reaches endlessly out.
When gazing into the distance, or leaving the eyes unfocused, the brain urges the work of imagining on.
I discovered this in works I created
When people look over the horizon or beyond the sky, expectation and awe are combined in their imagination: This, I believe, has been the case since the earliest times.
This is both a seabed (kaitei) and a sea-garden (kaitei); both by the sea (rinkai) and critical (rinkai).”
- Critical, 2021
Water, sand, mirror - Image / Imagine #1 man , 2021
Statue - Rainbow Painting series, 2021
Oil on canvas - Everything reflects the shining light toward me, 2021
Oil on brass / Oil, wax oil pastel on brass / Oil, gouache, grease pencil on brass / Brass, wood - Light and shadow inside me, 2021
Aqueous dye on paper - Our dreams, 2021
Video installation (Super 35mm digital black and white film) / Mr. Keith Williams, Ms. Pika Lee 4mins. 48sec. loop - Regrading of stories, 2021
Antique stained glass in early 1900s, aluminum, silver, glass, wood / Glass, Grisaille, mud, enamel on canvas - This is also everything of this world, 2021
Tin - Goldrain, 2019
Particle - Phantosia (Shikkoku (EN: Pitch darkness-noh), 2019
Instruction, Installation - White Painting series, 2017
Canvas - Beyond good and evil, make way toward the wasteland. , 2017
Ceramic, steel, wood, glass, ash, others - Agricultural Revolution 3.0, 2016
Installation, Mixed media - Mr. Tagi’s room and dream # four-handed, 2014
Steel, wood, oil / wood, brass, glass, artificial leather, plaster - from the future, 2012–2013
3 channel video installation - 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. de-sport
Installation - AOMORI EARTH2019: AGROTOPIA –WHEN LIFE BECOMES ART THROUGH LOCAL AGRICULTURE
Group show - Goldrain in Paris
Installation - “Alter” written with Ken Liu
2019 - Shinzo Fukuhara, ASSEMBLE, THE EUGENE Studio [Group show]
Group show - Agricultural Revolution 3.0 (Research Project) Conference with OMA NY & Wired etc.
Installation - “from the future” Special Installation with Terry Riley
Performance - Mr. Tagi’s room and dream
Installation - Desport (Research)
Installation