Image/Imagine #1 man
2021, Statue

“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.
Each person, it seems, imagines the sculpture differently. Some envision a work like Buddhist carvings, others a form in clay, others a marble statue, cold stone. Some imagine it to be large, and others imagine it to be small. I believe that these differences depend on the life each viewer has led.
If Image/Imagine spreads even into a mind a century hence, the images could number nigh unto infinity.
This work plays many roles behind the scenes of this exhibition.”

A single sculpture, installed in a pitch-black space. Not even the most determined visitor peering into the gloom will ever perceive its form.
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.
In short, the only resource we have to confront this sculpture—a thing we are certain exists but can never behold—is our own imagination. As long as this work exists, imagined images of it will proliferate—as many as there are people who have experienced it.

Quoted from a handout of “EUGENE STUDIO After the rainbow” (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021)