Naohiro Utagawa - 7 Days Aru/Iru Koto

Naohiro Utagawa — 7 Days Aru/Iru Koto

Open Hours: August 1 - 7, 13:00 - 19:00
Closing reception: Sunday, August 7, 16:00 - 19:00

Goya Curtain is pleased to present an open installation by Naohiro Utagawa. The artist will live and work in the space from Monday, August 1st until Sunday, August 7th. During this time Utagawa will use the entire gallery to create an installation in situ. The space will be open to the public daily from 1-7pm, where visitors can see the work change and progress for the duration of the show. A closing reception will be held on August 7th.

Curated by Dan Abbe

  • Installation view 1
  • Installation view 2
  • Installation view 3
  • Installation view 4

Statement

Perhaps Naohiro Utagawa’s work has always grounded itself in a certain unpredictability. In his series “images,” a rough wooden surface became a kind of surrealist operating table, on top of which scraps of different photographs found themselves coming together in unexpected configurations. Still, chance operation came to the fore in Utagawa’s recent installation for “New Material,” a group exhibition of Japanese photography held at Casemore Kirkeby in San Francisco. When I saw him setting up his section, he had run strips of blue and red tape around the wall; they seemed to be placed almost at random, but they formed a tenuous skeleton. Utagawa had pasted photographs around this structure and on top of each other. I distinctly recall walking away from the installation, looking back no more than a few minutes later and finding that everything had been rearranged.

While staying in San Francisco, Utagawa turned his host apartment into an extension of the gallery space—this room, too, was covered with pieces of tape and images when I saw it. Goya Curtain is a project space based in Tokyo that utilizes a typical 1950's 1DK apartment (one room, dining and kitchen area). The space itself sits somewhere between an apartment and a gallery, maintaining the familiarity of a private space while existing in a public context playing host to various art related projects. This seems like a fitting venue for Utagawa’s experimental approach.

Of course, I have no idea what this installation will look like.

Utagawa will live and work in the gallery until the closing reception on August 7. This deadline is arbitrary. Utagawa’s is not trying to “be finished” by then, as if he was working against time to realize a certain vision, or to arrive at a certain point. Instead, I imagine that he will use this time to consider a direction.

— Dan Abbe

Installation view 5
Installation view 6
Installation view 7
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Installation view 13

宇田川直寛 – 7 Days Aru/Iru Koto

Open Hours: 8月1日・7日(13時から19時まで)
Closing reception: 日曜日 ・8月7日(16時から19時まで)

Goya Curtainは宇田川直寛の公開インスタレーションを開催します。宇田川は8月1日(月)から8月7日(日)の間、ギャラリー住み、成作します。その間、訪ねて結構です。クロージングリセプションは8月7日(日)に行われます。

ステートメント

宇田川直寛の作品は常にある意外性に基づいたのだろうか。例えば、「images」というシリーズの中で、木のテーブルの上で写真の切れ端が予想外に構成している。このテーブルはシュルレアリストな手術台になってくるわけだ。しかし、今年サンフランシスコのCasemore Kirkebyで行われた『New Material』という展覧会で、宇田川は更に偶然性に傾いたと言っていい。搬入中の様子を見ると、壁が赤いと青いテープで食われたようだった。このテープはなんとなく骨格の形式になっていて、そのそばに写真は所々張っていた。数分後戻って、すべてが再構成された印象ははっきり覚えている。

サンフランシスコに滞在しながら、宇田川は住んでいる部屋をギャラリーの延長戦として使った。確か、その部屋を見た時に、テープだらけだった。だからGoya Curtainというアパートギャラリーはこのような実験的なアプローチと似合いう確信する。もちろん、この展示の姿は予想できない。宇田川は最終日である8月7日までスペースに住み、成作している予定だ。この締め切りはあくまで無作為だ。宇田川はそれまでインスタレーションを「完成させる」という目標はないだろう。時間が迫りながらどうしても特定の点に到着するという戦いじゃなくてむしろ、時間を使いながら方向を考察することになるのだろうか。

ダン・アビー

  • Close-up view 1
  • Close-up view 2
  • Close-up view 2
  • Close-up view 2