The foundation of the exhibition explores themes of deconstructing the past, and the use of technology to reconstruct them into contemporary visual artworks. It celebrates the artists' craftsmanship and multidisciplinary art forms with the goal to inspire dialogue and creative exchange.
Tanabe Chikuunsai IV (b.1973, Osaka), a gifted and versatile fourth-generation bamboo artist, has carried on his family’s legacy and drawn on inspiration from his heritage to elevate a long line of bamboo craftsmanship into modern art. By collaborating with Sawako Kaijima (b.1976, Tokyo), a computational specialist and Assistant Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the duo used software and 3D-printed moulds to aid the design of mathematically complex structures which Tanabe then masterfully translated into the medium of bamboo.
For Venice and Tokyo-based artist Kensuke Koike (b.1980, Nagoya), his vision to bring history to the future is by deconstructing and reconfiguring vintage photographs to create sculptural works with a surrealist playfulness. His practice is centred around a philosophy of 'no more, no less' exploring the possibilities of creating a new image made up only of itself. This involves using only the existing assets found within an image to create a contemporary visual with a new narrative - a process he has coined as 'single image processing'. Using found objects in this way creates a more dynamic way of working, as although he experiments with many prototypes initially, there is only one chance to work with the original photograph.
This exhibition is being presented as part of Asian Art in London.
