YUTAKA AOKI

Yutaka Aoki expands the scope of painting through an examination of the relationship between painting and the surrounding world, and through the many new possibilities that are born from that exchange. This exploration results in works that migrate freely between two- and three-dimensionality, and in works that respond not only to the material and production process, but also to their relationship with the audience’s gaze. Aoki’s approach also seeks to capture the ever-changing countenance of paintings, articulated as single moments along the axis of time. By repeated experimentation and the application of newly discovered processes, Aoki is continually rediscovering painting itself.

Aoki provided the following statement about the exhibition, which will be his seventh solo show at KOSAKU KANECHIKA.

Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion” (1878), which captures sequential images of a horse running, confirms that there are moments during a horse’s gallop when its hooves do not touch the ground. On the basis of such photos, anatomist Takeshi Yoro has stated that our eyes do not hold time. We could view our eyes as devices that capture moments.One video taken in a cave in Mexico in 1994 is instructive when thinking about time. This footage, which was taken during a base jumping event in a cave in Mexico, shows what appears to be a flying organism, which was later referred to as a “rod” or “skyfish.” Illustrations of what it supposedly looked like attracted public attention, raising the prospect of an as-yet-undiscovered lifeform. Illustrations that depict the effect caused by the combination of a skydiver or base jumper falling from above and flying insects can be described as a manifestation of the concept of time.The coexistence of moments and time occurs every day. I often miss my stop by falling asleep on the train, particularly when my destination is the last on the line. I wake up a few stations after the train has already changed direction and started back again. I realize the train has departed the final stop and reversed course when my body begins swaying in the opposite direction I intended to go. Having just awoken, my brain does not realize in which direction the arrow of time is moving, so I find this moment of confusion interesting, and try to wager with my senses what the correct answer might be.There are countless things between individual moments and time. The process that brings about an effect as well as concrete physical sensations are indispensable in order to attain a knowledge of time. I want to apply this in my paintings.Viewing the exhibition as something that defies simplistic categorization, I gave it the title “U” (as in an “uncountable noun”).

At the core of Aoki’s artistic work lies an awareness of the structure and phenomena of a world involving individual moments, time itself, and the countless things that lie in between, coupled with an exploration of the universal and fundamental issue of the flatness and materiality of painting. His exploration continues as each discovery gives way to a subsequent question to be addressed. In an Information Age in which various aspects of the world appear uniform, Aoki’s process of continually exploring things that defy simplistic categorization is evident in his practice. This exhibition features forty new works, with smaller works displayed at the Tennoz location, and larger pieces exhibited at the Kyobashi space. Together, these exhibits constitute Yutaka Aoki’s solo exhibition “U” at KOSAKU KANECHIKA.