It is scary, also infinite, and perhaps cyclical: Tsuyoshi Hisakado
Ota Fine Arts Shanghai is pleased to present the solo exhibition "It is scary, also infinite, and perhaps cyclical" by Japanese artist Tsuyoshi Hisakado (b.1981, Kyoto). This is the artist's third solo exhibition in China and his first solo presentation at Ota Fine Arts Shanghai's Rockbund location.
The exhibition title is taken from a friend's afterthought of Hisakado's solo exhibition "Dear Future Person, ", held at the Gallery @KCUA, Kyoto City University of Arts in 2023. It was also in this year that his son was born. With the birth of his son, Hisakado started to contemplate the concept of life and death. He truly realises the joy of life, the fear of death, and feels that the cycle of life is an inevitable trajectory of natural changes. Humankind that is a part of the universe, is by nature united. The universe operates in a cyclical, endless, and natural way; hence, everything in the universe including humankind is interrelated and influenced by one another, maintaining a delicate and subtle balance.
Over the past decade, Hisakado's art practice has centered on installation works that integrate his thoughts on space, time, and humankind's relationship with nature and the universe. Light, electricity and sound come together in his works. In Verse #1 (2022), a thin, circle-shaped neon tube passes through a series of circular holes linking the whiteboards that symbolises the world of an individual; beams of light follow a predetermined trajectory, whiteboards of varying sizes and cones that are placed around the stands reveal an interdependent and constrained equilibrium. In Verse #2 (2022), a linear beam of light passes through glass cabinets that are placed side by side. The artist described this as "opening a hole in the world", and it is as if the light that readily cuts through these objects divided the vertical section of society into different camps.
Accompanying the work and reverberating through the gallery space are the field recordings that Hisakado recorded of the natural environment while travelling around Iceland. The display windows of the gallery façade also feature geological photographs that he had captured from the same period. Hisakado was particularly moved by the boldness of these natural formations that had formed across time and infinite space; the fractures in the rock strata, undulations formed by tectonic collisions, waterfalls that flow along crevices and the shapes formed by erosion. In the series "untitled (Primal Perspective)", he utilizes meteorite powder as part of his medium. These images that resemble planetary explosions allude to the universe and hint of the connections between natural forces and the human civilisation. The same artistic expression also applies to his new series "untitled (Who we are and where we are going.)" where carbon and meteorite combine, leaving traces on the painting's surface. The cyclical characteristics of natural elements prompted the artist to rethink the present and the future, at such a moment in time.
Often applying arithmetic elements in his works, Hisakado describes how a 'mathematical constant' hints of the concepts of time and infinity while providing a point of departure for the work "Fog". The work is a set of 54 that begins from a singular piece of paper. As the approximate value of pi extends in a spiral, "pi is like a never-ending, uncompleted map…it teaches us pure rationality," Hisakado explained.
"It is scary, also infinite, and perhaps cyclical " incorporates Hisakado’s personal emotions, while also capturing his macroscopic perspective on the relationship of humankind to the universe and nature. Ota Fine Arts Shanghai invites you to join us as we immerse ourselves in a world constructed by Hisakado’s works and to reconsider the circumstances of the present and future.
