Tabaimo
15 September - 29 October 2011
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| © Tabaimo
Blow, 2009
3 minutes 42 seconds
video installation |
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TABAIMO
Dandan
15 September - 29 October, 2011
James Cohan Gallery is proud to present DANDAN, a solo exhibition by
Japanese artist Tabaimo opening September 15th and running through
October 29th, 2011. This is the third solo exhibition at the gallery by
the 35-year old Tabaimo, who is recognized as one of Japan’s leading
artists and is well-known for her hand-drawn animations whose coloration
bring to mind traditional ukiyo-e prints.
Currently, Tabaimo is representing Japan at the 54th Biennale di Venezia
with the work teleco-soup, an immersive multi-media environment that
transforms the Japanese Pavilion into the interior of a well, where the
reflected world is inverted and boundaries between water and sky, self
and world, real and imagined are fluid. To view installation images:
please click here.
Taking on both the role as social critic and voice of those born in the
mid 1970’s, Tabaimo strives to understand the space between the
generations. As globalization has reached the island nation that once
prided itself on its isolationism, the traditional communal life is
breaking down and the contemporary desire towards individualization is
taking over. Tabaimo’s work offers an unblinking look at contemporary
Japanese society as a mirror in which to view herself and the other
members of her generation caught in the crossfire of these societal
shifts. Her works capture the anxiety that is a constant reality in a
land whose terra firma is less than stable, while their tone remains
abstract and detached. Recurring motifs including cityscapes, interior
spaces, hands, brains, hair, insects, plants and water hover between the
elegantly rendered and the disturbingly surreal.
Two of the works on view at James Cohan Gallery BLOW and danDAN were
first shown in Tabaimo: Danmen, a solo exhibition that originated at the
Yokohama Museum of Art in 2009 and travelled to the National Museum of
Art, Osaka. These two works are multi-channel video and sound
installations presented on elaborately built stage sets. In addition,
the exhibition features guignorama which is a single-channel work first
exhibited in the artist’s solo exhibition at the Hara Museum in 2006.
This gallery exhibition marks the first time these works are shown in
the United States.
The central work in the main gallery, BLOW, 2009, depicts a watery world
projected onto a curved, half-pipe ramp. The viewer is invited to walk
through the seamless, multi-channel projection that moves across this
bowl-shaped cross-section, in which human bones, organs and blood
vessels emerge from a watery world and transform into flower blossoms
that recall the origins of life emerging from the primordial soup.
In Gallery 3, danDAN, 2009, is a work projected onto three angled panels
that run vertically from floor to ceiling to create a deep perspective.
It portrays the interior space of a housing complex of multiple
dwelling units with a cut-away view into different apartments—the viewer
peers into traditionally-styled apartments with tatami mats sharing
walls with apartments with more modernized conveniences. In these
spaces, strange events happen: birds fly inside rooms, a woman spins in a
washing machine, a man walks into a refrigerator, the peck of a bird’s
beak causes blood to flow from of a bed, and clothes turn into birds and
fly away.
In the front gallery, guignorama, 2006, is a single channel work
projected on a wall where blue-veined hands grasp, grapple and lock
together in an ever-moving diorama—the pulsating blood vessels creating
an emotionally fraught landscape. The artist has suffered from severe
eczema and as a result, the recurring motifs of hands and skin have come
to represent the boundary between interior and exterior
worlds—individual and communal, self and society.
Tabaimo was born in Kobe, Japan in 1975. Her work has been exhibited and
collected widely around the world. Recent important solo exhibitions
include: Tabaimo: teleco-soup, Japanese Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale,
2010; Tabaimo: Boundary Layer, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary
art, London, 2010; TABAIMO: Danmen, Yokahama Museum of Art, Tokyo,
(travelled to the National Museum of Art, Osaka) 2009-10; Tabaimo,
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2009; Tabaimo, Fondation Cartier pour l’art
contemporain, Paris, 2006; YOROYORON: Tabaimo, Hara Museum of
Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2006. International group exhibitions include:
the Yokohama Triennale, 2001; the Sao Paolo Biennale, 2002; the 15th
Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2006; and the 52nd International Venice
Biennale, 2007. Among the museums that have collected Tabaimo’s work are
the Yokahama Museum of Art, Tokyo; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Hara
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MUSAC,
Spain; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; and the Museum of Modern Art, New
York.
www.jamescohan.com
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