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Cerith Wyn Evans

Dates: Apr 13 – 25, 2018
Location: Indoor stone garden “Heaven,” The Sogetsu Kaikan 1F, Tokyo

Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Cerith Wyn Evans from April 13th to 25th at Sogetsu Plaza on the first floor of The Sogetsu Kaikan in Akasaka, Tokyo. As the largest solo presentation by the artist to take place in Japan, the exhibition features a large-scale installation within the setting of Isamu Noguchi’s indoor stone garden “Heaven,” centering on columns of light with surfaces covered in filament bulbs that extend from the floor to the ceiling.

Wyn Evans, as represented by his text works that employ the use of neon, is recognized for creating works that bear citations to the pioneering efforts of predecessors across a diverse range of cultural and academic spheres such as literature, film, art, astronomy, and physics; in addition to three-dimensional works that appropriate light and sound as a means to reconsider human perception through the ambiguity of inherent materiality and immateriality. Wyn Evans’ approach that regards even the experiences and actions perceived by a person as the physical work, as well as considering the space in which the work is exhibited and the organizational conditions of the entity operating the space to also play an integral role, can indeed be considered as an act that extends the contours of our world strictly formulated by theory, custom, and education through a rich sense of wit and intelligence.

The subject of Wyn Evans’ heart seeking knowledge also extends to the realm of theater as a form of culture and representation. Amongst such context, he expresses a great interest in “Noh” which had originated in ancient ritualistic celebrations of harvest in Japan, and entrusts the audience to formulate the scenes of narratives thorough the elimination of figurative elements. The large-scale neon work “Forms in Space…by Light (in Time)” (2017) presented at the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain (London) last year, had cited a diagram conveying the gestures and movements of a Noh performer.

In this exhibition, Wyn Evans places three columns of light and a series of pine trees within Isamu Noguchi’s stone garden “Heaven.” The columns of light gently blink repeatedly as if breathing in and out, creating a certain tempo that emphasizes the timbre of the garden, and the pine trees positioned throughout the stone garden in a manner emulating a Noh stage, through their presence as organisms evoke the “texture” of time. The stone garden is no longer a mere venue for exhibiting works, but is transformed into a stage of sorts through Wyn Evans’ works that function as mise en scene. In this stone garden / theater, meditations on perception, as well as the reverie and possibilities of the theatrical medium come to manifest as the very performance itself.

Supported by:Sogetsu Foundation, DASSAI

Cerith Wyn Evans was born in 1958 in Llanelli, Wales, and currently lives and works in London. His major solo exhibitions include Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2018), the Tate Britain Commission, London and Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (both 2017); Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2015); Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2014); Kunsthall Bergen, Norway (2011); Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City (2010); The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (2008) and Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris (2006). Wyn Evans has participated in numerous international group exhibitions including Skulptur Projekte Münster, Germany and the 57th Venice Biennale (both 2017); Moscow Biennial (2011); Aichi Triennale, Nagoya (2010); Yokohama Triennale (2008); Istanbul Biennial (2005); and represented Wales at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003).

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