GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Shunsuke Taira titled "Night at the Stark Construction Site" from February 24 (Sat) to March 30 (Sat).
Since his early days, Shunsuke Taira has been reworking real buildings and structures into something with a futuristic atmosphere by adding anthropomorphic elements and depicting their aspects with meticulous descriptive power. The buildings and structures he described do not necessarily depict a utopia of the future, but rather a modest sense of hope and, simultaneously, a sense of disappointment, which is even ironic.
Since the Industrial Revolution, human beings have been mechanizing at a tremendous pace, which has not slowed down to this day. Taira has expressed his madness in the neon-cloaked buildings and industrial zones that pursue only functionality in this ever-evolving metropolis while incorporating unique anthropomorphic elements. By sensing the desires, aspirations, or zeitgeist in what people create, and by drawing imaginary buildings and structures, he visualizes the relationship between the buildings and people's psychology, as well as the discomfort Taira felt about the city.
In his solo exhibition held in 2021 under the theme of "labor," he depicted a mixture of reality and illusion, and his works were highly acclaimed for their depiction of a somewhat depressing and empty landscape, which seemed to embody the working environment of contemporary Japanese society.
This exhibition will feature paintings, drawings, and three-dimensional works depicting construction sites that have a stronger sense of disquiet than depression and emptiness. The works in this series, which began with the idea of depicting a mysterious construction site of a structure whose purpose and entirety are unknown, give the viewer a sense of who planned it, or perhaps only the plan has begun to walk alone, and a sense of the suspicious. We hope you will take the opportunity to view the unique worldview created by Taira.
Shunsuke Taira was born in Tokyo in 1988, graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012, and received his MFA from the same university in 2014.
Artist's Comment
In the ever-changing landscape of towns, I have been imagining more and more the existence of something under the surface of the water.
Perhaps it is because we tend to be skeptical of the news and information we receive through our eyes and ears these days, but I have come to strongly feel the presence of an invisible third party drifting from construction and demolition sites.
Are they being constructed with a clear purpose under someone's planning, or are they the result of someone who has lost even their purpose and is now walking alone?
I wanted to depict the silent signs of will that stirred in the construction site at night when the work lights were lit.
2023 Shunsuke Taira.
GALLERY MoMo Ryogokuでは2月24日(土)から3月30日(土)まで平俊介による個展「茫漠建設現場の夜」を開催致します。 平俊介は1988年東京都生まれ。2012年東京藝術大学美術学部絵画科油画専攻卒業、2014年同大学院美術研究科油画専攻を修了しました。 初期より、現実の建造物や構造物を擬人化の要素を加味しながら、近未来的な雰囲気を持ったものへと作り替え、緻密な描写力でその相貌を描き出してきました。描かれた建造物や構造物は必ずしも未来のユートピアを描いたものではなく、ささやかな希望と、同時に失望感も内在しており、アイロニカルでさえあります。 産業革命以降人間は凄まじいスピードで機械化を進め、今に至るまでそのスピードが緩むことはありません。平は、その進化し続ける大都会のネオンにつつまれたビル群や、機能性のみを追求した工業地帯に感じた狂気を、独特の擬人化された要素を取り入れながら表現してきました。人の作り出すものの中に、欲求や願望、あるいは時代性を感じとり、架空の建造物や構造物を描くことで、建造物と人々の心理の関係性や、平が感じた都市に対する違和感などをビジュアル化しています。 2021年に「労働」をテーマに開催した個展では、現実と幻が入り混じった景色を描き、どこか鬱屈していて空虚感が漂うものばかりで、現代日本社会の労働環境を体現しているような作品を発表し高く評価されました。 本展では、そうした鬱屈感や空虚感よりも、不穏感を強くした建設現場を描いた絵画作品を中心に、ドローイング、立体作品を展示する予定です。目的も全貌も分からない建造物の、怪しげな建設現場を描きたいという思いから制作をスタートさせた今回のシリーズは、誰が計画したのか、はたまた計画だけが一人歩きし始めたのか、怪しげな気配を感じる作品となっています。平創り出す独特の世界観を是非ご高覧いただけたら幸いです。
アーティストコメント
様変わりし続ける町の風景に、水面下の何かの存在を想像することが増えてきた。目や耳から入るニュースや情報に懐疑的になりがちな昨今であるせいか、建設現場や解体現場から漂う、見えない第三者の気配のようなものを強く感じるようになった。誰かの計画のもと、明確な目的を持って組み上げられているのか、目的すら失って一人歩きした成れの果ての姿なのか。ぽつりぽつりと作業灯の灯る夜の工事現場に蠢く、無言の意思の気配をひたすらに描きたかった。
2023年 平 俊介
