While searching the Net for links and information for my post about Mr.’s newest project, “Nobody Dies“, I came across the blog of Tsuyoshi Sugiyama, a Japanese contemporary artist who refers to Mr. as “sempai.” Sugiyama-san was gracious enough to take the time to contact me directly after I commented on his blog, and recommended that I take a look at the work of his friend Ujino Muneteru as well. So, it seems only courteous to at the very least take some time to introduce these two artists to you all.
Sugiyama Tsuyoshi was born in Aichi prefecture in 1974 and completed a postgraduate degree at the Sokei Academy of Fine Arts in Tokyo in 2001. Most of his latest work plays with the motif of simple geometric lines against solid backgrounds, drawn so as to give the faintest hint of three-dimensionality.
A lot of his earlier work, by contrast, appear to simply be experiments in color, albeit beautiful combinations thereof.
Sugiyama posts the following English language hook on his webpage:
The picture as the gateway between the worlds. Small gardens and bonsai trees,prevalent in the Edo period, being a symbol of showing the connection between the outer big world and the small interior world, handing oneself over from one world to the other.
But what lies in between? Is it an unknown world?
This picture may be your way to find out…
A statement I very much agree with. While this kind of art, so stark, so abstract, so unrepresentative of depicting any particular person, thing, or place, is normally not really my thing, the explanation that goes along with it (something far more insightful and intriguing than “I’m fascinated by geometry” or “I like to experiment with colors”) makes it a completely different thing. It gives me, the viewer, a new perspective on the entire project, and helps me to be able to imagine each of these paintings as a window into another world.
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Ujino Muneteru, meanwhile, bridges the gap between visual arts (mainly sculpture) and music, creating bizarre-looking conglomerations of household appliances and other common objects. His works would look perfectly at home inside glass cases in a postmodern whitewalled gallery. But these “Rotators,” as he calls them, are not quiet sculptures merely to be looked at – they are instruments for his soundmachine – Ujino conducts (DJs) performances in a dance house club mix style, using a myriad of sounds from the everyday world. Bicycles, food processors, and hair dryers all find their place in his work.
Here’s a great interview with the artist, from Ping Mag.
