Naoya Ishikawa "A Spell of Sclupture"

Following his 2024 solo exhibition, Not stand alone - Connections and Ways of Practice, LOKO GALLERY is pleased to present Sculptglyph: A Spell of Sculpture. Ishikawa's studio is in a natural forest and has neither a roof nor a floor. There, stone sculptures without pedestals are placed as if leaning gently against the trees. Before confronting sculpture itself, there is a connection with nature and with other people. Through these relationships, Ishikawa has found the way of practice through which he approaches sculpture. The sound of carving stone gradually became words, and those words were carved onto fragmented stone slabs as pictographic characters resembling incantations. These pictographs were created from Ishikawa's phrase, "What is sculpture? Here, I write it down." Can they, like hieroglyphs, be translated into an existing writing system? Sculptglyph is a coined word combining "Sculpture" and "Glyph" (an engraved character or pictograph). Born at the point where sculpture and language intersect, these pictographic characters are not merely a means of conveying meaning. They are also traces of the act of carving and are, in themselves, sculpture. We warmly invite you to visit LOKO GALLERY and encounter the pictographic characters engraved in the works while reflecting on Ishikawa's continuing question: What is sculpture?