The Spirituality Embodied in Sculpture

At our Roppongi gallery, we present an exhibition that takes as its theme the spirituality embodied in sculpture. A brief introduction to the featured works is provided below. However, as the contents are by no means limited to the following, we welcome you to visit the venue and engage with the works for yourself, learn about the participating artists, and take the opportunity to reflect on and experience a wide range of thoughts and feelings. Futoshi Miyagi’s “Banner (from Klagender Gesang)” is a work inspired by the final movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 31, “Klagender Gesang” (Song of Lamentation). Embroidered by the artist onto the lampshade are the text instructions that Beethoven marked on the score: “Ermattet, klagend” (‘Exhausted, weeping’) and “Nach und nach wieder auflebend” (‘Coming to life again’). As a queer artist, Futoshi Miyagi uses a variety of mediums from film to photography, objects, and text to create works that seek to foster exchange across barriers such as history, nationality, and sexuality—often employing the fences surrounding the U.S. military bases in his native Okinawa as a metaphor for these boundaries. This work could be likened to a beacon illuminating the way forward—a voice that, while never loud, conveys important values and gradually extends its reach. Yuko Mohri’s signature work “Decomposition” features a mechanism in which electrodes inserted into fruit measure internal resistance and convert the resulting values into sound and light. At first glance, the fruit removed from their branches and placed before us appear to be devoid of life; nothing more than objects destined to decay. However, within them, living cells continue to interact with one another, giving rise to phenomena that are imperceptible to the human senses. Through this installation, visitors can experience the entire life cycle of fruit, right up to its final moments, by means of flickering light and resonating sound. As per this work, Yuko Mohri has created installations that convey—via sight, sound, and at times touch—fragments of the complexity that truly lies latent within this world. “Decomposition” serves as a mechanism where the very process of decay and loss give rise to something new. We invite visitors to take their time and experience the shifting interplay of light and sound as it unfolds day by day. Trevor Yeung has created works that draw inspiration from human-managed ecosystems—such as aquariums, houseplants, and moss—to visualize the delicate interdependencies and the forms of symbiosis found within them. His works do not present relationships between individuals or within limited groups; instead, they depict fluid, polycentric networks formed by diverse entities that loosely connect and disconnect. One of the works on exhibit, “Night Mushroom Colon (Toilet in Tokyo)” takes as its motif nightlights—which offer a sense of security amid the darkness of night—and the proliferative nature of mushrooms. When spending the night in an unfamiliar environment, or when one is cut off from others and faces the loneliness of being alone—what kind of psychological state is evoked, and what memories are created, by the glow of artificial lights or the vitality of mushrooms proliferating independently of human existence? In this work, a “Night Mushroom” is placed in an empty aquarium where once can sense traces of the fish that once lived there. An appealing aspect of this work is the cycle of values that operate outside a purely human-centric perspective. Tomoya Matsuzaki creates paintings using a unique method that consists of painting an abstract work on a custom-molded acrylic resin support and arranging a series of found objects in front of it. The images depicted could be a landscape, an ancient map, or perhaps a celestial body. How do you as viewers see them? Arranged in front of the paintings are a wide variety of objects—ranging from items so old that it’s hard to distinguish whether they’re natural or man-made, to identifiable industrial products—that the artist has collected from the streets of London, where he is based, the bottom of the River Thames, and the British coastline. The titles of these works are often named after specific places or events, and once you learn their meanings, the works themselves take on an even more enigmatic quality. Tomoya Matsuzaki also speaks of his interest in a world devoid of human-imposed meaning—something that lies beyond the reach of human comprehension. The pathways created by his paintings, filled with light and a palpable presence, and his timeless objects seem to transport our thoughts and senses to a variety of realms.