Tenmyouya Hisashi Solo Exhibition “Rhyme” Mizuma Art Gallery (Tokyo,Japan)

10 October - 10 November 2012

Rhyme is a composite-type piece based on the concept of mutual complementation and reverberation between elements of painting, installation and text. The painted part was inspired by such cavalry images as Leonardo Da Vinci’s Battle of Anghiari. The red-tinted Zen garden, my first ever installation, is based on an imagined combination of the Zen garden at Ryoanji and the Chitenjo (bloody ceiling) at Yogen-in. The below text was distributed at the exhibition venue (together with a press text) in order to give visitors some clues for deciphering the work’s hidden mechanisms.

Text

For this exhibition, Tenmyouya Hisashi took up the challenge of a new masterpiece, a war picture full of the turbulent winds of these chaotic times. Mounted warriors with black hair reminding of contemporary samurais are seen riding mysterious horses and tigers wearing fantastic helmets. The dramatic dimension of the intertwined fighting warriors will no doubt constitute one of the highlights of this exhibition. Furthermore, visitors themselves will make a peculiar experience set up by the artist.

The device which at first glance seems to test their vision is in fact a sharp critic of the very act of looking at an artwork and the system they are embedded into, the incendiary spark inside the battle then propagating inside our consciousness in unexpected ways.

In 2000, Tenmyouya Hisashi defined himself as the champion of “Neo-Nihonga“, his unique style that revives traditional Japanese painting in the present, raising the flag of Butoh-Ha – or warrior style – to fight by painting against the all-powerful authority of the fine art establishment. In 2010, he advocated the concept of "BASARA" – named after the word basara used during the Northern and Southern Courts period of Japanese history as well as the Warring States (Sengoku) period's kabukimono – as a pompous and extravagant aesthetic current. More recently Tenmyouya even began producing his own commercial gallery as an upheaval against the art system, in the straight line of his constant rebellious activities. By violating the taboos on purpose, this exhibition comes as a true manifest for the pompous yet extraordinary spirit of Basara.

The show also includes the artist's very first large installation work. Bearing the same title of Rhyme, it complements and completes the war picture, bearing the metaphysical vision that shakes the border of reality and fiction. This work bears the mark of the reality of our world after the Tohoku earthquake and the collapse of the myth of safety of nuclear power in Japan. Visitors may even feel the ominous footsteps that go on spoiling the actual world.

This exhibition ought to be controversial at Tenmyouya's satisfaction. How will you receive the intricately intertwined trap settle by him? And how will you read it? We look forward to your appreciation.

天明屋尚個展「韻」ミヅマアートギャラリー (東京)

2012年10月10日 - 11月10日

韻

「韻」は、絵画／インスタレーション／テキストが互いに補完し、響き合うことをコンセプトとした複合型の作品である。絵画部分は、レオナルド・ダ・ヴィンチ作「アンギアーリの戦い(Battle of Anghiari)」などの騎馬図にインスピレーションを受け描いた。一方、初のインスタレーションとなった真紅の枯山水は、竜安寺の枯山水と養源院の血天井を併せたイメージで制作した。個展会場では下記のテキスト(プレス原稿と同様)を配布し、鑑賞者はそれを手がかりに、作品に隠された仕掛けを読み解くことを意図した。

テキスト

今回、天明屋は乱世の不穏な空気漂う合戦図の大作に挑みます。現代の侍を彷彿とさせる黒髪の侠達が変わり兜を纏った異相の馬と虎に跨がり、絡み合い闘う群像劇の壮麗さは間違いなく今展の見所の一つです。しかし会場ではさらに、来場者が自身の眼を疑うようなある仕掛けが施されています。一見、鑑賞者の眼力を試すかのようにも取れるその趣向はしかし、芸術作品を取り巻く視線や制度に鋭い批判の眼差しを向けています。合戦図の中の火種は、思わぬ形で私達の認識の中に飛び火して来ることでしょう。ー中略ー

確信犯的なタブー侵犯を含んだ今回の展示は、まさに過美にして破格の“BASARA”の精神を体現するものと言えるでしょう。

また今展では作家初となる大規模なインスタレーションも設置。合戦図と同じ「韻」をタイトルに持つこのインスタレーションは、合戦図と対を成す補完関係にあり、現実と虚構の境界を揺さぶるメタフィジカルな視線はここでも顕在です。そこには、安全神話が崩壊してしまった3.11以後の世界における確かなリアリティが刻印されており、鑑賞者は現実世界が次第に蝕まれてゆく不気味な足音すら感じるかもしれません。

会心の問題作となることを予感させる今展。複雑に絡み合い、幾重にも張り巡らされた天明屋の仕掛けた罠をどう受け止め、どう読み解くか。ぜひともご高覧下さい。