save the date

He Xiangyu

October 28, 2016 – November 24, 2016
GALLERY HOURS :11:00 – 19:00
GALLERY CLOSED:
SUNDAY, MONDAY, PUBLIC HOLIDAY
RECEPTION:October 27, 2016 18:00〜20:00

Related Exhibition

He Xiangyu “save the date”

Dates: Friday, October 28, 2016 – Saturday, December 3, 2016
Gallery Hours :11:00 – 19:00
Gallery Closed:
Sunday, Monday, Public Holiday
Venue: SCAI THE BATHHOUSE
(ashiwayu-Ato, 6-1-23 Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo)

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I don’t know you, you don’t know me, 2016
4-channel video (color, sound) Video length: 4’10”, 3’28”, 1’44”, 3’43”
Screen dimensions: pending

From Friday October 28 to Thursday November 24, 2016, Kaikai Kiki Gallery will present Save the Date, a solo exhibition by He Xiangyu.

He Xiangyu has garnered extensive international attention for multiple large scale and controversial projects, including the Cola Project which featured works made from the cooked residue of 127 tons of Coca Cola.

More recently, he has begun to address subject matter of a more personal nature, exploring perception through different bodily parts. The Palate Project, started in 2012 during a visit to the US where he experienced difficulty communicating in a foreign language, prompted him to translate the uneven surface of his palate as perceived by his tongue into various visual forms.

Save the Date somewhat inherits and revolves around this recently developed aesthetic practice. Below is a statement elaborating on the show’s concept.

Exhibition Concept

Having been fascinated by the bodily responses it elicits, its social metaphors, and the anti-visual properties of its sense of light, He Xiangyu has long made the color yellow one of the focuses of his practice.

During the period of the Palate Project and in the Lemon Flavored series, he experimented with the color yellow and explored its remarkable ability to provoke and manipulate cognitive senses. The color yellow makes possible a link between visual perception and tactile sensation, as well as the sense of taste. With these newest paintings, he continues to explore the possibilities of the color yellow, but instead of attempting to evoke other senses, this time he has summoned the “core sense” of the visual arts – vision itself.

The subtle nuances of different shades of yellow provoke our vision and mind while at the same time, we look for the connection between the provocative yellow and its relation to borders and desires. In concert with the paintings, the video installations create further provocations and further question the concepts of “desire” and “the-other”.

How We Came to Hold an Exhibition with He Xiangyu

He Xiangyu was introduced to me by Mr. Chang Zhang, a collector who lives in Beijing, and as he showed me various images I became fascinated and immediately thought of inviting him to do a show in Tokyo at Kaikai Kiki Gallery.

It was then that I found out that he was already represented in Japan by SCAI THE BATHHOUSE and I remember thinking “well, that’s that.” But then after speaking with SCAI’s owner, Masami Shiraishi, he kindly suggested that we do two shows at the same time to maximize buzz for the artist in Japan. And so, we were able to make this show happen.

I admire the way He Xiangyu approaches his work in a manner that is unbound by scale. He also shows a remarkable freedom of style. And yet, he seems to have a skeptic’s view of the world; his themes are not confined to the matters of his own country but still retain a strong Chinese flavor. It was these things that attracted me to his art.

The artwork He has prepared for this show includes a video shot on an iPhone in which he stalks various strangers that come across his path.

It is a brilliant work that combines uneasiness with a sense of mischief. Another work that recreates an underwear-covered penis reaching erection reminds me of my own early work.

I hope you will come and see these scale-less works for yourself.

– Takashi Murakami

Related Exhibition

He Xiangyu “save the date”

Dates: Friday, October 28, 2016 – Saturday, December 26, 2016
Gallery Hours :11:00 – 19:00
Gallery Closed:
Sunday, Monday, Public Holiday
Venue: SCAI THE BATHHOUSE
(ashiwayu-Ato, 6-1-23 Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo)