EXHIBITIONS

Kyoji Takahashi・Hideo Furukawa “ Suirei ”

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● Opening Reception: 2025.02.15.Sat 5:00pm – 7:00pm

LOKO GALLERY is pleased to present “Suirei (spirits of water)”, a duo exhibition by photographer Kyoji Takahashi and novel writer Hideo Furukawa, from February 14th to March 8th, 2025.

The exhibition project began from two F100 size abstract paintings by Takahashi, which Furukawa remarked as “water ghost” when he observed the actual works.

The gallery space is narrow yet high-ceilinged with a skylight, like a well that lets light pour down. Also, the area around the gallery in Shibuya is where we could profoundly observe the traces of the Jomon period (ca. 14000-1000 BCE), evoking the essence of soil and water at the heart of the city.

 

In the two photographs taken by Takahashi at Igashira Park, Tochigi, the “spirit of water” coincidentally appeared on the photographs, which will descend before us at the “well” or the exhibition space.

After this work, Furukawa wrote an immensely long poem “Suirei”.

Furukawa then performed a sequence of actions, which he documented as a movie—first, he took precisely three hours to write down the series of poems on the gallery floor with walnut ink and glass dip pen, then bound it into a book, lighted fire at the bottom of the well and burnt the book. What did Takahashi’s digital camera capture through the BOLEX 16mm film lens, when Furukawa was reciting his poems?

 

In other words, from the day the two artists met and decided to put up an exhibition amid the rapid change of the situation, the exhibition is transforming until its closing day, details yet to be revealed. We invite you to this unique opportunity.

 


“ Purity of water, purity of fire ”

 

When answering the question of how Dogū dolls are made, it is correct to say they are made by “being burnt”. Dogū is nothing more than an unglazed clay figurine. On the other hand, I, Hideo Furukawa, am a novel writer who often create books. Suppose I answer the question of how books are made by saying, “They are made by being burnt” by mistake—moreover, actually put into practice. The outcome? Books may vanish if they have been thoroughly burnt.

 

Kyoji Takahashi is known as a photographer, so it can be said that his main occupation is to take photographs. Then, what does the act of photography involve? Usually, one may answer that it is the act “to photograph the subject”. Nevertheless, his photographs do not seem to take the subject as it is. For instance, when considering the act of reading a book, the true nature lies in the time after it rather than during it. When others question whether the book was good or bad, interesting or boring, we do not state the impression from the process of reading. We answer “good” “boring” “awesome” from the impression after we part from the book, release the book, the subject. This is what Kyoji Takahashi’s camera captures—something like the post-read sensation that exists after a particular act.

 

At this exhibition’s artistic starting line, Kyoji Takahashi, who is often recognized as a photographer will stand as a painter, and I, Hideo Furukawa, who is often recognized as a novel writer will stand as a poet. Galleries are strange kind of spaces. Their primary purpose is to change their appearance depending on “what is exhibited” within the space. It could be paraphrased that the original appearance is constantly aware of disappearing. Well, that’s a bull. LOKO GALLERY bears its name from an Esperanto word meaning “place” (that’s right, loko) and the architectural design is inspired from the shape of a well. A gallery placed in Shibuya, a building and also a well, that also connotes a well, but definitely not the well itself. What fills the well is water, which we could not find anywhere. But a water like a post-reading sensation may be possible to emerge. For a post-reading sensation, photography will do. He may capture it. Then how about me? I may create something, an object, that precedes the post-reading sensation—a book.

 

This time, he, Kyoji Takahashi, will capture myself who will create such an object, to a video. Thereupon he who is often recognized as a photographer will commit to this exhibition as a painter, and also transform into a videographer. Likewise, me, Hideo Furukawa, who is often recognized as a novel writer, will commit to this exhibition as a poet, then turn into a performer or actor or whatsoever. Yet, this kind of classification means nothing. In the first place, he, as a painter, was painting the post-read sensation. His abstract paintings depict this kind of something. Being influenced by his color schemes, and being crucially influenced by the Esperanto term of “place” (loko) or well or Shibuya or the fact it exists here or whatever sequential conditions, I wrote down a series of poem “Suirei (spirits of water)”, which is equivalent to the act of interchanging the post-read sensation of the land, the place (loko), to a single long poem. What is more, there are photographs that were once pasted on his F100 size paintings, then removed to find their place on the cover of my handmade book “Suirei”.

 

Our attempt continued. Are books “created by being burnt”? Where is the fire that created Dogū, purified the space, that is to say, the place (loko) itself, or could bring any kind of life? Could we see water, that fulfills LOKO GALLERY, a well that is not a well?

 

Can you see? Capture? Read? Hear? No, sense?

 

Hideo Furukawa