Isamu WAKABAYASHI 2024 Tokyo

KENJI TAKI GALLERY

Isamu WAKABAYASHI
Oct. 5 – Nov. 9, 2024
Tokyo

Kenji Taki Gallery (Roppongi) is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Isamu Wakabayashi, opening on October 5.

Through his sculptures made of iron, copper, sulfur, and wood, as well as his daily drawings, Isamu Wakabayashi continuously observed and contemplated the vast nature and the world surrounding him. He established the concept of the shindoshaku (oscillation gauge) as a means of tangibly measuring the distance between himself and the world/nature, projecting this idea into his sculptures and drawings. Furthermore, he viewed dogs as beings that exist between nature and himself (humanity), making them a recurring motif in his work.

Focusing primarily on works from the 1990s, this exhibition will include previously unreleased pieces, featuring three-dimensional works utilizing metal tins such as Extra 100 Lines (1992) and the Anchovy Can series (1992), alongside the drawing Oscillation A (1994).

“Sculpture does not express humanity as an objectified entity. Rather, if we consider it a manifestation of the thoughts and actions of the human being who creates it, then it is not about humanity as a whole, but about me as an individual. The insights arising from the questions that emerged around this point became one of the ideas behind the concept of shindoshaku (the oscillation gauge).”

(From an interview with Isamu Wakabayashi: Exhibition Catalogue published by Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 2002, pp. 102–103)

Image:
Untitled (with Heater), 1998
Copper, cotton, wood, and ink
38.6 x 54 x H.8 cm

Oscillation A #21～#39, 1994.9.21 – 9.24
Gouache on paper
54.8×78.9 cm

Untitled (No. 1), Nov. 19, 1992
Anchovy can and sulfur
5 x 10 x H.5.8 cm