Tokyo, Japan – WAITINGROOM is pleased to announce Fumika TSUCHITORI solo exhibition “Bones and Skin (light a fire, have to go find the roses)”, through August 22th to September 13th at the gallery. Through her two series, “I and You” which depicts two people, and “a scene” which extracts elements such as colors and shapes from a landscape, Tsuchitori has been thinking about the distance between people, the diversity of “seeing”, and the irreplaceability of a particular object. Tsuchitori’s work is characterized by motifs that oscillate between figuration and abstraction, reflecting on the materiality and fictionality of what constitutes a painting. This exhibition is the first solo exhibition of her career, and she will be showing more than ten new works.
About the artist
Born in 1995 in Hyogo, currently lives and works in Kyoto. Graduated from the department of art and craft at Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2020. Her recent exhibitions include a group exhibition “SUBJECT” (2020, ANTEROOM KYOTO, Kyoto), group exhibition “A-Lab Artist Gate 2020” (2020, A-Lab, Hyogo), group exhibition “Kyoto Art Lounge” (2019, Starbucks Coffee Sanjo Ohashi, Kyoto), group exhibition “Shibuya STYLE Vol.13” (2019, Seibu Shibuya art gallery, Tokyo), group exhibition “Innocent -P-” (2019, Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto), group exhibition “Artist’s Tiedeland KYOTO” (2019, Isetan Shinjuku Men’s Building Art Lounge, Tokyo), group exhibition “SPURT” (2019, Galerie Aube, Kyoto), group exhibition “Read the Wachuan” (2018, Notre Dame Jogakuin Junior and Senior High School Wachuan, Kyoto), group exhibition “HOP” (2018, Galerie Aube, Kyoto), group exhibition “Kyoto University of Art and Design Degree Show” (2018, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto), group exhibition “Now, That Paintings” (2017, Painting Laboratory303, Kyoto) and others.
Artist Statement
Making painting is like secretly showing off a treasured possession, or is similar to the act of saying “Look!” when you find something and unexpectedly like it. It is very egoistic. It’s cheesy, but I love it because I feel its humanity. It’s nice to be shown. I’m glad that you can show me something that is so important to you, that you can see something that reminds you of yourself. I think that touching someone or something means that you’re forgiven. I often forget that. I want to hold on to every single precious thing, but can I hold on to that many? Or will I choose only one? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how someone once told me that when he first saw the shape of a heart, he was amazed that it was moving. I wondered if one day I would look the same like him. (Fumika Tsuchitori)
Seeing is the beginning of a personal attachment to an object.
Tsuchitori has always had a strong interest that a person chooses one thing and cares about it. The title of this exhibition, “Bones and Skin,” refers to the structure of the paintings as if they were the body. The various brush strokes, such as touching the canvas like the skin of the painting with a brush, painting without touching with lacquer spray, or rubbing with a crayon, can be replaced by variations of the act of expressing one’s feelings about people and things. The motif of “two people in close proximity” as depicted by Tsuchitori has existed many times in the history of art. Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt introduced the glittering decorative arts, which had been subordinated to the fine arts, into his portraits, depicting opulence and eroticism. Tsuchitori’s work is also positioned in the lineage of paintings with decorative patterns and figures, such as Klimt’s masterpiece “The Kiss”. However, Tsuchitori always paints decorations and motifs that she has actually “seen” in her daily life or on the Internet, to bring a sense of everydayness rather than opulence to her paintings. The act of “seeing” may seem like a shareable sensation, but it is actually a very personal act. In this respect, “seeing” is the beginning of a personal attachment to an object. In other words, the paintings are an expression of Tsuchitori’s act of looking itself, and also a disclosure of her feelings. Felix Gonzalez-Torres expressed his personal love with a sculpture of everyday objects such as candies and cookies piled up to the weight of his deceased partner. The expression of “feelings” through seeing and touching, and through everyday objects in Tsuchitori’s paintings, can be functioned like a larger vessel, capable of projecting a sense of love that we can all share.
