Rikako Kawauchi "Empty Volumes"

11/27 (Sat.) - 12/26 (Sun.), 2021
*We are open on Wed.-Sat. 12-7pm / Sun. 12-5pm
*Closed on Mon. Tue. and National Holidays

Due to the spread of the COVID-19 infection, there is a possibility that the duration of the exhibition and opening hours may be changed. We will announce the latest information on our website and SNS. We thank you for your understanding.

*Please refrain from coming to the gallery if you have any symptoms such as fever or cough.
*You may be asked to use a non-contact thermometer to measure your body temperature upon entering the gallery.
*Please wear a mask and disinfect your hands with alcohol at the entrance.
*Please note that if the gallery space is crowded, there may be a restriction on entry.

Ventilation in the gallery will be done regularly. Our staff will ensure that the temperature is checked daily, and that hands are washed and sanitized. Additionally, the staff will wear a mask when serving customers.
Installation View
Works
watching TV
2021
wire, pin on panel, 500 x 610 x 135 mm
face washing
2021
wire, pin on panel, 380×455×75mm
flowers
2021
wire, pin on panel, 1140 x 605x 190 mm
Face
2021
clay and metal, 95 x 80 x 90 mm
Lung
2021
clay and metal, 150x145x50mm
Lovers
2021
wire and pin on panel, 1620 x 1250 × 220 mm
One
2021
wire and pin on panel, 615 x 620 x 165 mm
bloom
2021
wire and pin on panel, 500 x 415 x 155 mm
Night time, on the sofa
2021
wire and pin on panel, 455 x 590 x 100 mm
when I’m waking up
2021
wire and pin on panel, 410 x 470 x 115 mm
buds
2021
wire and pin on panel, 455 x 380 x 125 mm
swelling
2021
wire and pin on 460 x 530 x 130 mm
lying
2021
wire and pin on panel, 270 x 520 x 70 mm
Flower pond
2021
clay and metal, 145 x 170 x 90 mm
alligator
2021
clay and metal,, 210 x 70 x 45 mm
Lump
2021
clay and metal, 130 x 100 x 75 mm
stone henge
2021
clay and metal, 130 x 60 x 40 mm
Organ
2021
clay and metal, 135 x 120 x 45 mm
lie on the bed
2021
wire and pin on panel, 640 x 300 x 110 mm
tumbleweed
2021
neon light, 270 x 330 x 400 mm
Press release
PDF
Tokyo, Japan – WAITINGROOM is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Rikako Kawauchi “Empty Volumes” through Nov.27th to Dec.26th, 2021. This will be Kawauchi’s first exhibition of only sculptural works, presenting a new works using wire and neon, as well as a new series using clay and metal.
In 2015, the year she graduated from Tama Art University, Kawauchi exhibited at Shiseido Gallery with only drawings, and it leave us a strong impression. Since then, Kawauchi has continued to expand her methods of expression and the materials she uses, including oil paintings, as well as three-dimensional works using rubber tubes, resin, wire, and neon, while retaining the lines seen in her drawings as a major feature of her work.
In August of this year, Kawauchi was selected as one of the five finalists for the “TERRADA ART AWARD 2021”, a contemporary art award presented by The Terada Warehouse for emerging artists. Kawauchi will also participate in the “TERRADA ART AWARD 2021 Finalists Exhibition”, which will be held at the Terada Warehouse G3-6F in Shinagawa, Tokyo from Dec.10th (Fri.) to Dec. 23rd (Thu.). We hope that you will take this opportunity to visit both exhibitions and enjoy the world of Rikako Kawauchi’s works.


left:”Face”, 2021, clay, metal, 95 x 80 x 90 mm
right:”watching TV”, 2021, wire, pin on panel, 480 x 600 x 135 mm 
photo by Shintaro Yamanaka (Qsyum!)

About the artist, Rikako Kawauchi
Born in 1990 in Tokyo, currently lives and works in Tokyo. Graduated from Tama Art University with the Master’s degree in 2017. Starting from KAWAUCHI’s own interest in the action of eating, she focuses on the subject of body, mind and ambiguous relationship between them. She depicts SELF and OTHERS as motifs in the scenes of eating food, having sex, and many other ways of communication where different elements intersect. Using a very strong and characteristic line, she’s been expanding her ways of impression from painting and drawing to wire sculpture and neon sculpture. Her recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition “afterimage aftermyth” (2021, Roppongi Hills A/D Gallery, Tokyo), “Myth & Body” (2020, Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery, Tokyo), group exhibition “drawings” (2019, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo), solo exhibition “human wears human / bloom wears bloom” (2018, Kamakura Gallery, Kanagawa), solo exhibition “Tiger Tiger burning bright” (2018, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo), solo exhibition “Back is confidential space. Behind=Elevator” (2016, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo), solo exhibition “SHISEIDO ART EGG vol.9 : Go down the throat” (2015, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo) and many others. She also received the Kenjiro HOSAKA Award at the “1st CAF Award” exhibition (2014, Tabloid Gallery, Tokyo) and Shiseido Art Egg Award at the “SHISEIDO ART EGG Vol.9: Go down the throat” (2015, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo).

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Concurrent Exhibition: “TERRADA ART AWARD 2021 Finalist Exhibition”
Duration: 12/10 (Fri.) – 12/23 (Thu.), 2021

Venue: Terada Warehouse G3-6F (Tokyo)
Details: https://www.terradaartaward.com/finalist
*Reservation required
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left:”Lung”, 2021, clay, metal, 150 x 145 x 50 mm
right:”flowers”, 2021, wire, pin on panel, 1140 x 605 x 200 mm
photo by Shintaro Yamanaka (Qsyum!)

Artist Statement
I draw as I place lines, and place them as I draw them.
These lines are hard, stubborn, and selfish.
Listening to the voice of the living lines, I move them to a certain landing point, or meet the landing point before I know it, and draw a landscape.
Rikako Kawauchi

Draw lines that lightly tracing the body and carrying the weight of the lines that penetrated me
Starting from her discomfort and interest in eating, Rikako Kawauchi works across a wide range of media to create her works. The materials she works with are becoming more diverse over the years, but the common feature of all her works is the lines she creates with her body. The lines, placed as if drawing on a plain panel or wall, have a sense of materiality such as wire or neon, and at the same time, they become contour lines that delimit the space in front of us, representing parts of the human body or animal figures. “I see the sculptural volume of the object drawn with lines, or the volume of space. It is an empty space, but there is definitely a space or a sense of materiality there that is different from the space where I am standing right now.” Although the space surrounded by the contour lines is actually just a “space,” we feel as if the weight and fleshiness of the represented motif exist within it.
Kawauchi says about the materials she chooses —such as wire that looks like lines of the drawings sticking out from the surface, neon tubes that emit light when electrons continue to circulate like pulsations, and metal that melts when heated and hardens when cooled, “There is an image that comes up that is triggered by that substance or material”. By touching and transforming materials with her own hands, Kawauchi sometimes draws out images that she herself did not expect. As if communicating with the material, she changes the relationship sensitively, coming and going again and again between herself and the materials. In Kawauchi’s work, which is completed as a result of such exchanges, we can see that seemingly contradictory things exist at the same time, such as light lines and weighty flesh, self and other, body and thought. It can be said that this is similar to the state of human beings themselves, who continue to move with various contradictions within their bodies.
In the “TERRADA ART AWARD 2021 Finalist Exhibition”, which will be held during this exhibition, she will present oil paintings, wire semi-sculptures, and neon tube sculptures created in the theme of mythology. Through both exhibitions, you will be able to see Kawauchi’s current state, where she is constantly evolving while coming into contact with new materials and images.
Artist
川内理香子
Rikako KAWAUCHI