A room that grows buoyant
Artist text by Asako Shiroki published on the occasion of the group exhibition 21st DOMANI - The Art of Tomorrow at The National Art Center Tokyo
Asako Shiroki wrote the following text to accompany a suite of works she exhibited in the group show 21st DOMANI - The Art of Tomorrow at The National Art Center Tokyo in 2019. Among those works exhibited was “Your window is my mirror”, a piece with a compilation of materials including wood, brass, textile and mirrored glass (see image below). This piece can also be seen in Shiroki’s award-winning solo exhibition Your voice, echoed, currently on view as an immersive 360-degree map at EXPOBLVD.
Photo: Asako Shiroki
As buoyancy increases, the force of gravity increases by the same amount. Is it possible, I ask myself, for a work of art to resist this gravity, be auto-nomous, become another, be the body as a sculpture? The balance between resistance against seemingly impossible forces and acceptance of things and matters as they are, gives shape to my work. Through the forms of fragments of furniture and architecture such as a chair, table, lattice or wooden frame, my works provoke physical memories of forms and evoke the viewer's individual memories. At the same time, while forms consistently remain as fragments, imagined function is suspended, floating around without a destination and blurring the outline of these memories. As you follow the blurred memories beyond the haze, it feels as if you have stepped into a different place, as you become more sensitive to sound, scent, resistance of the air, and colors that you have never been aware of. In this moment, you are likely looking on happenings with a bird’s-eye view more on “your” side, as the amount of buoyancy slightly exceeds that of gravity.
I dislocate mutual rules and assign new relationships to happenings that occur simultaneously in this world, such as history and culture, customs, awareness of flora and fauna, and the physical phenomena between tangible and intangible things. I reverse and mix things—including concepts—that by rights ought to be on the reverse, reflect things in mirrors, or peel away related meanings to let things themselves start a dialogue in different contexts. Different languages are translated, folded and layered with fictions and realities in a moment that leads us to a world in which they are equated. I want “you” to imagine “me” inside you, and I from here, I want “me” to imagine “you”.