STANDING PINE

STANDING PINE is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Kazufumi Oizumi entitled “Beyond Constructivism” from Saturday 7th to Saturday 28th November.

Oizumi has been producing automatic drawing machines and large scale interactive installations since 1991, and his works has been presented at Kobe Biennale(Kobe, Japan), Ars Electronica(Linz, Austria) and so on. This exhibition focuses on two works, “Movable Bridge/BH3.X” and “Schrödinger’s kitten.” Both look at the physical experience when an object moves, located in a bodily realism rather than imaginary. Parallel to his own work, his research into the internationally active early Japanese computer art group CTG (Computer Technique Group), whose works were shown in the “Cybernetic Serendipity” show, sheds light onto the global computer art scene at the time, recontextualizing them in art history. Oizumi’s works often use the computer, yet he has never called himself a media artist. He questions the narrow characterisation of ‘media art’ as ‘art and technology’ and seeks to revive the diversity of its origins in computer art, re-situating it in art history.

“Movable Bridge/BH 3.X”
The installation is a movable bridge that periodically bridges a disconnected path. The two bridges draw up and down at each prescribed period, irrespective of audience presence. The lucky ones can cross over to the other side. It requires a certain amount of courage despite its calculated structure, as the bridge is transparent and the thin aluminum structure appears fragile.

Oizumi explains:
As soon as I was able to think for myself, the world seemed divided into east-west camps. The Berlin wall symbolized the fact as a distorted existence, a fortified castle that suddenly appeared in the middle of the 20th century. One side of the wall was covered in colorful paintings, and the other buried any expression in its bare concrete facade. Despite it being so far from ideal, I believed in this structure, sure that it will one day lead us forward. When it collapsed in 1989, optimistic discourse spread around the world, and some systems certainly shifted but we find ourselves now in an era of building walls, not only physical but mental and ideological. This trend seems likely to continue and their number and scale will increase.

He sees the function of art as bridge-building. Bridging one place to another will bring with it its own difficulties, but humanity is built on the repetition of conflict and reconciliation. There are no utopias, so we must nurture the building of bridges as first steps toward solutions rather than compare the robustness of walls.

“Schrödinger’s kitten”
The title refers to the paradox in quantum physics. The installation draws continuously throughout the exhibition on a canvas of S6 (41x41cm) with a brushstroke in dynamic motion. In the absence of an audience, the machine continuously draws along a horizontal line. When it senses a presence, it will change the vector and phase of the line segments for a while. The computer selects a set of parameters (direction, distance, acceleration, etc.) from a vast pool of combinations, determining the line segments. Once the audience is gone, the machine reverts to its original state.

Its focus lies neither in the machine nor the finished drawing, but in the particularity and relationship between space, time, and viewer. S/he watches the act of drawing, its rules and dynamism. Considering the predominance of vision over all our senses and the current trend of the fictional experience such as VR and AR, this work re-grounds our physicality in bodily experience through the object in motion in front of our eyes. Do drawings completed over time create abstract beauty as collective intelligence or is this only a fallacy of composition?

“Fallacy of composition” is originally an economic term, where one’s individual rational action can produce undesirable results if carried out by many. The rise of populism, globalism and widening economic disparities, despite the correctness of their basic underlying principles rings true. “Schrödinger’s Cat” proposes the quantum physics paradox of understanding the micro as a superimposition of two states - is it possible to see the macro as such? Can the cat exist in both states of life and death? Oizumi sees the “fallacy of composition” and “Schrödinger’s Cat” as symmetrical, and through this matrix he suggests the possibility of an overview of the world and its history.

------------------------

Kazufumi OIZUMI

1964　Born in 1964 in Miyagi, Japan.
1987　B.A., Scholl of Art and Design, University of Tsukuba
1993　M.A., Plastic Art and Mixed Media at Graduate School of Art and Design, University of Tsukuba.

Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2018　movable bridge / BH 1.0, N-mark5G, Nagoya-city
2004　Schrödinger’s cat / Majestic Imperator, Gallery C･Square, Nagoya-city
2001　platform project 2001, KSP Gallery in Kanagawa Science Park, Kawasaki-city
1991　media + architecture, awarded The 1st. Conica Plaza Artist Prize Grand Prix, Conica Plaza, Tokyo

Group Exhibitions (selected)
2018　Visual System I ── Parallax》《Visual System II── Optic axis》
           “Human Expression and Media Art : Expanding perception”
           University Art Museum, Aichi University of the Arts, Aichi
2017 《Loss of Horizontality》
           Video and Media Art : Video and Body as an Interface”
           University Art Museum, Aichi University of the Arts, Aichi
2007　Schrödinger’s cat II, Art in Container, Kobe Biennale 2007, Kobe-City
2003　Schrödinger’s kitten, 2003, Media Art Ato Z, Design Gallery, of International Design
　　　Center, Nagoya-city
2002　Visualization Project 1.2.3 of the Phantom Museum, The Dream of a Museum,
　　　Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. 3D-CG reproduction of inside and outside of the
　　　unbuilt three museum projects, Rasen Tengakaku (Spiral Painting Exhibition Tower) by
　　　Yuichi Takahashi, Musée de Noir by Minoru Nakahara and Sheer Pleasure Arts Pavilion by
　　　Kojiro Matsukata and Sir Frank Brangwyn. This project is collaboration with Sogabe lab.,
　　　Chukyo University.
2001　platform project 2001-2, Art of Object / Art of Media - Adventures of Artists, Tokoha
　　　Museum of Art, Shizuoka Pref.
1998　VR of ‘Lenin Institute of library Science’ and ‘The Project for the People's Commissariat of
　　　Heavy Industry’ and others by I. Leonidov, Digital Art Splash!, Fukushima Prefectural
　　　Museum of Art.
1996　CG of ‘I. Leonidov’s The Project for the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry’,
　　　Archaeology of the future city, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and others.
1993　Fragmentation Curve, Tsukuba Museum of Art, and Art Museum of Aichi University
　　　of the Arts and Music

Award
1991　The 1st. “Conica Plaza Artist Prize” Grand Prix