[Jam Session] Tomoko Konoike “Flip”
“Jam Session” is a program in which the Ishibashi Foundation Collection and contemporary artists perform together.
This time I visited “Flip,” the first in the series, organized with Tomoko Konoike as the invited artist. The venue is the Artizon Museum.
The title “Flip” (in Japanese written in hiragana) was chosen by Konoike because she wanted a title that carried as little meaning as possible — something more like an animal cry — and the hiragana script was used to strip meaning away as much as possible.
The exhibition presents two large-scale works that had previously been shown in regional venues.
One is “Dream Hunting Grounds,” originally exhibited in her solo show “Hunter Gatherer” in Akita.
The other is “Kawa Tombi (Skin Kite),” originally presented at the Setouchi Triennale 2019.
“Kawa Tombi” was shown outdoors, exposed to the elements, along “Ringwanderung” — a circular walking path cut through the mountainside behind the National Hansen’s Disease Sanatorium on Oshima Island. Measuring 4 m × 12 m, the piece felt even more monumental here than it had on-site.
The new work “Fusuma-e (Sliding Door Paintings)” was a large piece installed in a circular arrangement. A slide that suddenly appears at the center draws the viewer’s gaze.
The slide is solidly built so that viewers can actually ride it.
Through this bodily experience, the encounter with the work was inscribed as something tangible.
From the high vantage point at the start of the slide down to the low viewpoint at the bottom, I enjoyed the shifting sensations while surrounded by the art on all sides.
“Kage-e Toro (Shadow-Picture Lantern)” is a shadow-picture work in which wheels attached to a rotating axis turn.
The movements of the characters, transformed into shadows, seemed to be imbued with life.
Right: Tomoko Konoike, “Lake Diorama,” 2013
Right: Tomoko Konoike, “Miyu — Cross-Section of the Earth,” 2012
There was also a section of the exhibition where visitors thread their way through suspended animal hides, allowing them to feel the skin directly — a signature aspect of Konoike’s expressive practice.
Described as an exhibition of new works inspired by specific pieces from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection and of fresh perspectives generated by a session between the collection and the artist, the three pieces drawn from the collection were reportedly selected by the curator.
Tomoko Konoike’s grand-scale works felt somewhat cramped in the Artizon Museum’s galleries, yet the show invited deep reflection on what it means to live and to feel life itself.
