Kenjiro Okazaki, “A Decade or So Ago・As Tears Go By”
We visited Kenjiro Okazaki’s solo exhibition “A Decade or So Ago・As Tears Go By.”
This exhibition offers a precious opportunity to see, for the first time in more than a decade, a group of works produced up to 2010 that Kenjiro Okazaki has felt to hold special significance and has carefully preserved.
By marking a decade-long boundary, the exhibition invites us to look ahead to the next ten years.
Takuro Someya Contemporary Art (Tennoz)Installation view
The exhibition features works from Okazaki’s Large Painting, sculpture, tile, and Zero Thumbnail series, including pieces that until now have been listed as “artist’s collection.”
Given Okazaki’s principle of “keeping good works at hand,” this show also presents a rare opportunity for collectors.
Kenjiro Okazaki, “Saint Bernard slept only the minimum amount of time. Nothing is more wasteful than time spent sleeping. Sleep is a form of death (though from God’s perspective, perhaps it is the dead who are merely sleeping). A loud snore. A slovenly posture. It is only the flesh that sleeps. That is why he did not eat from appetite or pleasure. He said nothing was as delicious as water, that drinking water refreshed his throat. He goes out into the forest and fields to meditate. The Mongolian oak of the forest. The beech was his teacher (beech leaves were also his only food). (From The Golden Legend, ‘Saint Bernard’)”, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 195×288×7 cm
This work belongs to the Large Painting series. While such pieces are usually canvases mounted on board, this work uses canvas stretched over a wooden frame. It is hard to believe it was made more than ten years ago—the clean, vivid colors of the paint are striking. For reference, the paints Okazaki uses are foreign-made pigments that he blends in his own original formulations.
※Detail※DetailA companion piece to “Saint Bernard…” above—”A puppy that finishes writing a letter in the rain without getting wet, not even noticing where the lake is as it wanders around it (its back a little red). (From The Golden Legend, ‘Saint Bernard’)”, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 91×58.5×5.5 cmKenjiro Okazaki, “Every one of them is made from a single material / Pulverizing the bond of vapor that has melted snow and frozen again”, 2014, Hand Painted Ceramic TileInstallation viewKenjiro Okazaki, “Grasping Humbaba and those who turn away as Hokuwaku”, 2000-2001, bronze, 26.5×77×51.5 cmLeft: Kenjiro Okazaki, “Hardness and weight sharing the same name (mendicant’s sack)”, 2005, acrylic on canvas Right: Kenjiro Okazaki, “Unnoticed ointment (just in case)”, 2005, acrylic on canvasKenjiro Okazaki, “If fate also has a life of its own, then it must be heaven’s decree—’the season passes and it seems to be made.’ To go beyond a determined season, one must be born on the other side. Wind blows in, and the scarf keeps its silence. Around the solar plexus, a tear in the cloak. Light streams in radiantly.”, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Zero Thumbnail Series
Several works from the well-known Zero Thumbnail series were also on view.
Installation view“Foresight (hardens when cooled)”, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 15×18×2.9 cm ※artist’s collection“Waiting in the field until a shade is made (trees grow slowly)”, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 14.5×20.3×3.5 cm“Plans for the next life (alarm clock on the other side of the wall)”, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 15×18×2.9 cm“Mugwort of Sonoori (cypress of Muratachi)”, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 14×20.5×2.9 cm
“Meropis, or her mother (shadow of an owl)”, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 24×16.6×3.5 cm“Groundless (a cool set of features)”, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 24×16×2.9 cmInstallation view ※The display was rearranged for us.“Coming across him outdoors (legal order atop a cart)”, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 16×23×3.5 cm“Index fossil (traces of tidy motion)”, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 18.5×24.1×3.4 cm“Acquaintances yet knowing no words (a dog sleeping in the backyard and a swallow under the eaves)”, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 17×23×2.9 cm“Acquaintances yet knowing no words (a dog sleeping in the backyard and a swallow under the eaves)”“Why is a single sun brighter than countless suns? (Kepler’s question)”, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 17.5×24×3.1 cm
This solo exhibition was organized to prompt renewed reflection on the meaning of the difficult conditions we now face.
Through Okazaki’s works from more than a decade ago and his newest pieces, the exhibition invited us to move from retrospect to prospect—and whether the works were old or new, they offered a viewing experience in which thought circulated around what is truly universal.
