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The Far Side
Komagome SOKO, Tokyo 2022
The Far Side, 2022
Two-Person Exhibition with Christoph Meier*
Curated by Stuart Munro
"The Far Side” touches upon geology and the anthropomorphic; making something in service of something else, and a conversation between two bodies of work hung on either side of a room. One deals with the art of patience, waiting for things to dry, to take hold, for color to remain or be washed out by sunlight. The other makes coat hooks from Viennese clay, dressed in horse hair as a nod to the painter's brush and the Noh mask.
And while both series are comical in their own right, each links back to traditions of representation. Horsehair alludes to classical sculpture, where the horse is nearly always caught between a pedestal and a figure riding horseback- is it a monument or is it a sculpture? Painting sees this figure like a notation in a score, a pause between one movement and another. In classical music, the horse represents an interlude and commercial break, or the bow between violin and string.
Each tempera sketch is chasing lines across a canvas in a race against time and fading light. Clay from beneath the city surface goes from a dull grey to a rich orange when fired at 940˚C. Another 100˚C and it turns a dark tobacco brown. At one time soft and wet then hard and dry, these protagonists made of tempera and ceramics stare each other in the eye, from the nearside to the far side of the room. (Stuart Munro)
(Fig.1-15)
Eggtempera on canvas, à 40 x 30 cm
* Ceramics by Christoph Meier
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