Visions of Proximity

Introducing new works by four contemporary artists of Asian origin, the exhibition explores the idea of synesthesia, or unions of senses linked through the passage of time. These works seek to activate otherwise undeveloped zones of senses through the immediacy of our perceptual responses, making stealthy and seductive communication possible.

Using iridescent pearl acrylic that reflects in a myriad of subtle nuances, Daisuke Ohba (b.1981) evokes an illusionary landscape informed by the traditional ink and wash compositions. An ethereal sense of tranquility is rendered from a snapshot taken on the artist's research trip to Nachi Katsuura, one of the hallowed grounds for mountain worship. The digitally filtered image is methodologically painted cell by cell into a fine grid - awaking our perception to continually rebuild the entire scenery as the light and focus vary with the viewers’ movement.

Occupying a dimmed corner is Haroon Mirza (b.1977)’s tensely precarious assemblage that connects light and sound through the amplification of electric waves. Employing nostalgic remnants of the city’s collective memory - an abandoned car wheel and techno beats, Detroit Reconfigured (2012) makes double referents to the automobile industry’s decline and the emergence of early club scenes. Also exhibited is a work from his new series composed of used solar panels, where the LED stripes glow from ambient light and fade in the viewer’s shadow.

New works by He Xiangyu (b.1986) affirm his recent shift from large-scale socio-political projects to private and abstract conversations on his body part as a convincible point of departure. A set of watercolor drawings, Everything We Create Is Not Ourselves (2014), depicts the tactual perceptions of his tongue feeling inside his mouth, transposed into diffused formations of shapes and colors. In Tears (2014), He captures physical properties of teardrops on paper, as the materialisation of indefinable emotions and body fluid that fell out of his control.

The freewheeling, whimsical inventions by Nobuko Tsuchiya bring together scraps of materials: pieces of leather, plastic tubes, fluffy feathers and a used syphon coffee maker. Detaching function and meaning from every material, Tsuchiya takes an elusive tactic to deconstruct the visual language, and composes her own poetry that appears in an almost cryptic presence. Eliciting the viewer into silent dialogues without any knowledge a posteriori, these works seem to draw us into otherwise intact sensation inseparable by five senses and free from acquired thoughts.

Visions of Proximity marks the second edition of the anniversary show, commemorating the 25th year since the gallery’s establishment. Noting its distinctive gallery space at the former bathhouse, the exhibition is formed to emphasize its original architecture and its role in a community where locals would gather for relaxed communication and immersion in a world of bodily senses.