Enrico Isamu Oyama “Present Tense” (Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2016)

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

Enrico Isamu Oyama "Present Tense"

Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo
20 August - 24 September, 2016

Present Tense is the first official solo exhibition in Japan by artist Enrico Isamu Oyama at Takuro Someya Contemporary Art in Tokyo. It is composed entirely with his new body of works. Both the refined figurative and dynamic performative nature of Oyama’s works weave into each other and flow throughout the exhibition.

One significantly large piece, FFIGURATI #133, features elaborated 84 units of Quick Turn Structure, the artist’s signature motif developed from the visual language of graffiti culture. The dynamic background of circular lines that Oyama calls Improvised Loops were drawn by a special marker filled with sumi ink. It was originally created as a live painting performance in New York before it was brought to the artist’s studio for further process.

2 mid-size paintings, FFIGURATI #134 and #135, also feature large black-on-black Quick Turn Structure applied by airbrush on top of the Improvised Loops background. A sequence of 5 works, FFIGURATI #136-140, where Quick Turn Structure is drawn in gracefully with a sharp mechanical pencil on top of a texture produced by cracked paint.

In the gallery, two symmetric walls were built to create a rhythm in the space, with a contrast of quiet works in the front and dynamic works in the back. This wall loosely connects the contrasting works by keeping them visible from each side.

The title of this exhibition Present Tense sheds light on the issue of time. The “I was here” statement in graffiti evokes the past tense. However, in the instant which the words were written, the writer was in fact in the present, making the literal time frame of the writer to be “I am here”. This undoubtedly creates a gap felt by the viewers who will be reading the words in the future. Therefore, by prioritizing the viewer’s experience, “am” is transformed to “was” beforehand, so that the viewer is in a consistent time frame. In other words, the disturbance created in time, is resolved and a fictional present is constructed.

The fictional present is something that dislocates the irreversible physical time, which is the sequential flow of past, present and future, so that the act of “seeing” will be experienced as a newly organized singularity. Isn’t this the experience of art in itself? The relationship between Quick Turn Structure and the viewer also encompasses the tension between continuity and a uniquely present nature. It is the mutual effect of the iconography that emerges from the integration of the traces of lines and the “now” of the viewer.

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

Exhibition:
Enrico Isamu Oyama "Present Tense"
Takuro Someya Contemporary Art (Tokyo, Japan)
20 August - 24 September, 2016

Exhibition video:
Directed and edited by Tsuyoshi Anzai
Filmed by Stephan Knuesel, Takahiro Tsushima
Photographed by Kei Okano
Narrated by Anne Hansen
Recorded by Alex Weston

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

Special Thanks:
Takuro Someya, Veena Yoshino, Anise Xiao, Kazune Yahikozawa, Kengo Tanaka, Michio Hayashi, Stephan Knuesel, Tsuyoshi Anzai, Anne Hansen, Alex Weston, Kei Okano, Takahiro Tsushima and all the others who supported the project.

©︎Enrico Isamu Oyama / EIOS
Courtesy Takuro Someya Contemporary Art
http://www.enricoisamuoyama.net