Liquidity

Located in the Kamigamo area of Kyoto’s Kita Ward, Zuiun-an is the setting for “Liquidity,” an exhibition showcasing five contemporary artists. This show consists of works in a variety of media, including painting, photography, installation, and sound. Each artist fluidly integrated these mediums to pursue their unparalleled artistic expression. What emerges from the range of hues and characteristics through the exhibited works symbolizes the diversifying aspects of today’s art. As these artists’ colors and personalities articulate in full, they will blend in a ‘liquid-like manner to generate unprecedented new colors and values responding to the historical and spatial characteristics of the host venue, Zuiun-an.

“Liquidity”
We are now undergoing a fundamental reassessment of values across all disciplines, including the arts. The latest outbreak of the novel coronavirus has brought about a mandated shift to a “new way of life,” including mask-wearing and “social distancing,” and an ever-deepening reliance on digital technology. Its effects have impacted every aspect of how we think, feel, and communicate. Under these circumstances, people of diverse social identities have manifested themselves to a higher degree now than ever before, to the point that the binaristic structures that dominated the past – offline and online, organizations and individuals, bodies and senses – may disappear from reality.
Values in all forms can no longer measure by a single scale or a point of view. Everything will dissolve and blend into a liquid while retaining the traits of “diverseness.”

The concept of this show, “Liquidity,” stemmed from this mode of sensibility. Comprising this exhibition are five contemporary artists who, too, contemporaneously share this concern. Individually, the artists sought their distinct methods of expression – each with different techniques, mediums, narratives, methodologies, and values. This exhibition is truly a testament to the diversity of contemporary art. While accentuating the idiosyncracies of each artist and their oeuvres, this project formed an environment in which the works organically intermixed into a “liquid” state while resonating with the spatiotemporality of Zuiun-an’s century-old architecture. What will emerge out of this scenic landscape, I believe, will become a driving force for living in a new society, one that cannot generate from a neutral, atemporal white cube.

Takayuki Yamada (Curator)