2008 Exhibition: Gradient | Kensuke Todo
2008 Exhibition: Gradient
21 October - 15 November 2008
Artist statement
Space is an essential element of everything I make. I came to Australia wanting to understnad weestern conceptions of space and how they were different from the Japanese approach. What I found in trying to incorporate these ideas into my work was that the gap was bigger than I had expected, and more difficult to define.
Japanese architects Arata Isozaki and Atsushi Ueda argue that the Japanese idea of space differs from the western perception because in Japan space is connected to the soul. Originally the idea of respect for the heavens did not exist. Japanese indigenous people thought that gods lived not in heaven, but beyond the ocean. In keeping with this, the Japanese sacred axis is drawn horizontally rather than vertically, and it is the earth and ocean that are revered.
With the opening up of Japan in the late 19th century, a wesern concept of space was introduced and a new word, kukan, began to be used to describe it. Today kukan is the most commonly used word for space but I wonder how confronting the change was, and how it influenced current Japanese understanding of the concept.
The contradiction between Japanese and western spatial concepts has become an important feature in the way I think about my work. Contemplating vertical and horizontal axes gave me the idea of using fixtures such as stairs and escalators, which suggest vertical movement, and modifying or presenting them in unusual ways. Distorting the space surrounding the objects allows me to incorporate horizontal movement in an ostensibly vertical form. Although no longer functional, I like to think the stairs or escalators retain a sense of human movement - I imagine people experiencing the particular freedoms, constraints and interpretations of gravity connected with each work.
Kensuke Todo 2008