KENTARO HIROKI THAILAND / JAPAN
KENTARO HIROKI THE ARTIST THE IDEA Kentaro Hiroki (b. 1976, Osaka, Japan) has methodologically hand-copied receipts, tickets, rubbish and other everyday objects as a process of documenting his daily travel and activities since 1998. With a focus on the relationship between use-value and meaningfulness, his practice resides in the domain of translation and conversion. Hiroki obtained his MFA in Fine Art from at Malmö Art Academy, Sweden in 2003, and is currently a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Design at King Mongkut s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, where he has been based for the past decade. He has presented his documentation of everyday life in six solo exhibitions and a group show in countries such as the UK, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong. He lives and works in Bangkok. The artwork Rubbish is the outcome of an action research that the artist Kentaro Hiroki conducted in a series of field trips around Singapore. After observing and studying objects he chose from the streets, Hiroki made paper reproductions of these objects with simple pencil drawings, completed with colour pencils. As he created each object, Hiroki observed that his body and mind settled in place. In exploring the dichotomy 1 of things being useful/useless, meaningful/meaningless, he believes that his work addresses the value of self-reflection. 1 Dichotomy: contrast between two things that are entirely different. 1
KENTARO HIROKI THE ARTWORK Colour pencil on paper (8 pieces) Various dimensions Collection of the Artist Singapore Biennale 2016 commission Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum 2
OBSERVE AND DISCOVER GUIDING QUESTIONS SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES KENTARO HIROKI 1. Look at the artwork closely. What is the artwork made of? 2. Each object in the installation was selected and created by the artist based on his observation of rubbish on the streets of Singapore. Do you think the objects selected are representative of the rubbish found in Singapore? Why or why not? 3. If you were to add one more object to the installation, what would it be, and why? A. In his artwork Rubbish, Hiroki has used the technique of appropriation 2. Similarly, gather a few friends and come up with your own version of the artwork. You can consider creating different categories of rubbish, such as waste found in offices, restaurants, homes, etc. B. Learn more about the rubbish disposal system (and recycling efforts) around your neighbourhood and find out how you can contribute to it. 4. After an object is used, it loses its economic value and turns into rubbish. The artist has created art based on such objects. What message do you think the artist wishes to convey in his artistic process? 5. Titled Rubbish and comprising objects scattered on the floor like debris, on what basis could this work be considered art? And on what basis might it not be considered art? 2 Appropriation: the intentional borrowing, copying and changing of existing images and objects. 3
FIND OUT MORE ARTWORK BU Gallery (2015, April 22). SOUND OF SILENCE // Kentaro Hiroki. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from https://youtu.be/qt0kg1fr_kw INTERVIEW BU Gallery (2014, December 14). MEMERANDUM KENTARO HIROKI. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from https://youtu.be/vycsk0ymclg KENTARO HIROKI BU Gallery (2015, March 30). Sound of Silence // Kentaro Hiroki. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from https://youtu.be/zo7hdpx7uuc 4
ABOUT SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2016 AN ATLAS OF MIRRORS AT ONCE, MANY WORLDS FROM WHERE WE ARE, HOW DO WE PICTURE THE WORLD AND OURSELVES? Humankind has always devised ways of seeing beyond sight. Two such instruments are the map and the mirror, which make visible more than just physical terrains. While the atlas a book of maps locates where we are and charts where we want to go, the mirror shows us to ourselves, sometimes unreliably, and in curious ways. Through an exploration of the literal and metaphorical characteristics of atlas and mirror, An Atlas of Mirrors reveals artistic perspectives that arise from our migratory, intertwining histories and cultures, particularly in Southeast, East and South Asia. 5
ABOUT THE ZONES NINE CONCEPTUAL ZONES The main title of the Biennale is woven through nine conceptual zones, or subthemes, which locate each artwork in particular curatorial contexts. These zones shape the flow of the Biennale experience, like chapters in a book or sections in a poem. Like the title An Atlas of Mirrors which is built on the relationship between a collective noun ( an atlas as the collective noun) and what is being thought of collectively ( mirrors ), these zones are conceptually themed along specific collective nouns and what they hold together for contemplation and experience. Artworks located within each zone resonate on many levels, and at the same time, all nine zones coincide, intertwine and reflect each other along the conceptual continuum of An Atlas of Mirrors as a whole. Each zone represents concepts, ideas and ways of seeing as explored in the 58 artworks and projects. GEOMETRY & GEOGRAPHY MIRRORS & MAPS SPACE & PLACE Where is reality, if every mapped here is mirrored? Here, where culture-mapped territories and regions wend their way amidst world histories contained within art s histories, a mirror-scaled dragon heaves, bewilderingly opening up infinite flights of stairs within the curve of the stairwell in the heart of the museum. Elsewhere, maps of present-day Sri Lanka and old Ceylon jigsaw across space and time, whilst a pair of artist-doppelgangers doggedly do balancing acts. Space and place are explored and glimpsed through mirrors and cartography, conjuring symmetrical and asymmetrical parallel worlds where the real, surreal, abstract and imaginary overlap. 6
FOR MORE INFORMATION SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM STAY UPDATED 71 Bras Basah Road Singapore 189555 www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/ SingaporeBiennale Opening Hours Saturdays to Thursdays: 10am 7pm Fridays: 10am 9pm Enquiries Phone: +65 65899 580 Email: enquiries@singaporeartmuseum.sg www.facebook.com/ singaporeartmuseum www.instagram.com/ singaporeartmuseum www.youtube.com/samtelly 2016 Singapore Art Museum 2016 Individual contributors All works are the artists unless otherwise stated. Information correct at the time of publication. All rights reserved. 7