YUKI KIMURA
An Extra Transparent History
14 November 2013 – 15 February 2014
Gluck50 is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Italy of works by the Japanese artist Yuki Kimura.
Yuki Kimura’s artistic practice is based on the medium of photography. She uses both her own and found images which she reassembles in different contexts, giving them new meaning. The perception of the images is influenced by the dissolution of the genre borders between photography and sculpture. And indeed the artist transforms her images into sculptural elements, which she then uses to create spatial installations. In doing so, Kimura gives the photograph a physical presence in space, thus amplifying the relationship among the photographic images. She pays particular attention to interiors, and especially deserted home settings. Removed from their original context, the images pose questions about their own intrinsic dimensions, linked to the past and to the passing of time.
In order to create the current exhibition in Milan, Kimura spent a period of time in residence at Gluck50. She has conceived a sculptural installation based on life-size photographs found in Milan and New York, using them to compose a mix of photographic images from different periods and settings. Mounted on sheets of glass, the photographs are placed alongside empty glass panels and a marble column. What makes these glass supports so unusual is their strength and thickness, as well as their shape, which recalls the frames made by Fontana Arte. The photographs are of interiors, some of which are framed by wooden doors left ajar, leading us into intriguing, enigmatic worlds outside. In terms of their composition, these images suggest parallels with Renaissance paintings, in which three-dimensional landscapes recall Alberti’s concept of a “window on the world.” The door motif has already appeared in some of Kimura’s previous works, such as post-disembodiment (origin) of 2006, in which she cut the picture of a door out of its original arch and made a copy of it, which she then placed in the installation as a separate element. In this photograph, the door – which would normally convey an idea of depth – is thus transformed into an object in its own right, depriving the image of its own potential for illusion.
Similarly, Kimura creates an illusory installation in the exhibition space, drawing the viewer into an ambiguous game of seduction and heightened sensitivity, while revealing the eloquent nature of the images.
Yuki Kimura (Kyoto, Japan, 1971). Lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Yuki Kimura, Taka Ishii Gallery, Kyoto (2012); Yuki Kimura, Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis (2011); Untitled, IZU PHOTO MUSEUM, Shizuoka (2010), Year 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (2009) and POSTERIORITY, Daiwa Press Viewing Room, Hiroshima (2009).
Her work has also been widely exhibited throughout Japan and has recently been featured in group exhibitions, including: in out, TOLOT / heuristic SHINONOME, Tokyo (2013); Site: Place of Memories, Spaces with Potential, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2013); Photography now and forever, Mathew, Berlin
(2013);Better Homes, SculptureCenter, New York
(2013); Cherry Picking, Karma International, Zurich (2013); The 4th Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, Korea (2012) and the 30th São Paulo Biennial, San Paolo (2012).
A catalogue has been published to accompany the exhibition.
