Gallery Collaborations

GC18

Host

Kanegae

（Kyoto）

Guest

The Shophouse

（Hong Kong）

What Are Materials Today
This is a project where artists and society work hand in hand to take our art to the next level. Through this project, KANEGAE and artists from THE SHOPHOUSE are working with the materials that they use every day. This video shows the scenes from their creation.

・Utilisation of urban mines
Urban mines are recycled metals collected and refined from discarded computers and mobile phones. Among craftspeople, this ceramic artist is especially fussy about the cray and material. This time, Ryuta Fukumura, who specializes in silver painting, encountered silver originating from the urban mines for the first time. What kind of inspiration will he get from the silver that has been lying dormant in the urban city? And, how will he transform it into new works? The video introduces how Fukumura deals not only with the material but also with society.

・Recycled stainless steel
Today, stainless steel is easier to find than wood or bamboo. Kitchen sinks, spoons, and window frames…Almost 100% are recyclable and they are reborn as different products. Toshiki Oda, a metal worker, finds a certain contemporary ‘Wabi-Sabi’ in this material. He creates his works based on the patterns of plant structures. He doesn’t reproduce things that he captures visually but explores expressions that go further than the vision. It matures, decays, and returns to the soil. He creates his works by overlapping stainless steel on plants that repeat a cycle.

・Innovation and local production of art materials
Yuichiro’s world of black and white has been praised as a “dry-style suibokuga (Japanese ink painting)”. His current challenge is to create pencils using the soil of the land. Just like whiskey and wine unique to a region, he can also enclose the history and resources of the land in a single piece of art.

Host

Kanegae

（Kyoto）

100 years from now,
when the work currently in the making process becomes an antique,
will it be able to tell the story of its time?
Today, craftspeople
seem to be on an island, separated from society.
Society is changing and progressing, and craftspeople are still bound by tradition.
It is time to correct this distortion.
For that reason, we doubt all common sense here,
strive to go far beyond the conventional boundaries of traditional craft.
Use of materials and tools created by new technologies,
the physical support of hardworking craftspeople,
concepts and forms of distribution that did not exist in the previous century,
also a way of interacting with the global environment, which is of paramount importance to craftspeople who work in close relationship with nature.
With combination of a highly developed social perspective and
the unrivalled craftsmanship of our artisans,
like sport, which has evolved and developed with the times,
I believe that this combination will bring craft to the next level.
Let's start building the future of craft here, 100 years from now.

E-mail

kanegae-@wf6.so-net.ne.jp

URL

https://www.kanegae-art.com

Locations

Kyoto: 43 Murasakino Shimomonzen-cho, Kita-ku

Artworks

Guest

The Shophouse

（Hong Kong）

Found in 2020, THE SHOPHOUSE is a Hong Kong-based gallery dedicated to Asian and international emerging artists. Located at Tai Hang, THE SHOPHOUSE is housed in a five-storey historical building originally built in the 1930s.
　
Attuned to the social and cultural milieu of contemporary life, THE SHOPHOUSE aims to explore boundaries between contemporary art and everyday living. Inspiring new conversations and narratives in dialogue with its ever-evolving space, THE SHOPHOUSE revitalises its heritage through its stimulating programmes, and weaves together different forms of artistic expressions into day-to-day life.
　
Since 2021, THE SHOPHOUSE has run an annual residency programme, altering the gallery space into an artists’ studio to foster communications and exchange.

E-mail

info@theshophouse.hk

URL

https://www.theshophouse.hk/

Locations