ARIKAWA Shigeo

Profile

Born in 1982. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment in 2016.
During his two-year residency at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, Netherland starting in 2014, he produced works in different mediums, such as video, installation, and photography. In recent years, he had solo shows and several group shows in Europe, he widens his activity also in Japan such as joining 30th Anniversary Exhibition of Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, the residency program at Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, and the art festival, Koganecho Bazaar 2017.


Recent activities
“30th Anniversary Exhibition: The Seven Lamps of The Art Museum”, group, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2019
“Buried Suns”, solo, Galerie Mazzoli, Berlin, 2019
“International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam”, screening, EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, 2018
“Senses of Memory”, duo, Galerie Helder, Den Haag, 2017
“Double Façade: Multiple Ways to Encounter the Other”, group, Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, 2017

Other activities (including awards received)
OPEN CALL for ART PROJECT IDEAS 2018 Hiroshima City Museum of COntemporary Art
Shuji Terayama Prize,Image Forum Festival 2009

About works / performance

What is “seeing”? No one may be able to explain everything about the image in front of us. We seek out symbols and meaning in the image so as to recognize and comprehend. Using time-based media – film, video, photography, and sound – I induce the viewer’s recognition to be temporarily dislocated in order to avoid the inflexibility of the image captured as a specific symbol or meaning. It can be said that I aim to make viewers blind and compel them to “see” in this state. In other words, “seeing” is an act of renewing something, of having imagination, and of constantly providing diverse viewpoints and focal points for what we are confronted with. In my works, image and seeing are one and the same.