Masami Kubo
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
Wood construction, paint, projected image and narration
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
Wood construction, paint, projected image and narration
Bouquet Complex
Somewhere within an aloof horizon, there is a menagerie of unravelling objects. Exhausted by the infinite parading of sentiment, rarely do the objects tell much of themselves. Upon realizing the irony of their circumstances, the objects collapse and the menagerie blushes; a bouquet of sorts.
Kimberly-Klark is pleased to present Bouquet Complex, a two-person exhibition by Alex Ito and Masami Kubo.
Bouquet Complex presents a series of artifacts and familial ephemera that navigate the materialization of trauma and sentiment. Framed by architectural installation, Ito and Kubo design a platform for performance and sculpture that investigates the entanglement between images, power and personal history. In doing so, they shed light on narratives that would otherwise be obscured by rapid transformations within the contemporary techno-political climate.
Kubo’s Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs is the second part of an ongoing series of slideshow presentations and sculptural installations investigating a relationship between technology, image culture, and belief systems. The slideshow depicts Kubo’s upbringing under the religious movement Unificationism, in dialogue with pop culture and art history. The motif of chairs throughout Kubo’s slideshow bridges commodified sacred spaces within the Unification Church to various popular representations of chairs throughout time. By exploring a disjointed history of chairs, Kubo demystifies and re-contextualizes the complexes of belief, beginning with the Unification Church and broadening the conversation.
Ito’s 9066(Hideyuki/Sueko) continues the artist’s investigation of the relationship between intimacy and violence in consumer culture. The work comprises of a commercial vitrine housing propaganda cartoons by Dr. Seuss during World War II, portraits of Ito’s family after World War II and plastic replicas of carvings made by Ito’s grandfather during his imprisonment at a Japanese internment camp. The commodifying display of the vitrine creates a mechanism that abstracts and flattens Ito’s materials into a singular image, obscuring and assaulting the original references. Ito’s mechanism illustrates the dilution of cultural narratives by pop-culture and state power.
Masami Kubo
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
(Images from opening night's live performance)
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
(Images from opening night's live performance)
Bouquet Complex, 2016
Installation view
Installation view
Masami Kubo
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
Wood construction, paint, projected image and narration
Alex Ito
Bouquet Complex, 2016
Installation view
Bouquet Complex, 2016
Installation view
Alex Ito
I/You Left Behind, 2016
UV curable ink on aluminum panel
I/You Left Behind, 2016
UV curable ink on aluminum panel
Alex Ito
Hideyuki/Sueko (9066), 2016
Led lights, acrylic, digital print on vinyl, aluminium, wood and paint
Hideyuki/Sueko (9066), 2016
Led lights, acrylic, digital print on vinyl, aluminium, wood and paint
Masami Kubo
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
Wood construction, paint, projected image and narration
Figure 2.0: A History of Two Chairs, 2016
Wood construction, paint, projected image and narration