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Mixed Media: The Art of Shinro
Ohtake
Jeffrey
Ian Rosen |
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The work of Shinro Ohtake presents the writer with quite a challenge, particularly
as presented in Zen-kei, the Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo (MOT) retrospective on view through December
24, 2006. Ohtake, born in Tokyo in 1955 and presently
living and working in the city of Uwajima, is widely
celebrated as an insider's artist, one whose wider
art world appreciation is in direct proportional
contrast to the scale and breadth of his seemingly
endless art production. Taking over nearly the entire
space of the MOT, the three-story exhibition spills
out into the museum lobby, where a deceptive calm
is achieved as gentle, Hawaiian-sounding music plays
soothingly from "Zero-Kei," a mixed-media
sculpture dating from 1991-1999. The extended period
of time during which this sculpture was created
-- eight years -- may serve as a symbol for the
artist and his extreme working method, which consists
of process made public.
The unusual degree to which Ohtake attempts to equalize
the reception of various elements of his work is
made clear at the exhibition's "starting point"
where a series of pieces, executed by Ohtake as
a child ("Black Shiden-Kai" dates from
1964, created when the artist was a mere nine years
old) is displayed in the same manner as "mature"
works featured later in the exhibition. In fact,
Ohtake refuses to allow the viewer to perceive these
early works as first, as the exhibition truly
begins with the presentation of a three-part work
of which the centerpiece is "Time Strata"
(2006), a massive framed collage that includes images
from the various styles and source materials that
have informed the artist's work and continue to
do so into the present day. The exhibition begins
with a directionless map, forcing the viewer to
interpret rather than follow.
Herein lies the challenge of Ohtake. Zen-kei,
and Ohtake's work in general, virtually forces a
suspension of judgment upon the viewer. Faced with
such volume of production, presented in a mind-scrambling
variety of styles, shapes, sizes and sounds, one
is tempted to set criticality aside and enjoy the
sensation of being overcome by the sheer diversity
of all that is experienced. To some extent, this
would seem to be Ohtake's point -- though also likely
the reason behind his failure, until now, to hold
wide attention within the contemporary art world.
Much has recently been written in praise of the
artist of Zen-kei, with his work and methods
acknowledged and praised for an apparent adherence
to a now-forgotten art orthodoxy in which the artist
is understood as creator. Such praise, however,
while well-intentioned, fails to acknowledge what
makes Ohtake's practice of continued relevance.
Ohtake is self-consciously not a thinking artist.
In this, he has much in common with a segment of
present-day contemporary artists whose work is neither
expressive nor consciously aimed at doing "anything."
At the heart of such practice lies a void, and Ohtake's
attempt to include everything -- hence the exhibition
title, which translates as full view -- situates
his work clearly in the present, not just as an
influence but as an aesthetic alternative.
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