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"Where Threads Lead"
~Kenjiro Nagata~Akane Yorita~Kanata Goto~
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An object made of threads ― if it can be called “an object” and if we can so easily apply “made” to something composed of stretched threads ―, how to locate it inside art categories? Well, it is obviously not a painting…, but the canvas itself is composed of nothing but hemp threads; the perspective in paintings ― the space itself ― starting with early Renaissance was created with the help of threads and later they were imaginary twisted and knotted in vertigo of art of Baroque; not to mention threads affinity to (out-)line and consequent link to the formation of figure in general. Due to its immaterial character (what can be less related to matter then a formation of elongated cords) and anti-representational stance (threads don’t have a “face” like most of the objects) neither it is a sculpture…, but at the same time it stays a major sculptural tool, being more than anything related to plasticity (it is plasticity in itself, so plastic that it can get entangled), entering into original and in-tense dialog with space (it is not just taking it, it absorbs space, underlines it, trans-fix it).
We get the impression that threads are always here, in art, but always stay invisible, unnoticed. As if Threads are in some kind of blind spot in the room of art. Whether due to its radically minimal character (what can be more expressively humble than a thread, as if it is the last step before being nothing) or because of its always instrumental/technical/applied character (as if thread was always involved but was supposed to be taken out from art after it’s done, like scaffolding are taken out from the facade of the building after it is finished), thread has never been thought as a genuine part of art. Even now in contemporary art threads are either biennial or art fair entrance bound installations (more related to light excitement of the visitors than pieces with critical weight) or as an object “pulled out” from architect’s studio as one of his “complimentary materials”: thread is still in obscurity as if it is provoking the continuous resistance of distinctive discourse of fine art.
Re-acting to this state of affairs, Frantic Gallery invites three visual artists and one musician to present their Threads and try to shed some light on the real significance, potential and actual role of this phenomenon in art and those vast anthropological fields it is connected with. The “Where Threads Lead” exhibition has no formal limits. In reverse, we would like to research vectors, exposing the unconscious work of threads: starting with the exploration of those thinking paths each artist took following his/her own personal tread end ending with the disclosure of those countless directions threads point to both as a material as well as a “final object”.
Threads take us to mythology and can help Ariadne to lead Theseus from the labyrinth playing here a role of salvation tool or, in reverse, they can lead to the spider net, to the symbolism of feminity/mother and psychological trap; threads are interwoven in major material bases of art like already mentioned canvas, worm produced silk, tapestry or carpets; they enter into a particular relationship with space and show enormous ability to bring into play and intensify the light and shadow they entwine; threads never lose powers of a threat while being in passed over in silence affinity with bondage in sadism and masochism and BDSM culture in general; threads can always remind us about their navel-like link with body where they penetrate us as veins and nerves being totally at home in the corporeal dimension as well, finally they enlace our languages entering into endless idiomatic expressions and staying always present in our speech - here are just few directions we can start with and in spite of the risk and all possible misfortunes that can happen on the way don’t fix the desirable arrival point but see… where threads lead us.
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Kenjiro Nagata, Between, cotton threads, variable size, 2015
Usually the sculptural object presents itself by means of its surface. Nevertheless, while looking on the works of Kenjiro Nagata one’s sight might fall in the distance between two threads and losing the orientation grasp instead the string which pierces our sight from the backside of the work (like in the piece titled “Between”). Or in reverse one might “lose” the work or its part for a moment since its white threads merge with the wall behind it. Playing with particular relationship between surface and structure and confusing outside and inside, Nagata reminds us that to look and to see is not always equal experiences. His “Derivation” works possess no silhouette line, no distinctive borders. Like a body with nothing but veins, like a soil with no more than river trails, like plants with nothing but roots. “Vaguely, but still exists somehow…” -this is the way Nagata through his sculptures wants us to feel The Being one more time and in another way.
Kenjiro Nagata, Derivation -draw the circle-, stainless steel, 55x55cm, 2012
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Akane Yorita, The Tender Noise, rayon threads, plastic pole, stainless steel pipe, H110xW300xD280, 2014
The art work that changes its shape with the breath of wind, the visual experience based on sequence and the essence of “before and after” embodied in the chain of repetitive threads: through these features of her works Akane Yorita wants the viewer to revert to his/her own position while facing the always changing image of the work. She creates indefinite, unstable space with no fixed meaning inviting the image of the onlooker as well as his/her point of view into the blank/space of the threads she creates.
Akane Yorita, The Form as Filter, rayon threads, tracing paper, H230xW350xD300, 2013
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Kanata Goto, Night -III-, metal, nylon threads, H176×W86×D86cm, 2015
The tribal vibe in works of Kanata Goto in a paradoxical but no less harmonic way meets with futuristic imaginary. Geometry and architectonics intertwine here with aggressive colors and tactile feeling. Neither installation nor sculptures, his works overcome genre and style restrictions and bring in contemporary art “totem and taboo” dimension of desire, while triggering unconscious work of “worship”. Connecting prehistoric past with sci-fi type of future Goto throws together the epochs as if playing with deep and unrecognized desires on one hand and law and order on another.
Kanata Goto, Scrap Work No.36, metal, nylon and cotton threads on leather, wood, 38.5×73.5×1cm, 2015
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To invite an artist working in the field of Techno Music and ask him to create a “thread” in audio dimension would mean first of all to remind the audience that it is Techno more than any genre or direction in music that is based on continuity as well as repetition/sequence/chain, where “before and after” (the tension between what is coming/returning/building up and what is fading away/covered over/transformed) is crucial for the dialog between listener and the artist. The sonic structure unfolding between them is abstract and transparent as installation out of threads: without message, lyrics or even “moods”, but invested with the desire: anticipation, for example, on the side of the listener and the endless games with unpredictability, displacement, delays on the side of the musician. In its principle, Techno Tracks are in affinity with visual artworks created with Threads.
The music by Swedish musician NTOGN has nevertheless even more to do with the presented in the show artists. Creating “audio-derivations”, NTOGN, while working in the realm of “machine music”, researches less linear and more de-centered structures. Similar to works with threads, his beats involve and envelope enormous space with connotations to both light and darkness. Neither silhouette line nor the background is fixed here: as soon as we finally touch the base and are sure it is the lower limit of the track NTOGN surprises us with even deeper sound coming from an unexpected direction and kicking off the grounds from us again. To rephrase it, with NTOGN you can never be sure if it is “The Ninth Wave” already and you can finally take a breath or “The Ninth Wave” is still to come…. from the side you can’t foresee. Finally, like no other Dj being clear about how far beyond music his "music" aims to go, NTOGN explores as spiritual as primitive –forgotten and not yet discovered –potentials of “bass and beat” exhaling in his hypnotic snake-like techno-threads “clouds of smoke” from the sacred rituals and infusing his techno with ceremonial mysticism.
NTOGN, work in progress: audio spectrum analyzing the frequencies in real time
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