2nd Solo Exhibition ‘POETIC PROTOTYPING 2022’

In December 2022, the second solo exhibition by Studio POETIC CURIOSITY took place at the Atelier Building HUNCH in Nishi-Kamata, Ota-ku, Tokyo. It showcased the works created by the studio under the theme of ‘Poetic Prototyping’.

Three projects, Wind Whisperer: Confiding in the Wind, Fabric Record: Unheard Scenery, and Pouring Shadows, had been developed over the course of a year since first presented at the first solo exhibition ‘Poetic Prototyping’ held one year ago. Four new prototypes were presented.

The Wind Whisperer transforms the words spoken to it into bubbles and sends them off in a physical thought bubble to float away in the wind. This interactive artwork was demonstrated on the rooftop of the building, allowing the bubbles to be carried far away by the wind ascending along the building.

More than 70 different ‘fabric records’ are made from scraps of fabric and junk vinyl records. Each vinyl disc was created in previous workshops and is titled after a scene that the fabric sounds allow us to envisage. This project attempts to preserve the cloth as a medium of texture and scenery embedded in the material.

Pouring Shadows explores a new craft technique enabled by the new material, coloured MDF, and the CNC machine, Shopbot. Made of coloured wood fibre, Coloured MDF keeps showing its colour however cut or drilled. The Shopbot is typically used for drilling and cutting holes in wood, but it also has the ability to control the depth of holes precisely. Using the strength of both, we proposed a technique in which the holes of slightly different depth depict shades of colour by shadows.

When you hold your hand up to the sun, light floods out between your fingers, making the outlines of your fingers appear blurred. We thought it might be possible to measure the illuminance of a light source by measuring how much of the contour of a shape gets distorted when you point it towards the light source. Rather than measuring light based on an abstract standard like an illuminance meter, this prototype is a way of measuring light using your own perception.

In 2021, in collaboration with Obuse Town in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, we started researching material experiments using chestnut bark, searching for new ways to utilise the skin, which, unlike the chestnut fruit, has no fixed use. What kind of manufacturing is possible when the basic premise is that the material has to eventually return to the soil? The sample objects represented the ongoing research.

This work depicts the patterns of light and colour visible when we close our eyes. Our world is full of light, and it enters our eyes whether we invite it or not. To escape such light for a moment, we closed my eyelids and found a view only visible to the viewer. The sense of security and comfort in seeing the colour and temperature of the dark view reminded us of the deeply coloured curtain while the interval at a theatre.

The voice of oneself heard by others and the voice heard by oneself sound different. ‘My own voice as I hear it’ can be heard only by that person, not by others. Unexplored space of identity lies here. This work exhibits the ongoing process of searching for ‘the voice of oneself that one hears oneself’ and unveiling it to others.

Lastly, visitors were issued with a ‘time receipt’, an expression of gratitude for the time they spent at the exhibition, given the finite amount of time available to each person.

A book containing commentary on last year’s solo exhibition was released and sold at the exhibition. It documents the changes in ideas and thinking of the studio since last year. The book is written in Japanese and will soon be available online.

Exhibition information

Venue
HUNCH, 7-61-13 Nishi-Kamata, Ota-ku, Tokyo 144-0051

Dates
3rd(Sat) – 11th(Sun) December: 13:00 to 18:00 each day
A guided tour by Yusuke and Kensho was on the first night.