Mitamura and Kong share a common interest in expressing, through a unique sense of humor, the contemporary human image whose life is “not always under full sail,” or in other words, “not so smooth.”
*“eleven & eleven” is a Japan-Korea exchange program that will be held at the Sungkok Museum in Seoul from May 30 to June 30, introducing eleven contemporary artists each from Korea and Japan. Eleven Korean artists will also be shown at eleven galleries in Tokyo, mainly the Ginza area, between July 22 and August 3. (Dates may differ according to venues.)
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- Past Exhibition
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The Shiseido Gallery will host “Not so Smooth―Midori Mitamura × Sung-Hun Kong,” a two-person exhibition presenting young artists from Japan and Korea.
The exhibition is a part of Shiseido Gallery’s ongoing effort to introduce contemporary art from East Asia. At the same time, it is held in concurrence with “eleven & eleven,” *a series of exhibitions that will introduce eleven Korean artists at eleven galleries in Tokyo, mainly the Ginza area.
■Midori Mitamura
Midori Mitamura was born in 1964. She juxtaposes photographs of her family and places she has spent her life, with paraphernalia such as tables, beds, books and clothes, which are imbued with her childhood memories. The people who appear in Mitamura’s photo-installation work are ordinary people. They are ordinary, yet, their paths in life have not always been level. Through Mitamura’s work, we are brought in touch with the bittersweet memories each of us are sure to possess in the back of our minds. She assumes a lighthearted attitude to life, standing somewhat aloof from the world. “C’est la vie,” Mitamura says through her work, as she feigns indifference to the distressing realities in life. Her new work for this show “Beyer,” is based on her childhood memories that she shares with her sister, which revolve around the piano. The sound of Mitamura playing the piano with a heavy hand will resonate in the gallery.
■Sung-Hun Kong
Sung-Hun Kong, who will be featured for the first time in Japan, was born in 1965. Kong has recently been showing oil paintings depicting ordinary scenery in daily life. In this show, he will return to his series of installation works using multi-slide projections. Using a timer, Kong automates many slide projectors simultaneously and projects images of his own body moving about comically like a flip cartoon book. The image of Kong wriggling his body in a jerky motion seems to make a caricature of an individual, abound with problems but somehow making his way through today’s society.
