In his latest work, Satoru Eguchi (°1973, Japan, lives and works in New York) breaks down the existing truth surrounding him and recreates some of its fragments in a ‘man-made’ world.
He researches the process that is involved and strives to develop imagery, based on the friction between reality and non-reality. He mainly works with simple materials like paper and cardboard to reinterpret spaces and every-day objects from his environment and he creates them into completely handmade three-dimensional sculptures. A process-like method; drawing and painting are part of each sculpture and sometimes there are elements of performance involved, when the audience participates in creating the work or are witnesses in the process. In 2007 he re-created “Making a Home” for the New York Japan Society show; an actual life-size model of his studio, completely constructed from paper and wood. In the sculpture, he included countless minute details like drawing material, plants and snarls of cables. The sculpture represented a kind of self-portrait, exclusively constructed from objects that make up his studio. Thus he stressed the relationship between his work as an artist and his personal daily life; how banal objects may become exceptional and how they become a source of inspiration. Satoru Eguchi will continue his artistic research in the S.M.A.K. His stay in Ghent will result in a new local installation in the Kunst Nu-space. It will be his first solo show in Belgium, but in the spring of 2008, he was a guest in our country for a residence in Lokaal01 in Antwerp. For a month, he worked intensively on a mirror-version of the office space and the kitchenette of the studio where he was staying. He investigated how the reproduction of reality may be personalised, with the aim to blur the boundary between private and public. All the details and objects are recreated to scale with nothing but paper, masonite, pencils, paint brushes and glue. He applied words on objects like a plastic bag, a tobacco pouch and a book cover in mirror writing. He also played with the physical experience of a mirror-image space by lowering the ceiling to just below his own height, which made it seem to the public as a more intimate experience of the space on the one hand and on the other an experience that was just a little uncomfortable, which intensified the fictitious content. The work was only open to the public for two days and was irrevocably destroyed afterwards. This is the reason why we wanted to offer this artist a broader platform. (curated by Beatrijs Eemans)
