Kim? Contemporary Art Centre is pleased to present Urara Tsuchiya\u2019s first exhibition in the Baltics. Across Tsuchiya\u2019s expansive practice \u2013 spanning intricately constructed ceramics, immersive installations, costume, performance and video \u2013\u00a0 the whimsical temporality of an impulsive performance is interwoven with the longer-lasting\u00a0 act of calculated patience required at the kiln. Tsuchiya finds inspiration everywhere \u2013 from a naturist sauna to seedy hotel rooms to interactions on dating apps \u2013 and creates immersive environments that are likely to catch viewers off-guard, entertain and shock.<\/p>\n
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Tsuchiya is best known for her hand-painted ceramics with explicit motifs, exploring the space between the surrealistic and the ordinary and that awkward strangeness that comes along with it. These sculptures tend to take the form of realistic objects such as suitcases, underwear, toothbrushes or miniscule interior replicas filled with everyday tools and objects, serving as containers for\u00a0mise-en-sc\u00e8nes<\/i>\u00a0depicting humans \u2013 and, at times, animals \u2013 mingling, climbing, bathing, all the while engaging in two\/three\/four-way sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n
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By adopting narratives from lived experience and exchanges with fellow artists and friends, as well as others pulled from TV shows and popular culture at large, Tsuchiya is concerned with subversion of kitsch and pushing the boundaries of comfort. Under the cover of playfulness and all things innocent, Tsuchiya\u2019s work explores the disconnection that can be found between the personal and social worlds by tackling tensions in modern relationships and prevailing traditional patriarchal structures.<\/p>\n
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The presentation at Kim? includes a display of ceramic works \u2013 both from an earlier exhibition as well as new works produced by the artist at ceramic studios in London and Riga. The exhibition also features the short film\u00a0The Sahara<\/i>\u00a0directed by the artist\u2019s friend, and prolific fashion photographer, Ben Toms, which functions as an alternate environment to the sculptural pieces and further expands the behavioral patterns characteristic of her objects of affection.<\/p>\n
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Over the course of the video, the couple \u2013 played by Tsuchiya herself with an older male counterpart, a porn talent cast from Craigslist \u2013 engage in ordinary yet at the same time mundane daily activities set against the background of a cheap-looking Las Vegas rental house. Evoking the interactions of a \u201ctypical\u201d couple, they jump into the pool fully dressed in an attempt to cool down, overdramatically gesticulate during an argument over gender roles, and converse about their favourite movies and dinner plans, all leading up to a heated conclusion of evocative puppetry. At first the one pulled by the strings by her partner in this troubled union, Tsuchiya\u2019s puppet-doll stand-in concludes the\u00a0\u00e9tude<\/i>\u00a0by kicking her master off his feet and dragging him out of the frame.<\/p>\n
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Disclaimer: some of the works on display in this exhibition contain adult imagery.<\/i><\/p>\n
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Acknowledgements: Ben Toms, Gallery Union Pacific, Zahars Purvi\u0161\u0137is<\/p>\n
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Urara Tsuchiya\u00a0<\/b>(b. 1979, Japan) lives and works between Glasgow and London. Tsuchiya holds an MFA from Glasgow School of Art and has studied fine art at Goldsmiths University, London. Recent solo exhibitions include:\u00a0Angel Pocket<\/i>, Union Pacific, London, UK (2024);\u00a0Throwing Caution to the Wind<\/i>, Galerie Lefebre & Fils, Paris (2021);\u00a0Auntie Urara\u2019s Blabber Mouth<\/i>, PAOS, Guadalajara (2021);\u00a0Warm Drizzle<\/i>, Gallery Golsa, Oslo (2020); and\u00a0Home Bound<\/i>, Ada Project, Rome (2020). Selected group exhibitions include:\u00a0I Licked It. It\u2019s Mine<\/i>, featuring Oh De Laval, Shafei Xia, and Urara Tsuchiya, The Museum of Sex, New York, US (2024);\u00a0Night Shades<\/i>, with Corri-Lynn Tetz, 12.26 Dallas, US (2024),\u00a0Comfortable Hole, Bye<\/i>, Parcel Tokyo, Japan (2023), and\u00a0Pornotopia Revised<\/i>, Kunsthalle Exnergasse Kex, WUK, Vienna (2022).<\/p>\n
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Supporters:<\/p>\n
Ministry of Culture, State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, Absolut, Valmiermui\u017ea, KRASO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":589,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-608","exhibition","type-exhibition","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kim.wrong.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kim.wrong.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kim.wrong.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibition"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kim.wrong.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kim.wrong.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}