Tatsuo Miyajima Life (Rhizome)
8 Feb—9 Mar 2013

Tatsuo Miyajima Life (Rhizome)

8 Feb—9 Mar 2013
Buchmann Galerie
Press release

Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima’s Life (Rhizome) exhibition is to present his eponymous group of works for the first time in Europe.  

 

In his work Tatsuo Miyajima (born 1957) concerns himself with time and space. Of central importance to him are three considerations: “Keep Changing”, “Connected with everything” and “Continue forever”. The technological raw materials are numeric displays of light emitting diodes (LEDs), so-called gadgets that Tasuo Miyajima developed himself.  The number is understood by him as a metaphor for each form of life and transience. 

 

For Life (Rhizome) Tatsuo Miyajima developed a new generation of gadgets in cooperation with Takashi Ikegami, who has researched artificial life for fifteen years at Tokyo University. The number patterns no longer follow a firmly established structure but, like an organism, change completely unpredictably.  

 

Comparable to Gilles Deuleuze’s and Félix Guattari’s philosophical concept of the Rhizome, defined as metaphor for a new model for the organisation of science and cosmography and supplanting older tree-metaphor-representations of hierarchical structures, the Life (Rhizome) works weave units and multiplicity into one another. Neither one LED exists before or above another nor does one or the other annihilate the other. Nothing exists without the other. In Rhizomes crossings and intersections are possible. An element can be part of several levels of organisation and cross connections are permitted. Rhizome also ultimately means the liberation from defined power structures: many perspectives and many approaches can be freely linked.    

 

In his work Life (Rhizome) Tatsuo Miyajima attains a new complexity between technological precision and contemplation, between philosophical models and artistic concepts. 

 

Important works by the artist are represented in collections at the Tate Gallery, London, the Bavarian State Picture Collection Munich, the La Caixa Barcelona, the Deste Foundation Athens, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, in the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Leeum in Seoul and the Kunstmuseum Bern. 

 

For further information on the artist or visual material please contact the gallery at any time.

Tatsuo Miyajima

Born 1957 in Tokyo. Lives and works in Ibaraki, Japan.

 

2012 - 2016 Kyoto University of Art & Design Vice President

2006 - 2016 Tohoku University of Art & Design Vice President

Education
1986 Completed postgraduate studies at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (M.A.)
1984 Graduated from Oil Painting Course, Fine Arts Department, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (B.A.)
Grants and Awards
1998 London Institute honorary doctorate
1993 Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
1990–1991 DAAD Scholarship Berliner Kunstprogramm Berlin,
1990 ACC - Asian Cultural Council, New York

Solo Exhibitions

2023
2020
2018
2017
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1983

Group Exhibitions

2023
2022
2021
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
Selected Collections

National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan

Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

Panasonic Museum in Osaka, Japan

FARET Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan

TV Asahi building, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Opera City, Tokyo, Japan

Chiba City Museum, Chiba, Japan

Group Home Sala in Florence Village, Akita, Japan

The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan

Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan

Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan

Saitama Prefectural University, Saitama, Japan

Izumi City Plaza, Osaka, Japan

Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan

Iwaki City Art Museum, Fukushima, Japan

Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

 

M+ Museum, Hong Kong

Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan

Samsung Cultural Foundation, Seoul, Korea

Leeum, Samsung Museum, Seoul, Korea

Chinese Telecom, Taipei, China

 

Tate Gallery, London, UK

The British Museum, London, UK

Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France

Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland

Université de Genève, Switzerland

La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany

Fondazione TESECO per l'Arte, Pisa, Italy

Chateau La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France  

 

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, U.S.A.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, U.S.A.

Dallas Museum of Art, U.S.A.

Denver Art Museum, Denver, U.S.A.

Dannheisser Foundation, New York, U.S.A.

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Canada

Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia

Other Projects
2005 ARTISTS SUMMIT, KYOTO, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, Japan
2002 Collaboration with SOPHNET (fashion design brand) 2002 A/W Collection Tokyo
1000 Real Life Project - Death Clock, Tokyo
2000 Floating Time - Hospice Project, Sotoasahikawa Hospital, Akita
1998 Portfolio for The Edge of Awareness
1995 Portfolio for 4. Uluslararasi Istanbul Bienali-ORIENT / ATION
1994 Mirror, multiple, Spiral, Tokyo
1993 Over Economy, acrylic, pencil on bank note \10,000
1992 Project for PARKETT
1984 Time Funeral, record jacket, SMS Records