津波石 #11 / Tsunami Boulder #11, 2018

FLOATING MONUMENTS
MOTOYUKI SHITAMICHIALISON BRADLEY PROJECTS
526 West 26th Street, Suite 814 NY, NY 10001

alisonbradleyprojects.com

646 476 8409

Floating Monuments
Alison Bradley Projects
January 19 - March 1, 2023
Curated by Eimi Tagore-Erwin

Alison Bradley, Principal
Rebecca Humphreys, Director
Cayla Blachman, Gallery Associate

Table of Contents

Introduction
Press Release
Artist Biography
Curatorial Statement
Tsunami Boulder 津波石
Okinawan Glass 沖縄硝子
torii 鳥居CV
Acknowledgements

FLOATING MONUMENTS
Motoyuki Shitamichi (b. Okayama, 1978) has traveled extensively throughout the Asia Pacific, investigating
fragmented and forgotten aspects of Japanese history and nationhood. The artist’s research-focused art practice canbe described as a form of archeological assemblage. With a deftly interdisciplinary approach, Shitamichi collects,
photographs, and films material traces from the past as they embody new resonances in the present.
FLOATING MONUMENTS is the translation of hyōhaku no hi 漂泊之碑, a concept that the artist uses to describe
the fluid quality of historical significance itself. The three ongoing series presented in the gallery are representative of
Shitamichi’s focus upon the ever-changing connotations of material objects—each body of work traces monumentsthat have shifted over time, similarly to the national boundaries of the Japanese archipelago.
Tsunami Boulder (2015-Present) charts massive boulders that have been strewn throughout the Okinawan island
chains of Yaeyama and Miyako by tsunamis from different eras. In these four black and white videos, Shitamichi’s lens
captures the relationships between the transplanted boulders and the inhabitants of their new environments.
Okinawan Glass (2014-Present) engages with the history of Ryukyuan glassware, a practice that is now considered“traditional” despite its origins in the postwar US military occupation of Okinawa, when local craftsmen began tomelt down glass from Coca Cola and beer bottles littered by soldiers and sell them back to Americans as souvenirs. By
enacting this recycling process with glass littered by present-day tourists, Shitamichi reconsiders the conditions of acraft that reflect the islands’ political position today. For the photographic series torii (2006-2012; 2017-Present), theartist has spent years tracing the remains of torii, or Shinto gates, that were inserted throughout the Asia Pacific by theJapanese Empire in the first half of the 20th century. Haunting yet beautiful, Shitamichi’s photographs depict theafterlives of these symbolic structures as they have been overgrown, disguised, and abandoned.
The artist’s approach is dialogic and open to interpretation, with no simple critique or didactic stance. By seeking out
these “floating monuments,” Shitamichi instead images history in our present moment, revealing the fragility of fixedvalues like national borders and canonized narratives, as well as the blurred line between art and archive.
Curated by Eimi Tagore-Erwin

Press Release
Alison Bradley Projects is pleased to present FLOATING MONUMENTS, the first solo exhibition of Motoyuki
Shitamichi (b. Okayama, 1978) in the United States, curated by Eimi Tagore-Erwin.
Motoyuki Shitamichi has been incorporating intensive historical research and fieldwork into his art practice since
graduating from Musashino University in 2001. The artist has traveled extensively throughout the Asia Pacific,
investigating fragmented and forgotten aspects of Japanese history and nationhood. Working across a wide range of
mediums, Shitamichi’s artistic approach can be described as a form of archeological assemblage, in which he avidly
collects, photographs, and films material traces of the past that embody new resonances in the present.
FLOATING MONUMENTS presents work from three of Shitamichi’s ongoing series: Tsunami Boulder 津波
石, Okinawan Glass 沖縄硝子, and torii 鳥居. The exhibition’s title is translated from hyōhaku no hi 漂泊之碑,
a concept that Shitamichi harnesses to reveal the malleability of historical significance itself. The artist focuses uponmaterial objects that have drifted through time, as if floating in the sea that surrounds the many islands of theJapanese archipelago.
Tsunami Boulder (2015-Present) ruminates on the fragile ecology of human and non-human life in a locale where
national boundaries have fluctuated for centuries. Affected deeply by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake,
Shitamichi depicts massive boulders that tsunamis from different eras carried up from the bottom of the sea
throughout the Okinawan island chains of Yaeyama and Miyako, located to the south of mainland Japan. In the four
black and white videos, Shitamichi’s lens charts the present relationships between these transplanted naturalmonuments and the inhabitants of their new environments. Okinawan Glass (2014-Present) engages with thehistory of Ryukyuan glassware, a practice that originated with local craftsmen repurposing the glass from Coca Colaand beer bottles littered near military bases during the US occupation of Okinawa and selling them back to
Americans as souvenirs. By enacting this recycling process with glass littered by present-day tourists, Shitamichireconsiders the conditions of a craft that is now considered “traditional.” On view are three cycles of his annual
project—each set of four glassworks are made up of unique compounds of glass, with varying material constitutions.
In his photographic series torii (2006-2012; 2017-Present), Shitamichi explores the instability of national borders by
documenting torii, or Shinto gates, that were inserted throughout the Pacific by the Japanese Empire in the first halfof the 20th century. He has spent years tracing the remains of torii in the Northern Mariana Islands, Taiwan, Saipan,
Sakhalin, South Korea, and Northeastern China. Haunting yet beautiful, his photographs capture the echoes of thepast still encased in the familiar shapes of these torii today. Now overgrown, disguised, and abandoned, many of thesesymbolic structures have gained afterlives that contest their original function as monuments of imperial expansion.
The archeological approach presented by the artist in the gallery space is dialogic and open to interpretation. Rather
than offering one particular stance or critique, Shitamichi manages to image history in our present moment, exposing
the fragility of fixed values like national borders, canonized narratives, and even the division between art and viewer.
Alison Bradley Projects is honored to bring Shitamichi’s works to a wider audience in New York. FLOATINGMONUMENTS is accompanied by an online catalog authored by Eimi Tagore-Erwin.

Artist Biography
Shitamichi Motoyuki (b. Okayama, 1978) is a contemporary artist, curator, and researcher. Shitamichi graduatedfrom Musashino University in 2001 with a BFA in painting, followed by postgraduate studies at the Tokyo College of
Photography. He has been actively publishing photo books since 2005, and was a visiting researcher at the National
Museum of Ethnology from 2016-19. Shitamichi presented Tsunami Boulder as a representative of Japan at the 2019
Venice Biennale, and participated in the 2018 and 2012 Gwangju Biennales. Shitamichi received the 21st Okayama
Arts and Culture Award Grand Prize in 2020, as well the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award in 2019. Shitamichi has
been based in the village of Honmura on the art island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea since 2019, when hestarted the Setouchi “” Archive at Miyanoura Gallery 6—the quotes in the title are filled to match each new

project’s theme.
Shitamichi has exhibited extensively throughout Japan and abroad, including solo exhibitions at Kunsthal Aarhus(2022), Ohara Museum of Art (2019), and Kurobe City Art Museum (2016). His works are included in thecollections of the Kadist Art Foundation, California; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; the National Museum of Art,
Osaka; Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa; Ishikawa Foundation, Okayama; and the Hiroshima City Museum ofContemporary Art, amongst others.

Curatorial Statement
Motoyuki Shitamichi approaches the interplay between past and present in daily life with an intense curiositythat is revealed through the meticulously crafted artworks and installations that he creates. FLOATINGMONUMENTS brings together three projects that Shitamichi continues to work on today, presenting viewers
with a window into his artistic psyche as he contemplates the everchanging significance of monuments,
landscape, and national borders.
This exhibition explores the concept of a monument itself. Defined as a memorial, reminder, and marker ofboundaries, the very notion of a monument is unstable, dependent on the relationships it has with its
surrounding environment. Presented together, Tsunami Boulder 津波石, Okinawan Glass沖縄硝子, and torii

鳥居compel audiences to ask the following question: if a monument is displaced, abandoned, or repurposed,
does it still exist as a monument—and to what, or for whom?
Shitamichi’s art practice as a whole cannot be summarized easily. Rather, the journey of the artist’s life isrepresented through the various long-term projects he has produced over the past two decades. His interest inmonuments, landscape, and national borders began in 2001, when the 9/11 terrorist attack sent shockwaves
across the globe. Around that time, Shitamichi also discovered the remnants of a former military aircraft
manufacturing plant in a residential area on the outskirts of Tokyo, which prompted the beginning of his
long-term exploration of the remnants of war throughout the Asia Pacific. Greatly impacted by the 2011 Great
East Japan Earthquake ten years later, Shitamichi questioned his alienation from nature and the existence ofhistorical monuments created by nature. Now, with the passing of another decade, the pandemic precipitated
new questions about travel, freedom, and borders in unexpected ways.
Traveling to New York at this point in Shitamichi’s career marks a significant moment in the orbit of his artistic
practice—an expedition to the ground zero of where his journey began. It is an honor to share his ideas andworks with audiences on this side of the Pacific.

Eimi Tagore-Erwin (b. USA, 1991) is a doctoral candidate of East Asian Studies at New York University and an
emerging curator. Her research focus is contemporary Transpacific art engaging with colonial history, memory, andpolitics. She is a curator at Alison Bradley Projects and a 2023 Curatorial Fellow at the Shigeko Kubota Video Art
Foundation. Tagore-Erwin’s winning exhibition proposal from apexart’s New York City Open Call will open in
Tribeca at the end of March 2023. She was also a 2021 Wikipedia Fellow for PoNJA-Genkon and Asia Art Archive in
America, where she focused on Japanese artists who have faced censorship.

“There may be many people who separate their work from their private life, but inmy case, the act of living itself is closely linked to and integrated with my work andthe way I produce it. Everything is daily life, everything is travel, everything iscreating.”– Shitamichi Motoyuki, 2021

Tsunami Boulder 津波石 (2015-Present)
Tsunami Boulder is Shitamichi’s ongoing body of work that ruminates on memory, monument, and natural
disaster in Japan’s southern islands.
This work, initiated in 2015, is informed by more than a decade spent tracing the remains of human-madestructures and monuments around Japan and the Asia Pacific. For Tsunami Boulder however, Shitamichi
instead focused on the existence of natural monuments. When the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 hit
Japan, Shitamichi was living in Tokyo. As the damage from the disaster was quickly fixed and erased from sightin Tokyo, Shitamichi contemplated his own alienation from nature in the urban metropolis, and became
interested in the ways that the memories of disaster become part of the environment in more remote areas ofJapan, such as the Okinawan island chains of Yaeyama and Miyako, to the south of the Japanese mainland.
Yaeyama and Miyako have been frequented by tsunamis throughout history, with the most recent being theGreat Yaeyama Tsunami in 1771. Tsunamis have strewn massive boulders from the bottom of the sea
throughout the islands, creating natural monuments that have settled into their transplanted environments overhundreds of years. The boulders remain completely still while the environments around them have grown andchanged, with different human and animal inhabitants assigning value and significance to their monumental
forms.
This stillness is reflected in the artist’s medium of choice. Employing a fixed-point observation tactic, Shitamichi
documents the boulders in large black and white video works, allowing viewers to comprehend tiny movements
and shifts in each’s surrounding environment. Exhibited together, each of Shitamichi’s videos loops at its own
distinct interval, with no exact moment ever being synced.

“A stone, like a small planet, is a fragment of the universe, yet at the same time, it traps the universe inside of it.”– Shitamichi Motoyuki1

1

New Stone Tools, 2016.

津波石 ♯04 / Tsunami Boulder ♯04
2016
■Film
No. 04
Date: 21/06/2016 14:23Duration: 00:09:00:00
Location: Irabu Island, Miyakojima City, Okinawa, Japan
Shooting direction: North■BoulderLocation: 24°50'06.6"N 125°09'01"E
Name: Chibitauri-zi
Meaning of name: "Chibi" = behind / "tauri" = inclined / "zi" = rock
Function: Migratory bird colony, fisherman's landmark
PROVENANCE
ArtistExhibited at COSMO-EGGS, Venice Biennale 2019 Japan Pavilion, Venice, Italy

津波石 ♯05 / Tsunami Boulder ♯05
2016
■Film
No. 05
Date: 23/06/2016 15:54Duration: 00:07:14:21
Location: Tarama Island, Miyako District, Okinawa, Japan
Shooting direction: North-northeast■BoulderLocation: 24°40'41.2"N 124°41'36.6"E
Name: Tougarila-tounvala
Meaning of name: "Tougarila" = name of place and local god / "tounvala" = boulder
Function: Landmark
PROVENANCE
Artist

COLLECTIONSTakamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan
Private Collection in Japan
Exhibited at COSMO-EGGS, Venice Biennale 2019 Japan Pavilion, Venice, Italy

津波石 ♯09 / Tsunami Boulder ♯09
2018
■Film
No. 09Date: 17/11/2018 11:25Duration: 00:07:54:20
Location: Tarama Island, Tarama-son, Miyako-gun, Okinawa, Japan
Shooting direction: East
■BoulderLocation: 24°40'20.4"N 124°41'29.2"E
Name: Upu-tounvala
Meaning of name: "Upu" = big / "tounvala" = boulder
Function: Place of worship
PROVENANCE
ArtistExhibited at COSMO-EGGS, Venice Biennale 2019 Japan Pavilion, Venice, Italy

津波石 ♯11 / Tsunami Boulder ♯11
2018
■Film
No. 11
Date: 02/11/2018 12:32Duration: 00:02:26:08
Location: Tarama Island, Tarama City, Miyako District, Okinawa, Japan
Shooting direction: East
■BoulderLocation: 24°40'29.8"N 124°41'22.5"E
Name: Meaning of name: Function: PROVENANCE
ArtistExhibited at COSMO-EGGS, Venice Biennale 2019 Japan Pavilion, Venice, Italy

Tsunami Boulder Map
42 ½ x 29 ⅞ inches (108 x 76 cm)

Okinawan Glass 沖縄硝子 (2014-Present)

Shitamichi is deeply interested in the history of Ryūkyū Glass, a famous craft that was designated as a
“traditional” craft of Okinawa in 1998. The artist’s annual project investigates the way that the craft originatedwith local craftsmen collecting, re-melting, and shaping the glass from Coca Cola and beer bottles littered bysoldiers near military bases during the American occupation of Okinawa following WWII. This practice spurreda local economy in which the repurposed glass was sold back to American soldiers and their families as souvenirs.
Every year since 2014, Shitamichi has engaged with the ironic history of this so-called traditional craft, collecting
glass littered on beaches in Okinawa and working with local glass craftsmen to crush, melt, and re-shape theglass. He presents a new body of work each year with distinctive color and material properties. Rather thancollecting the glass discarded by soldiers, Shitamichi’s project reflects Okinawa’s socio-political position
today—the glass he collects is primarily from present-day tourists to the islands from surrounding Asian
countries. The three primary colors of the glass he finds littering the serene landscapes of Okinawa reflect the
influx of tourists in the island that continues to be peripheralized as a strategic military holding of the Pacific at
the same time as it is a popular vacation spot, with the brown glass of Taiwanese liquor, the green glass of
Korean soju, and clear glass of Chinese liquor.
Each year, the color of the glass Shitamichi produces is different. Since 2018, he has created a “recipe” that
documents that year’s project, including the location of glass collection, the number of bottles used, the namesof the craftsmen he worked with, and his observations from the crafting process. Because of their varying
material compounds, melting and mixing the collected glass is always a high-risk process. Imperfections can beobserved in the surface of the fragile pieces exhibited as part of this exhibition, but this is part of the deeper
meaning of the project—just as the notion of Ryukuan glass as “traditional” is somewhat flawed, the utility of
the luminous glass pieces Shitamichi presents is uncertain.

When I looked upon the completed glass, there appeared to be a very beautiful shadow, projected through layers ofcomponents that were completely melted. More than anything, it was actually invisible. Various locations andvarious times were mixed inside this cup....I brought home two of the glasses and toasted with them. A little crack
began to appear in one of the cups when I was washing it, and I felt sad and happy at the same time.
– Shitamichi Motoyuki2

2

Glass Journey, 2014

Okinawan Glass “Recipe”*Not on view

沖縄ガラス/Okinawan Glass
Glass, mixed media
2014 - Present

PROVENANCE
Artisttorii 鳥居 (2006-2012; 2017-Present)

Torii is Shitamichi’s iconic photographic series that explores the fragility of national borders by
documenting the remains of torii, or Shinto gates, throughout the Asia Pacific.
Following his graduation from Musashino Art University in 2001, Shitamichi spent four years traveling around
Japan photographing the ruins of WWII-era military facilities such as concrete hangars, bunkers, and defense
batteries. The extensive domestic travel and fieldwork conducted during this journey debuted in Shitamichi’s
photo series Remnants (2001-2005), which served as the impetus for torii. Beginning in 2006, the artist began
traveling outside of Japan to search for the material remains of the Empire of Japan’s from outside of thenation’s borders as they exist in the present day. The familiar and innocuous shape of torii are prominent andloved in Japan and around the world, but in many locales in the Asia Pacific, they exist as faint reminders of
the once widespread colonial presence of the Japanese throughout the region. During the first half of the20th century the Empire of Japan employed Shintoism as an expansionist tool, erecting the religious
structures in occupied territories as a way to demarcate the growing borders of its territorial conquests.
Shitamichi has spent years tracing and documenting torii across the Pacific, traveling to locales within
Taiwan, South Korea, the Northern Mariana Islands, Sakhalin, Northeastern China (referred to by colonial
Japan as Manchuria) in search of these remnants. Haunting yet beautiful, Shitamichi’s photographs
capture the echoes of imperial longing still encased in the benign shapes of these torii today. These familiar
structures, once symbolizing violence and oppression, are now overgrown, abandoned, repurposed, or
removed entirely to suit the contexts of their new territorial boundaries. In this way, these symbolic
structures live on with new afterlives, as monuments that have shifted to have new meanings and uses basedon the environments they still exist as part of.
The artist presents torii in conjunction with his collection of vintage war-era postcards of various torii
erected throughout Japan’s former territories.

torii#11 Taichung, Taiwan 台中 台湾
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006 - 2012, 2017 - Present
Printed 22022
Ed. 4/5
39 x 59 inches
PROVENANCE
Artist
COLLECTIONS(20 x 24 inches)
Private Collection, Japan
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Kadist Art Foundation, California, US
Nap Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Ishikawa Foundation, Okayama, Japan
Photo City Sagamihara (Photo City Award)(39 x 59 inches)
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
National Museum of Art. Osaka, Osaka, Japan
Private Collection in Japantorii#32 Shenyang, China 瀋陽 中国
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006 - 2012, 2017 - Present
Printed 2022
Ed. 1/5
39 x 59 inches
PROVENANCE
Artisttorii♯02 Saipan, USA サイパン アメリカ
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006-2012, 2017-Present
Printed 2022
Ed. 3/10
20 x 24 inches
PROVENANCE
Artist
COLLECTIONS(20 x 24 inches)
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Kadist Art Foundation, California, United States(39 x 59 inches)
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Osaka, Japantorii♯03 Saipan, USA サイパン アメリカ
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006 - 2012, 2017 - Present
Printed 2022
Ed. 4/10
20 x 24 inches
PROVENANCE
Artist
COLLECTIONS(20 x 24 inches)
Private Collection in Japan
Ishikawa Foundation, Okayama, Japan
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan(39 x 59 inches)
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Osaka, Japan
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Private Collection in Japantorii♯04 Tinian, USA テニアン アメリカ
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006-2012, 2017-Present
Printed 2022
Ed. 1/10
20 x 24 inches
PROVENANCE
Artisttorii♯06 Hualien, Taiwan 花蓮 台湾
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006 - 2012, 2017 - Present
Ed. 1/10
Printed 2022
20 x 24 inches
PROVENANCE
Artist
COLLECTIONS
Ishikawa Foundation, Okayama, Japan
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japantorii#23 Geomundo Island, Korea 巨文島 韓国
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006 - 2012, 2017 - Present
Printed 2022
Ed. 2/10
20 x 24 inches
PROVENANCE
Artist
COLLECTIONS(20 x 24 inches)
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan(39 x 59 inches)
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Osaka, Japantorii♯29 Sakhalinskaja, Russia サハリン、ロシア
Large format film, c-print, mounted on dibond
2006-2012, 2017-Present
Printed 2022
Ed. 4/10
20 x 24 in
PROVENANCE
Artist
COLLECTIONS(20 x 24 inches)
Kadist Art Foundation, California, US
Private Collection in Japan
Private Collection in Japan(39 x 59 inches)
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Osaka, Japan

Postcards
35 postcards
3 ½ x 5 ½ inches (9 x 14 cm) each

CV

Solo Exhibitions
2022

A Ship Went Up That Hill, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
Setouchi Triennale 2022, Miyanoura Gallery 6, Kagawa, Japan

2021

Setouchi “Slag Landscape” Archive, Miyanoura Gallery 6, Kagawa, Japan

2020

Setouchi “100 Years Tourism” Museum, Miyanoura Gallery 6, Kagawa, Japan2019

Floating Monuments, Yurinsou, Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
Setouchi “Yoichi Midorikawa” Museum, Setouchi Museum, Kagawa, Japan2018

Floating Monuments, miyagiya , Okinawa, Japan
New Antique-Open labo in Summer- , Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima,
Japan
Tsunami Stone, Alternative space cot , Yamaguchi, Japan2017

Hong Kong Roadside -Documentation of Asia Seed Cycle 2 workshop-, V54, Hong Kong

2016

Open Yourself to the Landscape, Kurobe City Art Museum, Toyama, Japan
14 Years old & 凹 & 凸, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art [Library], Aichi, Japan2015

Mother's Covers, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art [Library], Aichi, Japan
Bridge, circle gallery & books, Tokyo, JapanHow Look Over the Sea, florist gallery N, Nagoya, Japan

2014

Monument of ‘float’, Baikado, Osaka, JapanHow Look Over the Sea, N3 ART Lab, Yamaguchi, Japan2013

Dusk/Dawn –Kumamoto/Chicago-, Nap gallery, Tokyo, Japan
torii, Baikado, Osaka, Japan
Sunday Painter, Kart, Kawai Art Institute Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan2011

bridge, Gallery αM, Tokyo, Japan
Re-Fort Project Archive, Gallery αM, Tokyo, Japan
Dusk/Dawn, Nap gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2010

ROAD SIDERS, Open Studio 2010, Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan
Sunday Painter, criterium 79, Art tower Mito, Ibaraki, JapanRIDER HOUSE, Midori art center, Aomori, Japan2009

Air, Baikado, Osaka, Japan2008

Fantômes, Espace Japon, Paris, France
Memoires de guerre, Espace Japon, Paris, France

2007

Pictures, Shinjuku Ganka gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2005

Bunkers, INAX Gallery2, Tokyo, Japan

2001

musashino, exhibit LIVE, Tokyo, Japan

Biennales / Triennales
2022

Setouchi Triennale 2022, “Yoshinobu Nakamura Archive” Miyanoura Gallery 6, Kagawa, Japan

2021

Biennale Jogja XVI Equator #6 2021, Jogja National Museum, Jogja, Indonasia

2019

COSMO-EGGS, Venice Biennale 2019 Japan Pavilion, Venice, Italy

2018

Gwangju Biennale 2018, Gwangju, Korea

2015

Take Me To The River-Dojima River Biennale 2015, Dojima River Forum, Osaka, Japan2013

Asian Art Biennial : Everyday Life, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan

2012

Gwangju Biennale 2012, Gwangju, Korea

2012

Niigata Art Festival, “Water and Land,” Niigata, Japan

Group Exhibitions
2021

In Marugame – At the Moment – Three Artist Collectives, MIMOCA , Kagawa, Japan
Listening to the Stones, Museum Dresden, Germany
Somewhere Between the Odd and the Ordinary, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Ishikawa,Japan
Compassionate Grounds: Ten Years on in Tohoku, Collingwood Arts Precinct, Collingwood, Australia
Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2019-2021 Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo,
Japan
Local cultures assisting revitalization: 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, National Museumof Ethnology, Osaka, Japan
From the museum collection 2020: fourth period, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Collision Point on Dimensions, The 5th Floor, Tokyo, Japan2020

everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of the planet, Angewandte Innovation Laboratory,
wien, Austria
Cosmo-Eggs | Exhibition in Japan of the Japan Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale , ARTIZON
Museum, Tokyo

2019

EAPAP 2019 the Island Song, Jeju 4.3, Jeju, Korea
Prologue, Cité internationale des arts – Site de Montmartre, Paris, France
Ultimate deal, Oil Tank Cultural Park, T4 , Seoul, Korea
Fieldwork, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, China
Who opens up the world?, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Distance intime -Ishikawa Collection, MOCO, Montpellier, France
Clues for art appreciation, Toyohashi City Museum of Art & History, Aichi, Japan2018

MOVING STONES, KADIST, Paris, France
Our Daily Our Border, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, China
Takamatsu Contemporary Art Annual 07, Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan

Kenbi Connection, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
If These Stones Could Sing, KADIST, San Francisco, California, United States
2017

Immortal Makeshifts, Mullae Studio M30, Seoul, Korea
Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand
Moving/Image, Arko Art Center, Seoul, Korea
ESCAPE from the SEA, National Art Gallery, Malaysia

2016

Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, Museum of Contemporary Art & Design (MCAD), Manila,
Philippines
Okayama Art Summit 2016, Okayama, Japan
Saitama Triennale 2016, Urawa, Japan
Assembridge Nagoya 2016, Minatomachi POTLUCK BUILDING, Aichi, Japan2015

Our Land/Alien Territory, Central Manege, Moscow, Russia
Tokyo International Photography Festival 2015, ART FACTORY, Jonanshima, Tokyo, Japan
Beyond Hiroshima: The Return of the Repressed Wartime Memory, The Genia Schreiber University Art
Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
TIME OF OTHER, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
MAM Collection 001: Two Asian Maps - Ozawa Tsuyoshi + Shitamichi Motoyuki, Mori Art Museum,
Tokyo, Japan
CollectionⅡ: TIME AND CONSCIOUSNESS-DATE PAINTING AND COLLECTION, Toyota
Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan

2014

Turning Points, Hungarian National Gallery, Hungary
Time Sharing, Okinawa Contemporary Art Center, Okinawa, Japan
Art trip vol.01| Outside the Window Awaits Journey of Love, Ahiya City Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
Once is not enough, Audio Visual Pavilion, Seoul, Korea
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of
Photography, Tokyo, Japan

2013

Art Court Frontier 2013, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JapanAICHI TRIENNALE 2013, Aichi, JapanArt Court Frontier 2013, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, Japan
SUPER LIBERAL ART SCHOOL, Towada Art Center, Aomori, Japand design travel YAMAGUCHI EXHIBITION, D&DEPARTMENT d47 MUSEUM, Tokyo, Japan
Eyes on the street: Modernology and Beyond, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art,
Hiroshima, Japan2012

UTOPIA – As an anonymous place-, ART BASE MOMOSHIMA, Hiroshima, Japan
Okayama Art Corridor, Okayama, Japan
MOT Annual 2012 Making Situations, Editing Landscapes, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan
Spring – Daily Life, Baikado, Osaka, Japan
What a Wonderful World, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

Re-Modernologio / Traces of Landscape, Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Aomori, Japan
2011

Living in an Out-Of-Place, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
NOWHERE, The Japan Foundation Center for cultural Exchange in Vietnam, Hanoi, Vietnam
TOKYO STORY 2010, Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Breaker Project: endangered cityscape – rediscovering locality in the global era, Osaka, Japan2010

The Resonance Art 2010, Kurashiki City Art Museum, Okayama, Japan
traveling books, Kurashiki City Library, Okayama, Japan
Okayama Art Spanning Thousand Years, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, JapanTOKYO PHOTO 2010, academyhills 40, Tokyo, Japan2009

The 1st Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art: SIDING RAIL ROAD 2009, The former
Tokorozawa train car plant of Seibu Railway, Saitama, Japan

2008

VOCA 2008, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Into the Atomic Sunshine – Post-war Art under Japanese Peace Constitution Article 9, Puffin Room, New
York, USA / Daikanyama Hillside Forum, Tokyo, Japan / Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art
Museum, Okinawa, Japan2007

Geldscheisser in the Vault, HIROSHIMA ART PROJECT , Hiroshima , Japan2006

Re-Fort Project, NAKAZAKI Tohru PLAYROOM, Tokyo, Japan

2005

HIDDEN DIMENSION, TAMADA PROJECT, Tokyo, Japan

Awards2020

The 21st Okayama Arts and Culture Award Grand Prize

2019

Tokyo Contemporary Art Award

2015

Photo City Sagamihara Prizes for Newcomer Professionals

2014

Tekken Heterotopia Literary Prize

2013

Grand Prize, The 6th Okayama Prefectural Mr. I Development of Rising Artists Award

2012

Noon Award (Emerging Artist), Gwangju Biennale

2007

Paris Award, Musashino Art University, Japan

Photobooks
14 years old & the world & borders, Michi Laboratory and Tai Kwun Contemporary, 2019
New Stone Tools, Michi Laboratory, 2018
New Stone Tools, Kurobe City Art Museum, 2017bridge, Michi Laboratory and Circle-d, 2015
Dusk/Dawn, Michi Laboratory, 2015
torii, Michi Laboratory, 2013

Form of Borders, Michi Laboratory, 2012
Sunday Painter, Self-published with Halken LLP, 2010
Disappear/Remain, Self-published, 2010
Bunkers, littlemore, 2005

Collections
Kadist Art Foundation (San Francisco, USA)
Takamatsu Museum of Art (Kagawa, Japan)
Ishikawa Cultural Promotion Foundation (Ishikawa, Japan)
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (Aichi, Japan)
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima, Japan)
Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan)
Tsunagi Art Museum (Tsunagi, Japan)
The National Museum of Art, Osaka (Osaka, Japan)
Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art (Okayama, Japan)
S-House Museum (Okayama, Japan)

Acknowledgements
This exhibition would not have been possible without the support of Mischa Kuma and Takuya Ikezaki.

Courtesy of Alison Bradley Projects, Shitamichi Motoyuki, Eimi Tagore-Erwin
Copyright of Alison Bradley Projects
526 W. 26th Street, Suite 814
New York, NY 10001