AN ILLUSION CREATED ON THE RETINA

7.1 sat 〜 7.16 sun, 2023

The project production collective WATOWA GALLERY will open a group show of 12 artists, “LAYERED—AN ILLUSION CREATED ON THE RETINA” from July 1st to July 16th, 2023

A retina is our window to perceive this world, and yet, human eyes can sometimes fall under a delusion between the reality and fantasy. This exhibition consisted of 2D and 3D artworks by 12 up-and-coming artists explores on the illusion created on a retina. When our eyes are closed, is a retina still a layer of our eyes? The layering of images reflected on the retina give birth to a wavering sensation on the border between the imaginary and the reality. This sheet of representation attracts people’s curiosity, and at the same time, is rife with anxiety and contradictions.

In the 1960s, Guy Debord presented the concept of a “Society of the Spectacle”. The concept referred to the fact that people’s life are all based on representations produced by the media, when capitalism transformed into consumer societies along the development of mass communication. This symbolism lacking of truth affects human perception and stand in the way of personal thoughts. In the “Information-Oriented Society” that we live today, is the Society of the Spectacle still in existence? Notably, for us who are involved in a game of capitalism, how should we consider the meaning of the informational symbols that meets our eyes?

At this exhibition, the artists have presented a way to feel the layer-like illusions through their own creations.

At this exhibition, the artists have presented a way to feel the layer-like illusions through their own creations. The exhibited works explore on the possibility beyond the flat surface, or beyond the three dimensions, through the canvas on which the artists expressed minimally and abstractly by the combination of limited and pure points, lines, and planes. For people who are surrounded by masses of informations, the works propose a concretization of concepts such as the “minimum necessity”, or “Less is More”, and suggest the fiction and fact of a capitalist game, based on the experience of the artists. The exhibition reflects a fragment of this modern society between the reality and fantasy via these illusions.

ARTIST

Nanami Inoue, Naohiro Ueda, Yohei Kondo, Akiko Sawada, Haruna Shinagawa, NANDE, Yumi Nishimura, Hiromu Hirako, Asuka Hoshi, Yuzuho Matsuoka, Saya Omura, Aoi Yokomura