Tadashi Kawamata

Ideas for Projects

23 October - 20 December 2002

In this exhibition Tadashi Kawamata will be showing for the first time maquettes and models for projects, some of which have been realised and others that are still in their formative stages.

Tadashi Kawamata is an artist who transforms our environment, he works in the midst of demolition and construction. These projects have taken place all over the world and range from intimate transformations of a single house or apartment to the whole scale reconfiguration of towns. Usually using scrap or reclaimed materials, mostly wood, Kawamata sets about building new and unusual structures; a bridge between an apartment block and a museum, a wooden walkway that leads from a town centre to a lakeside, slum dwellings constructed in a picturesque park. KawamataÕs aim is to turn these environments inside out, and present the viewers with a completely fresh view of their surroundings, whether itÕs from a walkway built three metres above the town square or by a room transformed with a suspended ceiling of reclaimed doors. These projects make us question our environment, the way it is constructed and how we interact with it.

Tadashi Kawamata will be showing maquettes and models of projects from the last twenty years. These beautifully constructed wooden models are frequently designed with an unusual perspective; wall mounted, these huts, bridges and walkways are viewed as if from an elevated position, their perspective skewed, giving the viewer a slightly vertiginous experience.

Born in Hokkaido, Japan in 1953, this is Tadashi KawamataÕs third exhibition with Annely Juda Fine Art. He has had many one-man exhibitions and projects throughout Europe, the United States and Japan including the Serpentine Gallery, London, the Kunsthalle, Recklinghausen and the Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo. Tadashi Kawamata exhibited at the 40th Venice Biennale in 1982, and later was invited to Documenta VIII and Documenta IX . This autumn he will be participating in the Busan Biennale, Korea

Tadashi Kawamata talking about his projects;

CONSTRUCTION SITE PROJECTS

"Building sites are always in the midst of demolition and construction. The processes are temporary and on-going. The fact that there are such sites in every town and city means that there is one large cycle. Through these projects at temporary building sites I feel I am able to express the endless cycle of demolition and construction."

URBAN PROJECTS

" These projects invoke a larger urban area than used in other projects. I try to consider the significance of the project site in terms of considerations such as the history of the area and the life of the people who live there."

click here to read Tadashi Kawamata's biography.

www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~onthetab follow this link for more information on Tadashi Kawamata.