(10/30/2013 – ?)
Platform China FB
Following the talk earlier in the week, Lyota’s and Takehiro’s opening took place on Thursday. Overall, the artist presentations prepared me well for the show. Without attending the talk, the works would probably mean less to me… or more.
For Lyota’s work, seeing the car racing track made of vinyl records again, was less of a pleasure than seeing it for the first time while he was constructing it in front of the audience eyes. Lyota was not at the opening, he left prior to it, and without him, the vinyl record car racing track started to fall apart slowly. Same happened to another work, a record made of ice, slowly melting while being played back on a record player. The work looked very beautiful in Lyota’s artist talk presentation, however in his absence, the gallery staff struggled to produce a ‘playable’ ice record as well as to manipulate the record player. So overall the initial effect of novelty that his works produced at first encounter has been worn off and replaced by a slight disappointment over the technical limitations, similar to a toy after you played with it for some time and throw it into a corner.
In Takehiro’s part of the show, the earlier artist talk provided the necessary background which was not directly visible from the works. Coming to the show and seeing the photographs created a sense of heightened pleasure, as one could relate the artists thinking with the detailed and sharp photographic prints. The photographs came to full expression now and I found them as the most interesting part of the show. Takehiro also showed his video works: The 24 hour videos came to full bloom compared to brief excerpts shown during the lecture which did not do fully justice to the concept. The ‘stealing time’ videos, which were more of a documentary character, were shown on small screens with little chairs, but without an explicit explanation, they were not understandable conceptually and not that interesting visually either.
At my first encounter with the two artists, I wondered how their work will fit together. During the last days, moving from the artist talk/presentation to the exhibition opening, I could see how my impressions changed which made me understand their relationship. For a first-time visitor to the show, the different way of expression used by the artists provided for a more full and engaging experience over time: Lyota was able to engage the viewer’s senses directly in a very short time span. Takehiro’s work needed more time to unfold and thus served as a second, follow up stage to Lyota, creating a well-rounded exhibition experience.