KEN MATSUBARA Repetition 2015
KEN MATSUBARA Repetition 2015
The work attempts to disclose a fluctuating
dialogue
between the past and the future in endless state of “repetition”.
Ken Matsubara Ken Matsubara’s work explores the fluctuating manner of memories that reside deep within our consciousness. By working with mediums such as photographs and videos, Matsubara visually draws upon the reflective property of images to disclose the nature of memory as a form of interpenetration between the past and present. Furthermore, Matsubara believes such recollections are genetically inherent in our DNA, which contain vast knowledge from the past since antiquity extending beyond individual self. In his Repetition book series, Matsubara examines such characteristics of memory by using various old snapshots found by chance, and re-shooting images from the exact location in comparison to where the old photographs were taken. Filming from such overlapping settings, the images reflect a transition in time through reaffirmation of its dissimilarity. By presenting such passage of associations, the work attempts to reveal the shifting dialogue between the past and future in a continuous state of repetition.
In more recent works, Matsubara endeavors to further investigate the fluctuating nature of memory by re-examining various forms in eastern tradition’s understanding of beauty as an embodiment of impermanence. More specifically, in relation to his works, Matsubara believes the Japanese sense of beauty is largely and respectively based on the appreciation of mono-no-aware, or sadness of the passing time. This notion should not be regarded as a negative attitude towards the finitude, but rather to embrace its perishability. To Matsubara, what matters is how we make our reflective experiences meaningful in relation to the ever-fleeting beauty of the passing time. Eiketu Baba
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Coney Island Edition 1/10 movie, book, projector 24 x 30 cm 2014
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Eiffel Tower Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Kamakura Beach Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Meiji Shrine Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Ofunato Elementary School Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Pont Neuf Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Potsdamer Platz Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Statue of Liberty Edition 1/10 movie, mixed media, music stand 24x 30 cm 2014
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Storm in a Glass Silver Glass Bottle silver metal plating on the glass bottle, movie, mixed media 33 x 19 cm 2015
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Letter Silver Dome Glass silver metal plating on the glass bottle, movie, mixed media 33 x 19 cm 2015
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Loop scale Box Wooden scale box, movie, mixed media 28 x 32 x 20 cm 2015
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Paper in the Wind Edition 5/10 movie, book, projector 29.7 x 39.3 x 5.2 cm 2015
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Curriculum Vitae Ken Matsubara Born in 1949, Tokyo
Education Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan
Solo Exhibitions 2015 Repetition, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong 2014 Repetition, Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain Repetition, Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, Canada Repetition, Art 45, Montreal, Canada Repetition, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2012 The Sleeping Water, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan The Sleeping Water, Jhonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, U.S.A. 2011 Winter Dreams - The Story of Water, Spazio lightbox, Venice, Italy Winter Dreams, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2009 The Portrait of Fruits, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2008 Knife In the Water, eN arts, Kyoto, Japan 2006 Sleepwalker, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1997 Transmission, Coagulation, Reflection, Gallery ÉøM, Tokyo, Japan 1993 Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, N.Y., U.S.A. Hosomi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Art Site, Fukui, Japan 1992 Jayne H. Baum Gallery, New York 1990 Vertical and Horizontal, PS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1988 Picture Photo Space, Osaka, Japan Twisted Perspective, PS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Jayne H. Baum Gallery, N.Y., U.S.A. 1987 Light Gallery, N.Y., U.S.A. Studio 666, Paris, France Polaroid Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1982 Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Polaroid Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Suikatou, Tokyo, Japan 1981 Axis Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
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Group Exhibitions 2015 Smoke and Mirrors, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A. Venice Meeting Point, Navy Officer’s Club, Venice, Italy Ryuta Ilda, Yuko Ozawa, Ken Matsubara, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2012 The End of Everything / A New Beginning, LARM galleri, Copenhagen, Denmark 2011 Night Scented Stock, Marianne Boesky Gallery N.Y., U.S.A. The Tiger and the Sunflower, Schroder Romero & Shredder Gallery, N.Y., U.S.A. Close Encounter, AKI Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan THE P.2 PROJECTS, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, U.S.A. Forces, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong 2010 Archetype of Photography, Froese, Matsubara, Przyborek, The Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland 2009 6 BIENNALE FOTOGRAFII, Galeria Miejska Arsenal, Poznan, Poland 2008 The Story Box, MA2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1999 Innovation/Imagination: 50 Years of Polaroid Photography, Ansel Adams Center for Photography, San Francisco, U.S.A. 1994 INSIDE OUT: Contemporary Japanese photography, The Light Factory Photographic Arts Center, Charlotte. North Carolina, U.S.A. 1993 Breda Fotografica ‘93, De Beyerd, Breda, Netherlands 1992 Photography in Contemporary Art, Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, Korea 1991 Compound of The Maniéra, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Machida The 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan, 1991, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan 1990 The Silent Dialogue, Still Life in the West and Japan, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Shizuoka, Japan The Imprinted Ideas, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, Japan Les Fleurs, Studio 666, Paris Les Fleurs, Galerie Photographique, Toulouse, France 1989 Group Show, Maison de La Culture, Annecy, France Retrospective des Artistes Exposé entre 1986 et 1988, Studio 666, Paris, France 1988 Expressions in Photography and Related Media II, Gallery Miyazaki, Osaka, Japan 1981 The 12th Print Grand-Prix Exhibition, Nichido Salon, Tokyo, Japan Four Stars, Kado Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
SELECTED COLLECTIONS International Polaroid Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Nippon Polaroid (Polaroid Corporation of Japan), Tokyo, Japan Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport, California. U.S.A. Maison du Livre de L’ image et du Son, La Bibliotheque de Villeurbanne, Lyon. France Bayly Art Museum, Virginia. U.S.A. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. U.S.A. Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Bell Atlantic Corporation, N.Y., U.S.A. Goldman Sachs Corporation, N.Y., U.S.A. Readers Digest, N.Y., U.S.A. Marieke and Pieter Sanders Collection, Netherland
AWARD 1991 “Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Award”, The 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan,1991, Japan
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ALL WORKS OF ART COPYRIGHT © Ken Matsubara A VIBRANT LIFE PUBLICATION Designed by Leong Tsoi Chi
This catalogue is published on the occasion of Ken Matsubara’s solo exhibition “Repetition” at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong in 2015.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
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