Archetype

About

Mizuma & Kips is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by KARIYA Hiroshi, entitled “Archetype” beginning on March 4th in New York.
Born in Japan, Kariya moved to the United States in 1977, where he has been based in New York ever since as a US citizen. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Kariya became renowned for his prolific practice both in Japan and overseas, and has participated in numerous exhibitions, including an invitation to the Sound Show; a special project at MoMA PS1 alongside Vito Acconci, Nancy Holt, and Dennis Oppenheim, where Kariya made a water pool sound instrument, and entered the pool to become the instrument himself as part of the work: the sound. Other exhibitions include his solo show “Sutra” at the ICA, Philadelphia in 1990, and invitation in the four-artist show “Open System” at Art Tower Mito, Japan, together with CAI Guo Qiang.
In 2017, he had a solo exhibition entitled “It’s all about the one piece, and millions of others” where he showed the series Seed Sutra – fundamental to his daily work, in Tokyo after a long silence. A prototype of this installation has also been shown at the opening exhibition of Mizuma & Kips and at The Armory Show in 2019.
For many years, Kariya has been developing work based around the concept of Sutra. One of his artworks, Seed Sutra is comprised of writing the three words “the now is” onto small amounts (specks) of seed every single day. For him, the act of writing “the now is” pertains to pointing at an exact moment between reality/illusion, truth/false, and fabrication/creation. Kariya began working on this piece in 1984 and has continued production on it ever since, with numerous interim pauses. This is what became the prototype for the new works shown in this exhibition.
For this exhibition, we will present an installation that has various faces separated from newspaper articles as well as articles with their faces cut out, placed on both side of the walls, to have the work all face each other. These articles, named face-off sutra by Kariya, serve as evidence that the faces did indeed exist at one time, and also serve as a reference. Visitors not only see works of various faces displayed to cover the walls of the venue, but also get to walk on top of these artworks that are laid out on the floor. As you enjoy the installation, you will inevitably become part of the work and its space.
Throughout the installation, Kariya examines the multiple “illusions” of our identity, personality, and subjectivity contained in a face: Its potential icons (sacredness, disgust, or neutrality), information (history and traces shown by a face), and anonymity (independence from subjectivity). The meaning and impression of many faces scattered
throughout the gallery is left to the attributes and histories of the audience and presents a variety of experiences. Through your participation, we hope you will come to experience joy with this exhibition of “illusion.” Now enjoy the show!