Ryohei Kan: As you see it

About

The video 'Endless Gallery', projected life-size at the gallery's basement main room, invites the audience into the screen to explore the imaginary space from room to room, along with another person, invisible but sensed by the sound of accompanying footsteps.  Both visual and acoustic elements of the piece were created exclusively by digital means, from the stains of the floor to the holes on a wall left from hanging previous works and the almost inaudible sound of failing/ flickering florescent lights. 

The air of nonchalant creation in the photographic works is no less deceiving.  The seemingly uneventful snapshots, portraying architectural elements’ play with light and shadow are the result of the painstaking composition, staged mostly physically with the models Kan scrupulously produced, while some are digitally created.

The emerging artist has constantly produced works which explore the boundary between physical reality and created reality, a reality formulated according to human concepts or ideals.  Kan’s work plays with this boundary, and by his meticulous contrivances his works often result in a blurring of what we see, and what we think we see.  The artist nonetheless claims that he is only presenting what you see, and there is nothing more to be explored or examined, hence the enigmatic title for the show, 'As you see it'.  Such assertion may seem contradictory, but it reflects his belief that his work is independent of the viewers' perception of it.  They seek to liberate the viewer and enable them to experience whatever it is they experience, whether it be actual or imaginary.   

Kan's creations possess a striking visual poetry, comparable to multi-sensorial haikus, a form of literature initiated in the land of his compatriots. His photographic works crystallise the static beauty portraying sections of life, sections of thoughts, or sections of daydreams.  The video possesses almost hypnotic quality with its tireless, repetitive nature leading to the promise of eternity, comparable to the effect one receives when listening to a Bach fugue.  Immaculate aesthetics reminiscent of the minimalism of 70's with streamlined visuals of restrained monochromatic palette, from black through almost infinite shades of grey to white, contributes to the meditative property of the work.