WOW will be participating in TENNOZ ART WEEK, an art event organized and hosted by Warehouse TERRADA from Friday, July 7 to Sunday, July 9, 2023. TENNOZ ART WEEK is being held as a collaborative project between Tokyo Gendai, an international art fair being held in Yokohama, and Warehouse TERRADA, one of the official partners of Tokyo Gendai. By inviting domestic and international art collectors to “the art capital Tennoz” this art event aims to invigorate the art market and promote international cultural tourism by connecting art scenes in Japan and around the world. WOW will hold an exhibition titled “WOW Art Exhibition: Refraction + Render” at BONDED GALLERY in TERRADA ART COMPLEX II, featuring two works, “Refraction” and “Render.” An installation in conjunction with Render will also be displayed on the rooftop of T-LOTUS M, a ship-shaped event space on the Tennoz Canal.

Statement WOW seeks to create sculptures with light. For more than 100 years since the invention of the moving picture, humankind has found ways of expressing all kinds of images by drawing a sequence of still pictures and displaying them at high speed. What WOW aims to do is deconstruct such sequences of still pictures, transforming them into phenomena that dominate both time and space. Visual images are one function of the modern age. However, just as the Japanese sword has strong spiritual connotations for Japanese people that make it far more than just a weapon, a well-honed visual image is capable of surpassing its simple visual function and appealing to people’s innermost selves. When refining what it is we want to express, we rely on both an ability to resonate with and unleash the desires swirling around the urban landscapes that are home to so many Japanese people today, coupled with an understanding of the vast amount of context that since ancient times has underpinned the very essence of what it means to be Japanese, and sublimate those aspects into our artwork. At WOW, we refine and hone those abilities through our commissioned works and the production of original work, based on the traditional performing arts of Tohoku, the region that is our spiritual home, and seek to create visual works as phenomena, where no single moment is ever the same.

About “Refraction” “Refraction” is a group of visual works that represent “distortion.” An overlay of curved acrylic grids on a display playing video distorts and blurs the image, rendering it in a mosaic-like manner. The viewer looking at the work supplements and reconstructs the incomplete image by imagining “something beyond.” We encounter vast amounts of visual information in our daily lives through the spread of increasingly high-resolution video equipment and social media. These works let the viewer harness the unlimited imagination or infinite resolution possessed by human beings, as the opposite of high resolution and finish to provide an experience of the beauty that exists in imperfection.

Loading...

About “Render” “Render” is an experimental installation where multiple OLED displays are placed at equal intervals, which has the effect of layering the projected visual information, allowing the viewer to appreciate the images in a three-dimensional aspect. This work, originally created in 2018, will be newly produced and exhibited in conjunction with “WOW Art Exhibition: Refraction + Render.” In today’s world the line between reality and data has become increasingly blurred, with it now being possible to convert many of the things we encounter visually in daily life into digital form. In this work, the boundaries and movements of materials that become apparent through the discrete unraveling of visual information are expressed as layered images. “Render” attempts to stimulate each and every viewer to think about the kind of reality they see in their mind’s eye when confronted with these images.

Loading...

“WOW Art Exhibition: Refraction + Render” Exhibition Information Dates: July 7 (Fri) to July 9 (Sun), 2023 Time: 12:00 – 18:00 Venue: BONDED GALLERY Address: 1-32-8 TERRADA ART COMPLEX Ⅱ 4F, Higashi Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Eligible for: Tokyo Gendai VIPs / TENNOZ ART WEEK VIPs / General Public Admission: Free Light performance by WOW T-LOTUS M, a ship-shaped event space on the Tennoz Canal, will become the canvas for a work in conjunction with “Render.” Light, lines, and boundaries that emerge through the unraveling of visual information will be abstracted and projected on the huge rooftop sail. Dates: July 7 (Fri) to July 9 (Sun), 2023 Time: 18:30 – 22:00 Venue: Rooftop of T-LOTUS M Address: Across to 2-1, Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku,Tokyo Eligible for: Tokyo Gendai VIPs / TENNOZ ART WEEK VIPs / General Public Admission: Free of charge for VIPs / 500 yen for general public *free of charge after 8 PM and later TAC GALLERY NIGHT TERRADA ART COMPLEX, home to BONDED GALLERY where “WOW Art Exhibition: Refraction + Render” is being shown, is one of Japan’s largest gallery complexes, bringing together some of the nation’s leading art galleries. On GALLERY NIGHT, 19 resident galleries and WOW, will stay open until 9:00 p.m. for a special viewing of the various exhibits, with champagne and light refreshments being served in the café garden. This promises to be a special night to experience the contemporary art scene as presented by some of the best galleries in Japan. Date: July 7 (Fri), 2023 Time: 18:00 – 21:00 Venue: TERRADA ART COMPLEX I (1-33-10, Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku,Tokyo) / TERRADA ART COMPLEX II (1-32-8, Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku,Tokyo) Eligible for: Tokyo Gendai VIPs/TENNOZ ART WEEK VIPs Admission: Free

TENNOZ ART WEEK TENNOZ ART WEEK is an art event that aims to invite art collectors from Japan and overseas to Tennoz, an art district, invigorating the art market by connecting the domestic and international art scenes and promoting international cultural tourism. We have prepared programs allowing art collectors visiting Tokyo Gendai to enjoy the Tennoz art district. The collaboration between Tokyo Gendai and Tennoz will help the domestic and international art scenes to become even more dynamic. Dates: July 7th (Fri) – July 10th (Mon), 2023 Organizer: Warehouse TERRADA ▶ Website