Presenting Works Recreating the Front and Back of Cut-Out News Magazines

Satoru Aoyama, born in Tokyo in 1973, creates works themed around "labor" and the "relationship between humans and machines" using an industrial sewing machine. After graduating from Goldsmiths, University of London with a degree in Textiles in 1998, he earned a PhD in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001 and is currently based in Tokyo. In recent years, he has been actively presenting works that seem to re-examine and expand the meaning of "embroidery" itself, including a series juxtaposing his own embroidery with the paintings of his grandfather, a painter, and works that deliberately tackle the symbolic yet potentially cliché subject of roses.


This exhibition features embroidered works created by cutting out news magazines that address political and social issues, and meticulously recreating both their front and back sides using full-color threads. The works present a seemingly arbitrary yet somehow resonant relationship between the front of a news article and its automatically accompanying back. They convey Aoyama's message: "Even if what is visible on the front has no meaning, just as what is on the back has no meaning, we must believe in something and make choices."



Additionally, a live performance with musician Hirokazu Hiraiski will be held on the opening day, Wednesday, August 29th, starting at 7 PM. In today's era of accelerated information dissemination via the internet, this exhibition, through the medium of embroidery created with an old-fashioned industrial sewing machine, presents Satoru Aoyama's sincere inquiry into "the present" crafted over time. It prompts us to consider anew what we can choose amidst a deluge of information and diverse values, and what kind of society we can build going forward.—The exhibition offers an opportunity to reflect on these questions.


Satoru Aoyama: 'The Man-Machine (Reprise)' Featuring Hirokazu Hiraiski

Dates | Wednesday, August 29 – Saturday, September 29

Hours | 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Venue | Mizuma Art Gallery

Kagura Bldg. 2F, 3-13 Ichigayata-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo


Opening Reception

Date | Wednesday, August 29

Time | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Live performance from 7:00 PM)

Tel. 03-3268-2500

http://mizuma-art.co.jp