Kenjiro Kitade “DROPS”
Ivy Brown Gallery
This event has ended.
Ivy Brown Gallery is pleased to present “DROPS” (Aug 6- Nov 1) an exhibition of sculpture by Kenjiro Kitade. The exhibition takes its title from the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kitade seeks to drop a powerful mode of questioning into the midst of our complacency in the face of the nuclear threat.
Many of the sculptures in the exhibit are curious figures with human bodies and the heads of sheep. Traditionally sheep have been a symbol of obedience and cowardice, and in the face of nuclear annihilation the metaphor is all the more powerful.
The sculptures are grouped in scenes that fall into three categories of past, present, future. Towards the start of the exhibit we are met by two figures from the past named Agyho and Ungyo, the traditional guardians of temples in Japan. Here it is hoped that the sacrifices of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will guard against future nuclear proliferation. Later, in the present, we encounter eight sheep-headed figures representing the nuclear and non-nuclear nations, each holding apples of temptation. In another scene we are presented with a nuclear game of chicken. Figures representing nuclear nations sit above an image of an atomic blast. The viewer can press a “hot button” that makes the atomic image flash, illustrating the choice that people have to engage in nuclear destruction or not. Also in the show will be a small tree grown from seeds from a tree that survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima, offering hope for the future. Kitade will make the pot for the tree out of the same clay that he fashions his sculptures.
About the artist: Kenjiro Kitade was born in Tokyo, Japan in February 1977. In 1995 he enrolled at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, majoring in Fine Art and also completed a masters program there, concentrating in ceramic sculpture. Career highlights include the bronze at the World Ceramic Exposition in South Korea in 2005, and later showing at the highly selective SOFA show (Sculpture Objects and Functional Art) in Chicago, Miami and New York. Living and working in New York City, he participates in numerous art fairs and exhibitions, working with several galleries nationally and internationally.
Media
Schedule
from August 06, 2010 to November 01, 2010
Reception For The Artist on 2010-09-29 from 18:00 to 21:00
Hiroshi Sunairi artist talk and film screening from 7pm.