image: Walking with a drop of the ocean, Kyunchome 2023, Photo Yanagihara Ryohei
Artlink is pleased to announce the opening of All Living Things are Breathing Now, a solo exhibition by Japanese artist duo Kyunchome, Nabuchi (b. 1984, Mito) and Honma Eri (b. 1987, Yokohama). The focus of the exhibition is a new series of work by the artists that highlights coastal ecosystems as dynamic ecotones and contact zones where multiple species interact with intertidal rhythms, changing materials, and the impacts of climate disasters. Work that examines environmental histories and the complex relationships between life and matter, focusing on the historical and contemporary connections between land and sea.
Concept
For millennia, the symbolic connection between humanity and the sea, its diverse nautical and coastal influences have played a significant role in shaping human culture and identity. The ocean, seen as a sublime cultural symbol, has both literal and metaphorical associations that are always evolving. Echoing aspects of human experience and contemporaneously serving as an indicator of global capitalism, colonialism, exploitation, and the environmental impacts of a wasteful lifestyle. The sea serves as a metaphor for yearning, impacting national identity, migration, and inward and outward movements. Its representation and importance in art, literature, and film have been transformative. Especially this century as contemporary artists have brought increased attention to the ocean as a place that reflects the pervasiveness of life, beliefs, fragility, and current relationship to the Anthropocene.
Coastlines play a crucial role in shaping the interrelationships between human and non-human ecosystems. Coastal communities along these shorelines form the foundation of the local socio-cultural characteristics. At the same time, coastal areas face significant challenges, such as extractive engineering, resource depletion, and pollution, driven by various socio-political movements, economic activities, and urbanisation. These complex coexistences and transformations inspired Kyunchome to explore and engage with coastal myths, memories, and narratives. The sea as both a poetic trope shaping our perception of humanity and civilization, and a natural force, aquatic environment, migration route, and repository of collective and personal histories. The language of the seas as a pathway for exchange, trade, livelihood and survival, and Kyunchome’s thoughtful reflections, exploring and highlighting the seas connections to humanity, across generations, cultures, and history.
Artists
Kyunchome is a Japanese artist unit based in Tokyo, consisting of Nabuchi (b. 1984, Mito) and Honma Eri (b. 1987, Yokohama). They became an art unit after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and gained recognition by winning the 17th Taro Okamoto Art Award in 2014. Kyun-Chome specializes in creating video installations and often undertakes mid-to long-term residencies in socially divided regions to showcase the “core reality” of specific places or issues. Their work addresses a wide range of socio-political problems in Japan and internationally, including natural and manmade disasters, immigration, national history, and gender identity. The artists aim to blur the boundaries between perpetrator and victim, creating new connections between tragedy, comedy, and modern faith.
