People's hearts are not open books. When we open them up - if that action does not completely destroy them - there are only further mysteries.
‘I don’t know why I just had to’ Installation. Tenjinyama Art Studio, Sapporo, Japan (October, 2023.)
'I don't know why, I just had to' refers to the compulsion to create as well as destroy. The exhibition consisting of two installations created using the artist’s old university textbooks (Japanese language.) One installation was presented in the small library-gallery situated at the ground floor of Tenjinyama Art Studio, open to the public, the other was in the artist’s guest apartment, complete with electric fans and unwashed glasses, open to visitors for a private viewing once a day during the exhibit.
Apart from the artist’s uncontrollable compulsion to destroy school books (and the complimentary compulsion to make something beautiful out of that violence), ‘I don’t know I just had to’ was originally born out of meditating on the idea of “use value” (commodification) of both art and higher education as art becomes increasingly professionalised. Vallorized by art critic’s Claire Bishop’s viral article ‘Information Overload’ (2023.) Presented without any wall text or explaination, ‘I don’t know I just had to’ plays with these ideas. Displaying the academic as aesthetic, drowning the audience in incomprehensible text.
'I don't know why, I just had to' would become the beginning of the TextBook Art project. A series that is just as much about destroying things as it is making something beautiful.
Thanks to the staff at Tenjinyama Art Studio for the support and to Reneé (@vomitodeartista on Instagram.) for documenting the work.