[Title] Playful
[Artist] Satoru Eguchi
[Date] July 18,2013-September 18, 2013
A street corner, somewhere, sometime. Common, everyday items, stacked up in impossible dimensions. A bicycle, an oar, cactus, a skateboard, a volleyball… Within such an implausible collection, can be found Hermès products as well. At first glance, this assembly of objects, heaped up in utter disarray, appears to be just barely maintaining any sense of stability. Much like someone perched on one foot, stretching out both arms to keep their balance.
Sports, by their very nature, are endeavors accompanied by a fair share of risk, steeped in the human body and mind, their own distinctive rules, and above all else, the arousal of a playful spirit. This also encompasses special moments, lying in wait in the midst of our everyday lives, reached without traveling to any special locations. Expanding out within the setting of this latest Maison Hermès window is a panoramic jumble of ordinary things, and inconceivable phenomena, played out within a wafting ambience of tension that serves to conjure up premonitions of sports. The aura of inconceivability is not limited, furthermore, to the methods in which the wide range of objects has been amassed. Equally eye-catching is the fact that each and every one of the items is crafted from paper. With the exception, naturally, of the several Hermès creations included in the mix, that is.
In this window, New York-based artist Satoru Eguchi has recreated everyday scenes in paper, and then depicted three-dimensional paintings on the contours of those paper objects. Gazing at the scene – a lineup of objects at times elaborately crafted, at other times roughly colored with blank spaces remaining, much like works in progress – the viewer may lapse into the illusion of staring at a single connected painting. As if leaping out of the surface of the picture, the pile of objects leave behind the texture of warped and distorted paper, while blending into the material sensations projected by the actual Hermès products.
This oversized mass of objects, while upholding its own unique balance, also exudes a sense of speed such as if just being portrayed moments before, or perhaps on the very threshold of being drawn over the instants to come. Hermès products are also featured in the small windows, in tandem with miniature scenes surrounding those creations. Objects crafted from paper are placed here as well, generating the sensation of gazing at a stream of small sketches composed on the strength of inimitable texture and touch.
A huge pencil, casually resting against the window wall, delivers an impact, rooted in sheer improbability, causing passersby to instinctive turn their heads around for a second take. This outlandish installation, weaving together sensations of “reality,” “speed” and “tension” at various different levels, may very well resemble the sensation of liberation from the everyday domain engineered through sports.
Satoru Eguchi
Born in Niigata Prefecture in 1973. After completing studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York, he has continued his creative activities in NYC. Major exhibitions include “Everyday Life / Hidden Reasons,” Kanagawa Arts Foundation, Yokohama (2011); “Kunst Nu,” S.M.A.K., Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium (2009); “Things in a Place,” MISAKO & ROSEN, Tokyo (2008); “Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York,” Japan Society, NY (2007), etc.