[Title] Boyôn Boyôn
[Artist] Le Gentil Garçon
[Date] May 22,2013-July 17, 2013
The trampoline, while an acrobatic sporting competition demanding superb balance, stability and sensory precision, is also a sport that most anyone can enjoy through the simple repetition of jumping and rebounding. When working out on a trampoline under clear blue skies, the entire body is brilliantly liberated from the forces of gravity at the instant of springing high up into the air, empowering participants to savor a truly special sensation.
These latest designs are encased within the framed window dimensions, freezing in time the fleeting, soap bubble-like moments of supreme bliss.
Also featured within the window landscapes are radiantly colored Carré scarves, portraying square-shaped embedded structures as the bounding surfaces enclosed in the trampoline frames. In the midst of this dreamy dimension, where the heart pounds with thrills and excitement, a seemingly infinite number of ping pong balls, flowing together in billowy cotton cloud formations, move up and down in unison with the two characters jumping on trampolines in the two flanking window spaces.
These windows are arranged to instantly captivate people passing by, while also conjuring up images of the paintings of Belgian artist René Magritte. In the work entitled “Ceci n’est pas une pipe / This is Not a Pipe,” for example, Magritte portrays a large pipe in the center of the canvas, while daring to deny that very fact, despite being unveiled before the very eyes of viewers, with the said title “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.”
Is what is dancing in the air “baseballs and not faces,” or “faces and not baseballs?” The relationship between the reality appearing before the eyes and viewer preconceptions is shattered. The faces of the mannequins, which resemble large-size balls, gaze over at each other, with the red seams also manifesting the image of king-size smiles. What’s more, the puppy with the pink-colored nose takes on the image of brittle white molecules gathered together to create this fleeting moment in time.
In the small windows, this surreal world can be diversely transformed through ping-pong balls emblazoned with the “H” logo. The ping-pong balls of this parallel world are ever-changing particles capable of taking on various different forms inspired by rich and lighthearted spirits. Like child’s play, it is possible to bring forth images of clouds, animals, artistic objects, a scale-model Eiffel Tower or other elements.
Le Gentil Garçon
Le Gentil Garçon, French for “The Nice Guy,” is an artist working out of Lyon, France. He employs an impressive range of methods to create sketches, installations, animation and sculptures, as well as pieces for public spaces, small-scale buildings and other sites. Mobilizing his experience in the field of natural science, he pursues art as a viable target for research. Positioned between the precision of factual knowledge and the coincidental character of imagination, he brings together complex phenomena with various technologies and know-how, realizing minute weaves of understated humor and poetry.
In Japan, his achievements include creations as a visiting artist at the Koganecho Bazzar event in Yokohama in 2009, as well as at Villa Kujoyama staged at the Institute of French and Japanese Exchange in Kansai in Western Japan (2012). At the Koganecho Bazaar, he produced a visual work named as “The Rise and Fall of Black Light City.” At Villa Kujoyama, he collaborated with Osaka-based street picture-card storyteller Tadashi Sugiura and students of the French School in the Kansai district, in producing a video presentation scheduled to be released this summer in Kyoto.