Hiroyuki Takenouchi

The Fourth Wall

Nov 1 - Dec 22, 2017
PGI

Hiroyuki Takenouchi

The Fourth Wall

Nov 1 - Dec 22, 2017
PGI

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

PGI is pleased to present The Fourth Wall, the solo exhibition at the gallery for artist Hiroyuki Takenouchi.

Having unveiled works such as Liberty City (P.G.I.), SEASONS (Foil Gallery), and Crow (P.G.I.), Hiroyuki Takenouchi has set his sights on presenting audiences with metropolitan landscapes; scenes of nature full of flowers and flora; nonchalant depictions of daily life around him; and his distinct clique of friends. By directing one’s line of sight directly at the subject, Takenouchi confronts the viewer with the loneliness and alienation of youth, a sense of unease and doubt towards the way he or she perceives normal objects, asks “What is diversity?” “What is the artificial?” and attempts to lay bare the true essence that lies dormant within all things.

 

As a child with two working parents, Takenouchi spent a lot of time at home by himself, saying that in order to keep himself from coming to terms with the full extent of his own loneliness, alienation, and weakness, he would build up walls around himself.

It was with this mentality that he took up the camera, and much like others who do the same, found it to be a tool that allowed him to connect with others while also allowing him a means to express his true nature.

 

“In the past, even when I was taking pictures I would think about what kind of individual I was going to become, but before I knew it one day I realized that when I was shooting I would stop thinking about myself,” says Takenouchi. Just like he says here, when shooting photos he becomes free of obstructive thoughts, and by carefully fixing his gaze upon each object that surrounds him one-by-one, he sheds the person that tries to keep others from knowing his own weakness, who tries to act strong, who is frightened by the gaze of others, allowing for a plethora of soft gazes and sharp observations to pour out from within him, drawing out all the fascinating, attractive qualities of the subject, all things appearing equal in his eyes and thus revealing the beauty of existing in that particular time and place.

This exhibition presents 35 works of Takenouchi, primarily new pieces, compiled from when he was in university through his activities in more recent years.

 

The venue will also make available advance purchase copies of his new photo collection of the same title as the exhibition which set to be published by T&M Projects in late November of this year.

As a small child coming home to an empty house, the long walk from the doorway to my room proved a terrifying prospect, and to abate those fears I would leave toys and comics strewn about the house. Still, being at home was scary, so I would wander around the neighborhood playing until my parents came home from work, thinking how wonderful it would be if the grass and the tiny critters I encountered could speak like they do in my comic books.

 

Being praised for the photos I took while on vacation with my family was a source of happiness for me. What fascinated me about photography was that regardless of whether something was big or small, with a camera you could capture it in the palm of your hand, and shy as I was, something about holding a camera felt reassuring. I realized that when I was taking pictures, all the irritation, cruelty, and loneliness I felt gradually began to subside. Also, even though I may have set out to take pictures while thinking about myself, I came to realize that when I was shooting photos I would stop thinking about myself. You could say that perhaps I take pictures to release myself from the individual I use to present myself to those around me. If that’s what true freedom is, then to me photography is a means to overcome the walls that separate me from others.

 

I just kept going out to shoot without really deciding on where to go beforehand. I wanted to walk around lots of different places, but my feet would often just naturally carry me to river banks, streams, neighborhoods, basically the kind of environments that were similar to the place where I was born and grew up. I’d be walking around with my camera working up a sweat and realize things like how much a season can change over the course of a week, that the answers I was looking for were right in front of me in the gorgeous views I peeked at through my view finder. Sometimes I’d also run into crows or little critters that weren’t afraid of people. I though these kinds of animals are definitely “outside the loop” in terms of their place in nature, but I feel I might be like them in that I’m occupy a space outside the rest of the world. So, looking at them with the kind of gaze that’s never left me since I was little, I’d remember feelings that I’d not recognized when they’d occurred to me, a sign that there were other people like me who’d found life hard to live.

 

Hiroyuki Takenouchi

English translation by B.B. Clarke

 

“The Fourth Wall” is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play.

 

 

[BOOK]

The Fourth Wall

257 x 182mm | 130page | Hardcover

Design : Chikako Suzuki

Published by T&M Projects, Nov 2017

 

Hiroyuki Takenouchi was born in Tokyo, Japan, 1982. Graduated from the Photography of Nihon University College of Art in 2008. He was the recipient of the honorable mention of the New Cosmos of Photography in 2008 and the special award of Shiogama Photo Festival in 2009. 

Publications: “The Fourth Wall”, T&M Projects (Nov. 2017), “Things will get better over time”, FUJITA (Mar. 2017)

 

 

PGI Exhibitions

Mar 4 Apr 28, 2015 CROW
May 15 Jun 13, 2009 “Liberty City” at the group exhibition “Making, Marking, Mapping