Masaru Aikawa

In previous exhibitions, Aikawa has attracted attention for publishing reproductions of many music CDs by famous groups such as AC/DC, Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk (the artist personally reproduces by hand the album sleeve, liner notes, price sticker and the like, and records his own acapella versions of all the songs). Aikawa has also jointly produced with modern artist Yuko Ozawa “rhythm”, an installation synchronizing the exhibition venue lighting with the blinking of security guards sitting in the corners of the venue, along with other works using surveillance camera images output through pinhole cameras and Web networks, etc. By projecting existing art fields in innovative dynamic ways, while at the same time presenting everyday objects with which we are all very familiar as media (intermediaries) he pushes spectators away from reality through creative activities that affirm from unrealistic landmark points the reality in which we were unconsciously living.

This exhibition features photographic works developed by a process of outputting images by PC and exposing them to light from a projector projecting PC screens onto a wooden panel coated with gelatin and photographic sensitizer emulsion inside a dark room. The venue also houses an installation in which linen fabric (reality) and images (fiction) are exposed simultaneously. These will be exhibited together with surveillance camera images output through Web networks and real scenes captured with smartphone cameras.

Approaching this exhibition: Masaru Aikawa

A huge image born in an instant before being consumed in the twinkling of an eye, flickers before our eyes leaving no chance to verify whether it is reality or fiction.

Every time I encounter such images, they exist without necessarily being there as something whose existence can be observed by anyone, and that makes me feel uneasy.

I must constantly make internal judgments for me to be myself, forcing me to question whether I actually exist as myself. The projector grid on the surface of the works is the boundary line that sits precisely between reality and image. For me, that grid is rather like prison bars, something reliable.

For example, the momentary jolt experienced when returning to real existence after immersion in an advanced graphics videogame or a movie could also be described as the sense of touch felt when the mind passes through the grid.

We are always coming and going between reality and fiction, and every time we pass through the grid we feel anxiety and relief, pleasure and pain. But that feeling of touching the grid could perhaps signify a new sense organ recognizing the transition between reality and fiction.

Masaru Aikawa
Date of Birth: 　　　10/06/1978
Place of Birth: 　　　Lima, Peru
Nationality:　　　 　　Japanese
Education: 　　　　　 Tama Art University, Tokyo Japan. 2000-2004 Bachelor of Media Art

Selected Exhibitions
"Jump“ ,Towada Art Center[Tokyo],2015
"Art Meets02“ ,Arts Maebashi[Gunma],2015
"Train festival“ ,artarea-b1[OSAKA],2015
"Wish You Were Here" eitoeiko[Tokyo],2014
"Unconditional Surrender in the decade of the 2010s," eitoeiko[Tokyo],2013
"ORIGINAL SOUND BIG BANG, AND SINCE THEN" NEW ACCIDENT [Kanazawa] 2013
"after effect",4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art[Australia,Sydney] 2011
"Gateway Japan",Torrance Art Museum[USA,L.A] 2011
"Mauvais Genre",_ilivetomorrow[Hong Kong] 2011
"Roppongi Crossing 2010",Mori Art Museum[Tokyo] 2010
Art Fair Tokyo[ Tokyo] 2010
Asia Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair[ Korea,Seoul] 2009
101TOKYO Contemporary Art Fair [ TOKYO] 2009
MOUNTAIN FOLD GALLERY [ USA,NY] 2008
STAIRWELL GALLERY [USA,RI] 2008