Acrylic resin works by Cousteau Tazuke exhibited at a traditional Japanese storehouse

What could be more plain and less sophisticated than a storehouse, a building for storing things? There is hardly anything less aesthetic-driven than a structure for preserving foods and household items when they are not in use: massive clay walls to prevent fire, minimal windows to maintain temperature, unnecessary supports removed to maximize storage space, and darkness to reduce heat. Attached to the main house for utilitarian reasons, a traditional Japanese storehouse seems to exist as an expression of pure function.

Frantic Gallery is happy to present “Structure beyond Function. Acrylic resin works by Cousteau Tazuke exhibited at a traditional Japanese storehouse”. With this project, curated by ENTOMORODIA and in collaboration with Takumi Osawa and his traditional Japanese dwelling restoration company O SEKKEI Inc., we intend to argue for an interpretation of the Japanese storehouse (Kura) that deemphasizes pragmatism and brings attention to the aesthetic value of its structure as a manifestation of a traditional Japanese sensibility. To accomplish this, we summon a contemporary artist.

Cousteau Tazuke is a painter who uses acrylic resin material to create “hyper-structural” works that subvert the basic principles of twodimensional art. Tazuke makes his pieces by carving into a clear acrylic resin surface and painting the resulting cavities with acrylic paint. The works are then exhibited with the reverse side facing out. Thus Tazuke undermines the strict borderline between painting and sculpture by combining the techniques of both: his work is a result of via a pore (to apply) as well as via a lavere (to extract). He creates three-dimensional works (there is volume, material “objectness,” physical depth), but these paintings still portray two-dimensional space (they are planes, surfaces, it is “on-thewall work”). Tazuke, while staying inside the realm of painting, manages to work with depth, physical volume, and multiple surfaces to overcome the back/front dualism of a picture by presenting both sides of painted object.

By bringing Tazuke’s “Works with acrylic resin surface” into a sake storehouse (Sakagura) in Kamakura, the ancient capital of Japan, we are going to create an Enigmatic Moment, a moment when past encounters future, a moment when paintings made of Methyl Metacrylate thermoplastics (invented less than 30 years ago) are exhibited on clay walls and wooden bars more than one century old, a moment when an artwork with intricate, futuristic topology is exposed inside the dark, cool structure of a storehouse that exhibits centuries of Japanese building tradition. It is this moment when two incompatible artifacts meet to reveal their hidden commonality that is the topic of this exhibition: architectural / sculptural / structural features of both the Japanese storehouse and Tazuke’s paintings, which are external to any utility, beyond any daily functions, outside any pragmatic ideas of “use,” “convenience,” “capacity,” or ”service.”

The “Structure beyond Function” exhibition is based on the scheme of the “two person exhibition” or the “comparative exhibition.” Although we show works of art by a known artist in combination with an anonymous work of architecture, we still would like to offer the visitor “parallel, but interwoven” experiences of the aesthetic power of these presented structures.

Tazuke’s acrylic resin paintings, because of being work of art (originally functionless creations), make the utilitarian aspects of the storehouse secondary and its aesthetic strengths come to the fore. The moment the storehouse stores art works, it comes to life and it is dragged from ordinary function to the unrestricted imagination of the art world. We suddenly recall that the storehouse, due to its utilitarian darkness, silence, and the lack of escape routes, often served as a main site for the punishment of misbehaving children. Generations of mischievous boys and girls spent time in this type of structure struggling with their youthful imagination, which projected their deepest fears into the dark space at the heart of the building. Also due to the absolute separation between “outside” and “inside,” necessary for the preservative purpose of the building, the storehouse became a rather common place for crime, to the point of being noticed and described as such by Japanese artists. Thanks to its simple construction and minimal decoration, any slight alteration paradoxically became a strong message: declaring the wealth of a family or the status of a samurai or merchant in their battles for authority. In spite of their utilitarian origins, the structure of the storehouse and its internal space both communicate a strongly artistic and imaginative expression.

Thus, the “Structure beyond Function” exhibition aims to show that even a minimalist construction – insofar as it is made by a human being – contains a flash of creativity within it.

Cousteau Tazuke
1982 Born in Osaka, Japan
2007 Tama Art University, Department of Graphic Design, B.A.
2010 Tama Art University, Department of Painting, M.A.
Solo Exhibitions
2010 “Structure beyond Function”, Traditional Japanese Storehouse, Kamakura
2009 “Tazuke Cousteau Solo Exhibition”, ANOTHER FUNCTION, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions
2010 “2010 FRANTIC UNDERLINES”, Frantic Gallery, Tokyo
2009 “circle”, CCAA, Tokyo
“Wakuraha”, Gallery b.Tokyo, Tokyo
“Graduation Works Exhibition”, The National Art Center, Tokyo
2008 “no border”, Tama Art University Gallery, Tokyo
2007 “Graduation Works Exhibition”, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo

• Organized by Frantic Gallery
• In collaboration with Takumi Osawa (O SEKKEI Inc.)
• Curator ENTOMORODIA curatorial net/work

* The text provided by frantic gallery.

Opened dates: August 1- 8, 2010