The Netherlands × Chiba

Taking Photographs, Telling Stories

Sarah van Rij & David van der Leeuw × Yuki Shimizu

The work of Dutch photographers Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw has recently garnered a lot of attention, through their unique photographic expression that utilizes reflections and shadows effectively to project dreamlike landscapes with vague outlines. They walk around urban centers like flâneurs and, in their words, seek "to capture the unstaged and almost undefinable elements of the city." These elements are "the vague silhouettes of people, or the vast amounts of colors, abstract shapes, and poetic rhythms the city itself consists of," which consequently evoke "the essence of a city." 

The subjects that van Rij and van der Leeuw discover "incidentally" are given new lives as entirely different images through their outstanding sense of color and framing. After spending their teenage years at the beginning of the 2000s, they developed the incredible sensitivity needed to construct images from their daily life which is overflowing with pictures: they truly are children of the digital era. 

The fragments of city memories and historical traces evoked in their work are often deeply entwined with cinematic elements, especially in the influence they profess from American filmmaker John Cassavetes. In the series Metropolitan Melancholia (2019-2022), which they worked on in New York during the Covid pandemic, something like a story may arise from the depth of an abstract image, as though it were a scene from a movie. This "narrative" inclination establishes the impression that the numerous films set in the city provided a subconscious influence.

Their attempts to construct new images of streets developed further in Still Life, a project that began under lockdown during the pandemic, which was shot indoors, in a controlled environment. Here, too, reflections on panes of glass or shadows on the wall establish multi-layered images.

The self-portraits in these still lifes leans on a rich lineage of art that goes back to the old Dutch school. In paintings, figures reflected on items were a mark of the fine application of techniques of depiction by skilled artists, yet the feeling of attraction to what you can see and the desire to express every visible thing equally can be said to have been inherited to this day. The traces of the artists themselves in the work compel us to be drawn into their art world.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Moving back and forth between two modes of expression -photography and novels - Yuki Shimizu works with a unique production style in which she carefully researches the history and traditions of a place and, while unveiling its past, builds a fictional world in photographs and words. This story originated from an old photographic archive collection that remains in the house of the Tojo-tei in Matsudo, a designated important national cultural property that was built about 140 years ago.
The Tojo-tei is the location where Akitake Tokugawa (1852-1910), brother of the last Shogun of the Edo period, Yoshinobu Tokugawa (1837-1913) and 11th head of the Mito domain, spent half of his lifetime after retiring in 1884 at the age of 29. Basing himself there, Akitake enjoyed various activities such as hunting, photography, and cycling.
He especially devoted himself to photography, setting up a dark room in the house and mixing the development solution to process films himself.
More than 1,300 photographs he took in the six years between 1903 and 1909 are collected in the house.

A vast amount of documents were left by Akitake, who was an outstanding record-keeper, including photoshoot memos, travel journals, and diaries. These are studied in minute detail and carefully tied to pictures by "Curator K", who attempts to illuminate traces of the paths Akitake took in life, leading Shimizu to follow the gaze of Akitake at Tojo House, in the surrounding pastoral landscape, and out to the sea of the Inage area.

Photographic technology brought to Japan via the Netherlands at the end of the Edo period was an epoch-making innovation that realized the human desire to capture the scenes they see, and was rapidly adopted in the current of modernization during the Meiji era. At the same time, photography as a mode of artistic expression was crossing paths with a movement of realism in modern painters who were attempting to depict reality as it was, and it began searching out its own expression.
Shimizu describes and photographs landscapes (or views) that change through time, examining the acts of humans who try to retain the figure of how things once were, and recognizing the fact that painting and photography are both mediums that, if anything, deteriorate over time and become lost. Shimizu's technique of utilizing negatives that were damaged in seawater in works like Half Dreaming Glass (2022) or Surfacing (2024) is a way of marking the passage of time that is impossible to resist on real landscapes.

How will accumulations of past records be handed down to the future? The words and photographs of Shimizu, weaving back and forth between reality and fiction, establish a grand installation that connects the past and present, transcending gaps of time and space.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Chiba prefecture has a long history of cherishing its relationship with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, since the Sakura clan engaged in Dutch studies during the Edo period. This relationship was present during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games four years ago, when the prefecture hosted the Dutch Olympic team.

We hope that you enjoy the stories that Sarah van Rij & David van der Leeuw × Yuki Shimizu have created through photography. Perhaps they may lead to the creation of new stories within you, as an readers, that were not part of the artists' original intentions. We believe the artists are excited for that future too.

Related Exhibitions

「オランダ × 千葉   撮る、物語る」 会期：2025年11月15日(土)〜2026年1月18日(日) 時間：9:00〜16:30（最終入館30分前まで） 会場：千葉県立美術館（千葉市中央区 中央港1-10-1） 休館：月曜日（月が祝日の場合は翌日。1月12日(月)は開館) 12月28日(日)〜1月4日(日)、1月13日(火) アーティストトーク 清水裕貴 × 小寺瑛広（松戸市戸定歴史館　研究員） 日時：12月20日（土）14：00～15：30 会場：千葉県立美術館　講堂 定員：180名（当日受付、先着順）

刊行記念トークイベント 清水裕貴 × 大竹昭子 日時： 2025年12月23日（火） 19:00〜20:30 会場： 青山ブックセンター本店 大教室（東京都渋谷区神宮前5-53-67 B2F） 参加：1,650円（税込）、定員100名 本図録の刊行を記念し、出展作家である、写真家、小説家の清水裕貴氏と、ジャンルを越境して執筆活躍をする作家の大竹昭子氏によるトークイベントを開催します。 清水氏が、松戸市戸定歴史館にある古写真のコレクションに着想を得て展開する「眺めの継承」と題する壮大なインスタレーションを出発点とし、「撮ること」と「物語ること」はどのように重なりうるのか、写真と言葉の関係を語り合います。

「オランダ × 千葉　撮る、物語る―サラ・ファン・ライ＆ダヴィット・ファン・デル・レーウ × 清水裕貴」展 開催記念 清水裕貴「海は地下室に眠る」 会期：2026年1月9日（金）〜1月24日（土） 時間：13:00〜19:00 会場：LAG（LIVE ART GALLERY）東京都渋谷区神宮前2-4-11 1F 休館：日、月、祝 清水裕貴 × 畑井恵（水戸芸術館現代美術センター学芸員） トークイベント：2026年1月10日（土）16:30〜18:00 Opening Reception：2026年1月10日（土）18:00〜19:00

---

Artist Information

サラ・ファン・ライ＆ダヴィット・ファン・デル・レーウ

アムステルダムとパリを拠点に活動するオランダ出身の写真家。 2人はパートナーであり、ユニットとしても個人としても活動し、考え抜かれたフレーミングと構図によって、シュルレアリスムの系譜に通じる作品を創り出している。
ファッションブランドやエディトリアルのコミッションワークも手がける。 2023年に2人の初の写真集『Metropolitan Melancholia』をKOMINEKより出版。同年にサラ・ファン・ライによるルイ・ヴィトン フォトブックシリーズ『ファッション・アイ、ソウル』も刊行。 2025年12月より、サラ・ファン・ライにとって初となる美術館での個展を、パリのヨーロッパ写真美術館で開催予定。

Sarah van Rij & David van der Leeuw

Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw are a Dutch photography duo based in Amsterdam and Paris. As partners in both life and work, they capture images evoking surrealist works through their meticulous approach to framing and composition.
They also undertake commissioned work for fashion brands and editorials.Their first photobook, Metropolitan Melancholia, was published by KOMINEK in 2023. The same year also saw the launch of Sarah van Rij's contribution to the Louis Vuitton Photobook Series: Fashion Eye Seoul. Her first solo museum exhibition is scheduled to open at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris in December 2025.

清水裕貴

千葉県生まれ。2007年、武蔵野美術大学映像学科卒業。2011年、第5回写真「1_WALL」グランプリ受賞。2016年、第18回三木淳賞受賞。小説では2018年、新潮社R18文学賞大賞受賞。土地の歴史や伝承のリサーチをベースにして、写真と言葉を組み合わせて風景を表現している。主な出版物に、小説「ここは夜の水のほとり」新潮社（2019）、小説「海は地下室に眠る」KADOKAWA（2023）、写真集「岸』赤々舎（2023）。主な個展に「眠れば潮」（PURPLE、2023）、「浮上」（PGI、2024）、主なグループ展に、「千葉ゆかりの作家展百年稲子の海」（千葉市民ギャラリー・いなげ／旧神谷博兵衛稲毛別荘、2021）、「とある美術館の夏休み」（千葉市美術館、2022）、「MOT アニュアル2024こうふくのしま」（東京都現代美術館、2024）がある。

Yuki Shimizu

Born in Chiba, Yuki Shimizu graduated from the Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University in 2007. She won the Grand Prize at the 5th '1_WALL' Photography Competition in 2011 and the 18th Jun Miki Award in 2016. Her literary work won the Grand Prize at the 2018 R-18 Literary Award by Shinchosha.
Shimizu combines photography and text to create landscapes inspired by her research into local history and folklore. Her major publications include the novels Koko wa Yoru no Mizu no Hotori (Here at the Water's Edge at Night, Shinchosha, 2019) and Umi wa Chikasitsu ni Nemuru (The Sea in the Cellar, KADOKAWA, 2023), as well as the photobook Shore (AKAAKA, 2023). Exhibitions featuring this artist include 'Artists Related to Chiba: A Century of Glass Sea' (Chiba Citizen's Gallery Inage / Former Holiday House of Dembei Kamiya, 2021), 'Summer Vacation at a Certain Art Museum' (Chiba City Museum of Art, 2022), and 'MOT ANNUAL 2024 on the Imagined Terrain' (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2024).

---

Related Items

清水裕貴 『岸』	MORE THAN ONE WORLD New Japanese Photography 50 Years On	りんご通信 7	奥山由之 『windows』	大竹昭子 『迷走写真館へようこそ』

『「前衛」写真の精神： なんでもないものの変容 瀧口修造・阿部展也・大辻清司・牛腸茂雄』	『深瀬昌久 1961-1991レトロスペクティブ』	野口里佳 『不思議な力』	『牛腸茂雄全集 作品編』	奥山由之 『flowers』

Mikan Hon Shimai

Ine Izumi

This volume brings together episodes related to books, as told by the six women who serve as the models for Mikan Hon Shimai (The Unfinished Book Sisters), a project in which Ine Izumi has been involved since 2008. 

"Mikan Hon Shimai" is a fictional construct devised by the artist, in which six women who are deeply familiar with and connected to books are imagined as sisters, and have shared various gatherings together. In reality, these women occupy an unusual relationship: they are neither family nor friends, nor strictly connected to the painter herself. Lightly bound by books alone, they speak of their individual experiences and thoughts. 

In this small book, where their voices are recorded, the raw immediacy of spoken narratives merges with abstraction. As readers follow these narratives, they too begin to overlay their own lives onto the stories being told. 

Over the passage of time, each of the Book Sisters（Hon Shimai） experiences confusion and uncertainty around this enigmatic premise, while undergoing subtle shifts shaped by everyday change. Meanwhile, the painter--having begun to wander away from the act of painting--returns to reread the crystallized remnants that have been strained and left behind. 

This book is a quiet record of the Book Sisters and the painter, still in the midst of their journey, each gently pointing toward their own "book." 

AKAAKA BIRD is a publication series that responds to moments of origin or transition, releasing works in resonance with their time. Like a bird taking flight, the series aims to be light in form yet capable of traveling far. It is our earnest hope that these works may take wing in the present, carrying their own sense of scale into the distance.

Related Exhibition

『未完本姉妹 -本姉妹の本にまつわる話- 』展 会期：2025年11月4日（火）〜 9日（日）  時間：13:00〜19:00 会場：森岡書店 銀座店（東京都中央区銀座1-28-15 鈴木ビル） トークイベント『本姉妹の本にまつわる話』 泉イネ × のもとしゅうへい 泉イネ × 姫野希美 日時： 2025年11月7日（金） 夕方の会　16:00〜17:30 宵の会　　18:30〜20:00 参加費: 3,500円

---

Artist Information

泉イネ

絵を描く旅。様々な分野や土地の間を描くように往来。
詩集、絵本、カタログの装画、ウィンドウデザインやお皿の図案なども手がける。
2007年以前は「紺泉」の号にて装飾をモチーフに細密画風を7年間描き、紺号最後の個展『ある庭師 多分のひととき』（2007年 原美術館）ののち2008年以降は泉イネへと号を改めた。

本にまつわる女性たちとの出会をきっかけとした「未完本姉妹」シリーズ（2008-）、ダンサー・振付家、批評家との絵のsession「And Zone」（上野の森美術館 2011）、免疫疾患の経験から作家を休み、休館日の美術館を舞台とし現代美術家、振付家と共同で企画した「休み時間ワークショップ」（DIC川村記念美術館）、描きなおすために佐渡島や真鶴半島、別府などへ通い住み、人と出合いながら 風景を紡ぐウェブメディア「shimaRTMISTLETOE」（2018-2021）、ZINE shimaRTMISTLETOE(2022)、別府で作り手を迎える場 team「（ゆ）」（2019-2021）などを通して、一人の絵の制作から思考や身体を離して新たな視点を探した。 近年の展示に、2022年「紺｜泉｜イネ 1/3回顧展」（空豆）、グループショー「6 Artists」（Gallery Koyanagi）、2023年「原画」（工芸青花）などがある。

Ine Izumi 

She continues a journey of painting, moving back and forth between various fields and places, as if drawing.
Alongside this practice, she works on book covers for poetry collections, picture books, and catalogues, as well as window and plate designs.
Before 2007, she worked under the name Kon Izumi, producing detailed, decoration-based paintings for seven years. After her final solo exhibition under that name, "Aru Niwa-shi - Tabun no Hitotoki (A Certain Gardener - A Moment of Plentitude)" at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, she changed her artist name to Izumi Ine in 2008.

Her works and projects include "Mikanbon Shimai" (2008-), shaped through encounters with six women connected to books; "Zone," a painting session with dancers, choreographers, and an art critic(2011, Ueno Royal Museum of Art Gallery); and the Workshop "Rest Time"(Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art),a collaborative project with contemporary artists and choreographers that questions the rest periods taken by artists due to illness and was held in a museum on its closed day.

From 2018, in order to repaint and reconsider her work, she traveled to and lived intermittently in places such as Sado Island, the Manazuru Peninsula, and Beppu, weaving landscapes through encounters with people in the web media project shimaR TMISTLETOE (2018-2021), followed by the ZINE shimaR TMISTLETOE (2022). She was also involved in Yu (2019-2021), a team and place in Beppu that welcomes creators.Through these activities, she sought new perspectives by distancing her thinking and body from the act of solitary painting.

Recent exhibitions include Kon | Izumi | Ine: 1/3 Retrospective (Soramame, 2022), the group exhibition 6 Artists (Gallery Koyanagi), and Original Drawings (Kogei Seika, 2023).

---

Related Items

岩橋優花 『光の根』	竹内万里子 『矛盾の海へ』	長島有里枝 『SWISS』(3rd edition)	頭山ゆう紀 『残された風景』	澁谷征司 『DANCE』

counterpoint

Kazuhei Kimura

I had experienced certain symptoms since early childhood. Sensations that were essential to constituting who I am, yet which I felt were not worth sharing with others. For now, I will try listing them in the order I can recall:

・Colors and shapes appear distorted.

・Things I see feel either infinitely far away or extremely close.

・An image replays in my mind where parts that are black and white appear fluorescent.

・An image replays in my mind where hard, needle-like sharp objects and soft, mochi-like objects intersect.

・Mainly when lying down and looking up at the ceiling, the four corners of the room contract sharply.

・The faces of people in front of me appear enormous.

・The flow of time feels extremely fast or slow.

・During conversation, a certain phrase repeats rapidly in my mind.

These symptoms occurred routinely and naturally in my daily life, so I hardly ever spoke to those around me about them, and even when I finally did, they neither understood nor showed any interest. Yet, as a child, I think I felt more, or at least as much, a sense of being myself as the loneliness of not being able to share these experiences. In my daily life, I was rarely consciously aware of the symptoms, but they also never disappeared. And so, I grew up without knowing their true nature.

About seven or eight years ago, one day while browsing X (SNS), I came across a summary article. It was about a condition called "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome." The cuteness of the name, and some kind of premonition at the time, led me to click the link. As I read through the symptoms, almost all of them matched what I had experienced, and I was astonished. I can still vividly recall the shock I felt at that moment.

I learned that Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is a condition where, despite no abnormalities in vision, objects appear a different size than they actually are, and that it manifests various other symptoms such as abnormalities in color perception and time perception. True to its name, it was named after Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and it seems that Carroll himself, as well as Ryunosuke Akutagawa, also experienced similar symptoms. I felt both relief and disappointment that someone else had experienced the sensations I thought were unique to me, but above all, I was happy that these experiences finally had a name. Reflexively, I wanted to create work about Alice Syndrome.

Although I wanted to, years passed without achieving it. At the time, I had just begun photography, and I had no technical skills or knowledge. If I were to visualize the aforementioned symptoms, painting, collage, or animation would probably be more suitable, and many artists, including Lewis Carroll and Jan Švankmajer, had already produced high-quality works using such media. So then, what could photography do? Days passed while I pondered whether there might be a method, beyond merely visualizing the symptoms. At that time, I realized that what mattered was not wanting to do Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but wanting to do "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome."

Although I was troubled by the symptoms of Alice Syndrome, I think I probably never actually suffered, and rather, I seemed to enjoy them. I have heard that there are people who do suffer, and perhaps my case is still mild. A fair amount of time has passed since I first conceived the idea. While I was dazing off, "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome" was featured in the media several times and became a more widely known condition. Until around age 26, the symptoms appeared routinely, but in recent years, the frequency of experiencing them has gradually decreased. Now, they appear only slightly, along with migraines, when I feel particularly fatigued. It feels as though the fairy I had carried on my shoulder for so many years has disappeared. It is sad to think that forgetting this would mean it never existed. I felt that I must preserve that sensation.

August 31, 2025 - Note added

It has been ten years since I began the idea of "creating a work about Alice in Wonderland Syndrome," and three years since I started presenting it in exhibitions. I have continued thinking about a single series, facing my body at each moment and incorporating new elements, and in a way, I have held five exhibitions presenting a sort of unfinished mass. At first, I chose to present only in exhibitions, thinking, "I do not feel like I can make this into a book," but through continued creation, the concept of a book gradually emerged, and I am pleased to be able to give it form in this way.

Since the beginning of the presentation of "counterpoint", there have been a few occasions when people have said things like, "You are sublimating pain and hardship into your work." Each time, I have asked myself whether that is really true, assuming the freedom of interpretation. Have I ever truly suffered, even once? In 2022, I spoke of the symptoms as fairies. I did not wish for them to disappear; rather, I wanted to build a good relationship with them.

This work is not meant to raise awareness of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, nor to appeal to society about its difficulties. And now, the main purpose is no longer to reproduce the symptoms in photographs. Starting from a precious, yet standard experience for me, which bears the very conspicuous name "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome," I create the landscapes I want to see and photograph them. I arrange them under a few rules in a white room (or in a book) and allow people to enter the space. Beyond the judgment of "understood" or "not understood," they can enjoy seeing and the enigma itself, and contemplate the differences in human perception. Perhaps this is what the work is about.

The production as "counterpoint" will probably reach a conclusion here. Yet from now on, I will likely be unable to imagine anything without the experience of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. This is because that state is my standard. Even if the symptoms no longer fully appear, I wish to continue facing the concerns in front of me, wrapped in this reliable enchantment.

Related Exhibitions

木村和平「石と桃」 会期：2025年11⽉20⽇（木）〜12⽉7⽇（日） 時間：13:00〜20:00（会期中無休） 会場：Roll（東京都新宿区揚場町 2-12 セントラルコーポラス No.105） アーティスト・トーク ゲスト: 姫野希美（赤々舎） 日時: 11月29日（土）18:00−19:30 入場料: 1,500円 + 1ドリンク制／500円 定員: 25名様（先着順・着席）

木村和平「石と桃」刊行記念フェア 会期： 2025年12月10日(水) 〜12月24日(水) 会場： 代官山蔦屋書店 2号館1階 アートフロア（東京都渋谷区猿楽町17−5 代官山 T-SITE） サイン会 日時：12月23日(火) 18:30〜20:00 場所：代官山 蔦屋書店 2号館1階アートカウンター 対象書籍：木村 和平『石と桃』（参加方法 詳細）

---

Artist Information

木村和平

1993年、福島県いわき市生まれ。東京在住。第19回写真1_WALLで審査員奨励賞（姫野希美選）、IMAnext #6「Black&White」でグランプリを受賞。主な個展に、2022年「石と桃」（Roll）、23、24年「石と桃」（Roll / PURPLE）、25年「石と桃」（Roll）、2020年「あたらしい窓」（BOOK AND SONS / book obscura）、2019年「袖幕 / 灯台」（B gallery）。主な写真集に、『IRON RIBBON』（Libraryman）、『あたらしい窓』（赤々舎）、『袖幕』『灯台』（共にaptp）など。

Kazuhei Kimura

Born in Iwaki, Fukushima, in 1993. He currently lives and works in Tokyo. Kimura has received several awards for his photography, including the Jury Encouragement Award at the 19th Photography 1_WALL (selected by Kimi Himeno), and the Grand Prix at IMAnext #6 "Black & White" (selected by Takayuki Ishii).

His solo exhibitions include counterpoint (Roll, 2022) ,Counterpoint (Roll / PURPLE, 2023, 2024), The Other Side of the Window (BOOK AND SONS / book obscura, 2020), and Wing Curtain / Lighthouse (B gallery, 2019).

His photobooks include IRON RIBBON (Libraryman), The Other Side of the Window (AKAAKA), Wing Curtain and Lighthouse (both aptp), as well as HIKARU UTADA SCIENCE FICTION TOUR 2024 NINE STORIES (New Gallery) and NEW GENTLEMEN (IMA photobooks / GUCCI).

---

Related Items

木村和平 『あたらしい窓 』	MORE THAN ONE WORLD New Japanese Photography 50 Years On	深瀬昌久 『遊戯』	頭山ゆう紀 『残された風景』	長島有里枝 『SWISS』(3rd edition)

『「前衛」写真の精神： なんでもないものの変容 瀧口修造・阿部展也・大辻清司・牛腸茂雄』	野口里佳 『不思議な力』	『牛腸茂雄全集 作品編』	馬込将充 『月の裏側へ』	LILY NIGHT 『ABSCURA』

Human Form

Erwin Wurm

One of Austria's most significant artists, Wurm has explored the defining characteristics of sculpture and expanded its fixed concepts by working not only with traditional sculptural materials such as plaster and metal, but also with a wide range of media including photography, clothing, and painting. 

Taking the human body--the most fundamental and primal motif of sculpture--as its point of departure, this book introduces Wurm's works through themes such as time, mass and surface, and the relationship between representation and abstraction. 

The contours of the "human form," shaped and influenced by everyday objects such as clothing and furniture, by the symbolic meanings of language, and by social ideologies, are fragile and mutable, containing within them the potential for constant transformation and freedom.

Wurm's major works 'Fat House' and 'Fat Car' have been permanently installed in Art Square, adjacent to Towada Art Center, which opened in 2010. The bloated house and car were inspired by the changes in the size of humans as the result of weight loss or gain and its similarity to the production process of sculpture in which the shape of the work alters with the addition of clay or plaster. According to Wurm, "we live our lives in a sculptural way every day." Our bodies constantly undergo change-- our weight increases as the result of eating and consumption, or [decreasing] by burning calories. Wurm also views the house, the car and furniture as an extension of the human body, adopting these as motifs in his work. These objects, perceived as real estate or assets, can also be considered as symbols of power, wealth and greed in a capitalist economy.

These works of art are distortions of these and can arguably be interpreted as ridiculing early consumerism typified by home or car ownership. Upon further investigation, it is apparent that there is also a connection between whether an interpretation of the form (body shape) of these works can be seen as interesting or amusing, and a challenging of perspectives such as "the norm" and "the ordinary" which have been etched in our minds. Through these works, Wurm questions through multiple lenses the notion of "what ought to be" that is accepted as the standard.

The work 'School' is based on an actual school in Austria. The shape is narrow and distorted form conveys a sense of claustrophobia.There are two rooms which can be assumed to be a classroom and the principal's room. From the desks, chairs and blackboards through to the clocks and lamps on display, all of these have been carefully distorted to achieve the same ratio as that of the building. Inside the room are displayed old teaching materials and propaganda posters. In contrast to the compact, bright and cute exterior of the school, the records on display inside will clearly be perceived as outdated and strange. According to Wurm, "knowledge ages," and in this work there is an overlapping of the physical sensation of confinement when entering the school building with the abstraction of the oppressive authority of the education system.

Through a wide range of approaches to the "human form"--the traditional and foundational subject of sculpture--Wurm has employed diverse materials and techniques to shape the surfaces of his works, skilfully etching into the viewer's perception one of sculpture's defining characteristics: its ability to create an illusion of mass.

The concepts often referred to by Wurm--mass and volume, skin and surface, weight and time, abstraction and representation--spill beyond the frameworks of genres such as three-dimensional sculpture and installation, expanding into a broader field of sculptural thought.

"I started to explore the notion of sculpture in relation to social issues. Can a sculpture transform social ideas ? Can a sculpture be embarrassing, for example? The idea was to treat sculpture as a tool and a medium for discussing our world from a different angle. I have been engaged in the expansion of the concept of sculpture for a long time." ──Erwin Wurm

Related Exhibiton

エルヴィン・ヴルム：人のかたち 会期：2025年4月12日（土） 〜11月16日（日） 時間：9:00 〜 17:00（最終入館 16:30） 会場：十和田市現代美術館（青森県十和田市西二番町10-9） 月曜日（祝日の場合はその翌日） ただし4月28日、5月6日、8月4日、8月12日は開館

---

Related Items

木村和平 『石と桃』	下道基行 『ははのふた』	飯川雄大 『デコレータークラブ』	木下佳通代 『没後30年 木下佳通代』	金井直 『像をうつす 複製技術時代の彫刻と写真』

小林史子 『Nest』	ダレン・アーモンド 『追考』	金氏徹平 『溶け出す都市、空白の森』	名和晃平 『シンセシス』 (Out of Stock)