“Mirrored” at DYH
by Hiro Kurata and Koichi Sato

Exhibition “Mirrored” by Hiro Kurata and Koichi Sato Curated by DYH statement

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Subject matter is decided once memory (the past) is visited. For a painter, to paint the past means to document something that already happened. This fundamental concept has remained unchanged since the days humans drew on cave walls. 

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Kurata’s works often feature people, and those people are either his family members and baseball players. They’re featured in such ways that the composition is reminiscent of baseball cards or some random photos of his own daily life. In addition to the positive emotions of friends, family, passion, holiday, and travel—negative emotions like oblivion, loss, and disappearance tend to pop up in his works, creating a consistent sense of nostalgia depicted in the scenes of his works. Nostalgia is an emotion that is born of past experiences. Kurata himself is very perceptive to emotions and is able to move to action without logic or thought getting in the way. His works reflect this sensibility like a mirror. His works exist as sentimental and nostalgic objects. To view his works is to be reminded of how an artist’s work mirrors the artist themselves, in that it exists as an extension of their daily life. Therefore Kurata makes it clear that he only chooses a subject matter that is really close to his daily life and of interest.  To let the past be pictured in the mirror is essential to his works and (although the final destination may not be known), it is a sign showing the path. 

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In any case, is it better to do something rather than do nothing? Since there is no such thing as universal truth in life, what exactly are artists trying to leave behind?

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The design and composition of Sato’s works are made up mostly out of group portraits, whether it be family or others. In viewing his works, one can see themes of distortion, strangeness, and askewness all present themselves. We think we know these things but we really don’t. For example when we usually take group photos, we gather in one place at a time of the photographer’s discretion and follow directions (at times faking smiles). Maybe, in looking at how unnatural the smiles are or how forcefully (or quite naturally) the group was formed, we are forced to look at the negative emotions that lie within each of us—to face the unnaturalness and otherness of ourselves. No matter how much we’d like to run away from it, the “negative image of oneself” is always there and if anything we are reminded starkly of how it is actually a part of us. Creating these compositions through colorful and pop colors, Sato’s works allow us to avert our eyes from this fact for a moment. This approach was employed by Mike Kelly, Paul McCarthy, Robert Gober in the 90s as a response to the Appropriationism Movement. Perhaps it is related to a kind of pop-ness that just seems to draw a laugh out of you. The abnormal keepsake photos that Sato depicts all have a past to them. In reality, there is no way to take a keepsake photo of the future, and all keepsake photos are inherently of the past.

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The common thread between these two artists is that they are both outsiders (foreigners) that have been living and working in New York City for a few decades. A major factor in both their approach is the fact of in-betweenness—to only exist in the midpoint of somewhere and elsewhere. It is a very amorphous existence. What if for artists like us, the only way to live optimistically is to live in that in-between? Born in Japan in the early 1980s, these artists grew up under the ceaseless bombardment of Western culture and capitalism. Because of the language barrier, rather than understand meaning both artists consumed the visual language of this exotic Western culture and became living pastiches themselves. Fundamentally, meaning and history don’t matter. First and foremost is to enjoy oneself. If “visual” and “concept” are still main axles of the contemporary art world today in the year 2021, will having only the visual aspect make things to be in-between? If that’s the case, why not embrace the in-betweenness? Both artists are currently immigrants living and surviving as minorities in America and they have no choice other than to be in-between. As a matter of fact the colorful diversity of cultures they hail from is what identifies them as unique. To say even more, since major Western cities are cities of immigrants, many artists are already from cultures of “color”. To reiterate, artists are visual artists, so the visual must come first. All of their works’ titles can remain “Untitled”.

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“To be held hostage by the past” has a very negative ring to it. The past is an archive of each person, and therefore it is important to spend the time to look at it carefully. Tomorrow doesn’t always have to be better than today. Both Kurata’s and Sato’s works makes you feel that they study their own past (as a mirror). They do it not for somebody else but for themselves, first. This is their process. To look into the mirror deeper. And that is a good thing.

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February 2021 
Shohei Takasaki