Today, it has become possible for us to connect to the big wide world in a huge variety of ways. As the internet and the simple distribution of commodities have developed, many people and things can now easily cross national borders while information flows back and forth. Regardless of time or place both individuals and the world have changed and become interconnected.
Within this construct don’t you think that each of us has our own way by which we are constantly renewing the method we use for connecting with the world? It is on one hand global, yet on the other hand a rather personal thing. On this occasion we will connect with this world by seizing a ‘route.’ In the circumstances of having a number of different roots which tie the wide world and ourselves together, we will demonstrate the development of each of our ‘routes.’
In this exhibition, which is about the variety of modern day ‘routes,’ we will gaze through the work of three artists, Yuji Ichikawa, Saburo Ota, and Yoi Kawakubo. Their work will question the pathways by which we human beings connect to the world. In addition, in this exhibition we hope you will give more than a passing thought to being ‘on the route’ for you and how you connect with the world. Everyone in CPUE

Artists

• Yuji Ichikawa
  

  Yuji Ichikawa

  Born in Saitama prefecture in 1979. In 2005 he finished his studies in the Department of Japanese Visual Images in the Department of Painting in the Tama Art University Graduate School of Fine Arts.
  He is actively involved in making work using foil, transforming folding screens while taking advantage of Japanese painting techniques.
  He participated in the Goto Memorial Foundation overseas trainees programme where he stayed in Dusseldorf in Germany, and gained an interest in the motif of apples.
  It is possible to see in his work a motif that conveys a meaning beyond words. In 2012 he won the Goto Memorial Foundation Award: Young Artist Prize.
  http://genetic12.jimdo.com/

• Saburo Ota
  

  Saburo Ota

  Born in Yamagata prefecture in 1950. In 1971 he graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Tsuruoka National College of Technology. He produces work with a theme of the relationship between time and places using materials which are associated with movement and mail, for example plant seeds and stamps. This includes a large number of privately made stamp series from the Pacific War. Since 1980 he has been exhibiting his work at museums and galleries in Japan and abroad. In 2015 he participated in the ‘Constellations: Practices for Unseen Connections/Discoveries’ exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and in the ‘Shizuoka City Museum of Art Presents the Fifth Anniversary of Masterpieces from Ohara Museum of Art: A Journey into Masterpieces’ exhibition at the Shizuoka City Museum of Art. In 2013 he won the fourth ‘Tradition to Create Award.’
  http://seedproject.jp/

• Yoi Kawakubo
  

  Yoi Kawakubo

  In 1979 Yoi was born in Spain. In 2003 he graduated with a BA in Human Sciences
  from the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He creates work incorporating sound, installations with a medium and subject of metacognition and co-incidences, and 2D work that investigates the metaphysical nature of the act of taking photos and the universality of landscapes.
  Furthermore, since 2011 he has made work related to areas of North-East Japan affected by nuclear issues, and has been active in those same areas as well as giving talks in Japan and abroad.
  His main exhibitions in recent years have been ‘Those who go East’ (White Conduit Projects, London 2015), ‘VOCA2015’ (Royal Ueno Museum, Tokyo 2015, and winner of the Ohara Museum of Art award), and ‘Tokyo Story 2014’ (Tokyo Wondersite Shibuya 2014). For the VOCA2014 Ohara Museum of Art award he won the 10th Shiseido Art Egg prize.
  http://www.yoikawakubo.com