Thinking about Dimensions

2022/11/16

The Keio Museum Commons (KeMCo) is currently holding the exhibition "Enrico Isamu Oyama: Altered Dimension" (October 17 – December 16). Oyama, who developed his unique motif "Quick Turn Structure (QTS)" from an interest in the writing culture of leaving names on urban walls and subway cars, is challenging himself with new expressions and reflections on "another dimension."

Multiple three-dimensional works are lined up in the exhibition room. In contrast to the orderly pedestals, the installed works themselves each possess a different, complex structure. Sharp tips and curve-like shapes appear and disappear within them, but is this the QTS we know? Installed in an exhibition room with windows, they appear as matte gray or dull silver depending on the light from the time of day or weather, combining a metallic sense of weight with a somewhat light appearance. As you continue viewing, you can discover several rules. Formatted pedestals, aluminum pipes as supports, and a single screw—when you mentally unravel the assembly of the complex structure, it appears to be made from a single sheet.

The QTS form, born from the artist's hand as a single sketch, is captured as digital data and cut into multiple flat sheets using a laser cutter. These identical forms are then reshaped by the artist's hand into individual three-dimensional sculptures. There, the physical and visual movement inherent in the QTS as a motif is joined by the artist's new physical movement of sculpting while twisting dimensions. Meanwhile, as the QTS rises into three dimensions, it is simultaneously pulled back into two dimensions in the form of a "shadow" by the environmental element of light. This instead prompts us viewers to recall the space between dimensions, inviting us to reflect on the two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality swaying within continuous space and time, or on dimension itself.

The venue features several expressions related to "Altered Dimension," including works developed from existing series and works that resonate with the KeMCo space. Where will the QTS, having gained a new range of motion, go from here? We hope you will experience firsthand this development of form and a glimpse into the thinking of a contemporary artist.

(Shiho Hasegawa, Staff Member, Keio Museum Commons)