Which one is in the box?

Artists: Earless Mouse/Mouth (Mimi no nai Mausu)
Chika Matsuda, Kazuaki Ishii, Issey Ishikura, Miwo Amemiya


When I put my head in a box, an infinite space expands.
Our reality is often driven by visual and/or language. The exhibition let the visual and the language drive but to the different direction and reveals a different reality than our usual, expected one. 
The door to the other dimension is hidden within our ordinary language. 
Enjoy a short trip to an alternative reality through language play and logic.

----------

"Physicalized Sign -Art as Horror"

Once I took a pair of glasses and placed them on back of my hand to mimic a "face" then let it talk. I remembered that the child was horrified to see "it". "It" which given as a "sign" is no longer seen as a hand nor glasses, nor a face. It is something that tries to mimic face, unknown "likeness." "Sign" sometimes reveals its uncanny quality in the process of replacing a physical reality. We gain an affirmative "this is such and such" when we, intersubjectively, agree on what "it" is. On the other hand, we can only point out "it" with a negativity by saying "What it is not" when "sign" becomes physicalized. When "sign" swaps its position with the physical reality, it appears to be a horrific reality. "Horror=difference" is a ghost of the refferent which is rejected by the signified. 
This snail "like" thing, which Sadako-like mechanism is added and combined with robotics, in this exhibition is a visible "sign". This bizarre image is stating that the work is one kind of a horror.

Review by Yousuke Hattori

----------

This is the exhibition of a group called "Earless Mouse/Mouth (mimi no nai mausu)" of four members (plus one) with different backgrounds and professions (see each profile below). The group was formed at 3331α Art Hack Day 2015 which was held in August 2015 and won the Masato Namaura Prize. This is the first solo exhibition of the group.


"Earless Mouse/Mouth (mimi no nai mausu)"

Chika Matsuda

Born in 1983. Matsuda received her B.A in 2006 from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand, and her MFA degree from the University of Arizona in the United States in 2010. She has been in several artist in residencies, such as Border Art Residency (New Mexico, U.S.A), Prairie Center of the Arts (Illinois, U.S.A), Agora (Berlin), Homesession (Barcelona), and currently lives in Nagano, Japan. Matsuda works with sculpture, video and installation, and often uses found objects and materials. She has received 2008 International Sculpture Center Outstanding Students Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, 1st place in South West graduate student competition in 2009, and Akaike Manabu judge's award at the 8th Spiral Independent Creators Festival in 2007.

Kazuaki Ishii

Born in 1979, lives in Kanagawa prefecture. Ishii graduated from a department of litrature, who now works as a technical director, engineer, and programer, is in affiliation with Fork Co., Ltd. He mainly works in the area of advertisement. His creative work often employs technology which based on his concept design, planning, and engineering.

Issey Ishikura

After born in 1990, Issey graduated from Waseda University with a UI/UX Design as the degree of Bachelor, and graduated from University of Tokyo with Cognitive Science as the degree of Master. He has also started his artist career from 2013. He has studied digital art at Aalto University in Helsinki. Besides working in TBWA/HAKUHODO, he keeps his art creation activities. Issey loves coming up ideas from cross-point where art and technology fall in love.

Miwo Amemiya

Miwo Amemiya is a Director, Co-founder, and Secretary General of Make It Creative, Japan. She is a creative director, designer, facilitator and planner on project basis. As a founding team member of IMPACT Japan, Miwo was instrumental in founding Japan's leading lighthouse for entrepreneurship. Miwo is an active supporter of innovation, design and creativity. With a varied background in web design, event planning and accountancy, Miwo has been the lead organizer for TEDxTokyo, coordinating partners, various operation teams and speakers to deliver high impact events. Her reputation as a community organizer was reinforced by the rapid growth of the TEDx community, which now embraces tens of thousands of like-minded individuals seeking change.