Rintaro Fuse "Ground and Sex"
session：2024.5.31 fri - 7.6 sat 13:00 - 19:00
＊closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
venue：SNOW Contemporary
opening reception : 2024.5.31fri 17:00 - 19:00
SNOW Contemporary is pleased to present “Ground and Sex,” a solo exhibition by Rintaro Fuse from May 31 (Friday) to July 6 (Saturday), 2024.
Fuse Rintaro, born in 1994, creates paintings and video works that manifest the transformation of consciousness and sense of discomfort that are not visualized but are real, such as the perception and customs of people living in the rapidly diffusing media environment since the launch of the iPhone, the distance between society and people, and the state of communication.
Fuse is one of the most remarkable artists of his generation, who not only creates artworks but also writes critiques and poems, organizes exhibitions, and produces websites.
In 2020, he held an online exhibition, “ITCCC - Isolation Type Close Contact Chamber” (a web page that can only be accessed by one person at a time), “Dead Corpse” at PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, and in 2023, “The Manifest of Isolators” at SNOW Contemporary. In the same year, he released his first book of poetry, “Tears Catalog,” which is a compilation of his previous works and includes many new pieces based on the theme of “tears,” and his book “How to Write a Love Letter,” which thoroughly explored “being two people” as an artist living in the present. He also participated in the group exhibition “Does the Future Sleep Here? ” (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo) with a new installation this year.
In this exhibition, “Ground and Sex,” Fuse attempts to confront themes full of contrasts and contradictions. In the past, Fuse presented many works on how people interact and communicate with each other, and this time he will deal with a wide range of themes, from humans, living creatures, and mythology to contemporary society, in a multilayered manner. For this exhibition, Fuse has chosen the Kaiho (an artificial fortress with gun emplacements) as the subject of his thinking and is exercising his thoughts and imagination on the events, sacrifices, and products that have occurred over the years. Through the video works, two-dimensional works, and objects to be exhibited, Fuse attempts to face the inherited myths and events of the past while attempting to inscribe a sense unique to the present age into history for the future.
We cordially invite all to this exhibition, “Ground and Sex,” which features Fuse’s new attempts.
Preface to the Exhibition / Rintaro Fuse
A solo exhibition at SNOW Contemporary has always been an opportunity to extract the essence of the work to be done and to show only the most important aspects first. This time, three works on “sex and the earth” will be exhibited. The exhibition will include a video work in the form of a video call, and a two-dimensional work using a mirror as a support.
This exhibition relates research and thinking about the virtual earth to “sex” in Japanese. The overlapping interest in earth and sex is, on the one hand, a desire to validate festivals,expositions, industrial production, art warehouses, and condominium towers on reclaimed land.
On the other hand, there is a difference between the two underlying generations of existence.
I chose a sea fort (kaiho) as a subject for this thought. A sea fort is a marine fortification equipped with gun batteries. The subject of this project is the “Dai-san Kaiho” (No. 3 Sea Fort), which was built more than 100 years ago off the coast of Kannonzaki in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The foundation of the Third Sea Wall was repeatedly undermined by high waves, leading to significant delays from the original completion schedule. Although it was completed 30 years later than initially planned, it was sunk in the sea by the Great Kanto Earthquake that occurred shortly thereafter.
The No. 3 Sea Fort ruins were adjacent to the Uraga Channel shipping route. While shipping interests wanted it removed as a cause of maritime accidents due to its connection with marine traffic, fishermen demanded its continued existence as an excellent fishing ground instead of a fish reef. However, of the 15 major maritime accidents that occurred during the 26 years from 1974 to 2000, 11 were related to the remains of the No. 3 Sea Fort, and from 2000, seven years of work was carried out to remove the upper part of the reef.
The relationship between the batteries and storehouses of this sea redoubt is structurally similar to that of a mammal’s genitalia. Today, however, the No. 3 Sea Fort ruins have lost their original form and have been dismantled into four parts (searchlight, observation station, battery gunnery, and barracks), displayed in two locations along the coast of Yokosuka.
We can piece together multiple stories from these ruins. The sea wall became a reason for human death rather than a fortress due to repeated strandings. A sea fort that has been dismantled and turned into an exhibit. The underwater ecosystem of a sea fort that used to be a home for fish… In this way, I could write a critique of Japan’s geopolitics from the earthquake and war or perhaps a dissertation on the ecology of fish and shellfish in underwater ruins. What I would like to attempt, however, is to elucidate how “sex and the earth” are evoked for humans.
This is why this exhibition is being produced.
session：2024.5.31 fri - 7.6 sat 13:00 - 19:00
＊closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
venue：SNOW Contemporary
opening reception : 2024.5.31fri 17:00 - 19:00
SNOW Contemporary is pleased to present “Ground and Sex,” a solo exhibition by Rintaro Fuse from May 31 (Friday) to July 6 (Saturday), 2024.
Fuse Rintaro, born in 1994, creates paintings and video works that manifest the transformation of consciousness and sense of discomfort that are not visualized but are real, such as the perception and customs of people living in the rapidly diffusing media environment since the launch of the iPhone, the distance between society and people, and the state of communication.
Fuse is one of the most remarkable artists of his generation, who not only creates artworks but also writes critiques and poems, organizes exhibitions, and produces websites.
In 2020, he held an online exhibition, “ITCCC - Isolation Type Close Contact Chamber” (a web page that can only be accessed by one person at a time), “Dead Corpse” at PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, and in 2023, “The Manifest of Isolators” at SNOW Contemporary. In the same year, he released his first book of poetry, “Tears Catalog,” which is a compilation of his previous works and includes many new pieces based on the theme of “tears,” and his book “How to Write a Love Letter,” which thoroughly explored “being two people” as an artist living in the present. He also participated in the group exhibition “Does the Future Sleep Here? ” (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo) with a new installation this year.
In this exhibition, “Ground and Sex,” Fuse attempts to confront themes full of contrasts and contradictions. In the past, Fuse presented many works on how people interact and communicate with each other, and this time he will deal with a wide range of themes, from humans, living creatures, and mythology to contemporary society, in a multilayered manner. For this exhibition, Fuse has chosen the Kaiho (an artificial fortress with gun emplacements) as the subject of his thinking and is exercising his thoughts and imagination on the events, sacrifices, and products that have occurred over the years. Through the video works, two-dimensional works, and objects to be exhibited, Fuse attempts to face the inherited myths and events of the past while attempting to inscribe a sense unique to the present age into history for the future.
We cordially invite all to this exhibition, “Ground and Sex,” which features Fuse’s new attempts.
Preface to the Exhibition / Rintaro Fuse
A solo exhibition at SNOW Contemporary has always been an opportunity to extract the essence of the work to be done and to show only the most important aspects first. This time, three works on “sex and the earth” will be exhibited. The exhibition will include a video work in the form of a video call, and a two-dimensional work using a mirror as a support.
This exhibition relates research and thinking about the virtual earth to “sex” in Japanese. The overlapping interest in earth and sex is, on the one hand, a desire to validate festivals,expositions, industrial production, art warehouses, and condominium towers on reclaimed land.
On the other hand, there is a difference between the two underlying generations of existence.
I chose a sea fort (kaiho) as a subject for this thought. A sea fort is a marine fortification equipped with gun batteries. The subject of this project is the “Dai-san Kaiho” (No. 3 Sea Fort), which was built more than 100 years ago off the coast of Kannonzaki in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The foundation of the Third Sea Wall was repeatedly undermined by high waves, leading to significant delays from the original completion schedule. Although it was completed 30 years later than initially planned, it was sunk in the sea by the Great Kanto Earthquake that occurred shortly thereafter.
The No. 3 Sea Fort ruins were adjacent to the Uraga Channel shipping route. While shipping interests wanted it removed as a cause of maritime accidents due to its connection with marine traffic, fishermen demanded its continued existence as an excellent fishing ground instead of a fish reef. However, of the 15 major maritime accidents that occurred during the 26 years from 1974 to 2000, 11 were related to the remains of the No. 3 Sea Fort, and from 2000, seven years of work was carried out to remove the upper part of the reef.
The relationship between the batteries and storehouses of this sea redoubt is structurally similar to that of a mammal’s genitalia. Today, however, the No. 3 Sea Fort ruins have lost their original form and have been dismantled into four parts (searchlight, observation station, battery gunnery, and barracks), displayed in two locations along the coast of Yokosuka.
We can piece together multiple stories from these ruins. The sea wall became a reason for human death rather than a fortress due to repeated strandings. A sea fort that has been dismantled and turned into an exhibit. The underwater ecosystem of a sea fort that used to be a home for fish… In this way, I could write a critique of Japan’s geopolitics from the earthquake and war or perhaps a dissertation on the ecology of fish and shellfish in underwater ruins. What I would like to attempt, however, is to elucidate how “sex and the earth” are evoked for humans.
This is why this exhibition is being produced.
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