Through a variety of media, Erika Kobayashi weaves together invisible subject matter, untold histories and personal memories, and emotions. Dorene Le Bas, who has Romani* roots, develops multidisciplinary works inspired by the rich history and mythology of the Romani people and centered on themes of life, death, loss, and rebirth. While perceiving the act of writing and drawing as excavation, Hiraku Suzuki continues to explore the potential of drawing as a way of revealing specific conduits in space and time. This group exhibition explores each of the three artists’ respective practices as they reveal and give shape to that which is indiscernible, hidden, and marginalized, while also discovering points of connection with the world.

Erika Kobayashi will be presenting her recent photographic works: In My Hand—The Fire of Prometheus, Seance—A Daughter and a Father, as well as her latest work, My Blood, in which the artist uses her own blood. Through meticulous research, Kobayashi has been collecting invisible subject matter and unspoken memories and emotions while developing various means of expression through a wide range of media. Her writing has also been highly praised, with her book Girls, Making Paper Balloon Bombs (Bungei Shunju, 2024) winning the 78th Mainichi Publishing Culture Award (Literature and Arts Category). In My Hand—The Fire of Prometheus is a piece that references nuclear history from the discovery of uranium and the development of the atomic bomb, all the way to nuclear power generation. In the subsequent Seance—A Daughter and a Father and My Blood series as well, Kobayashi uses her own hands to reference the limitless appetites of human beings.

Delaine Le Bas is also an artist who has developed a rich variety of expressive approaches centered on the culture and history of the Romani people, memories of the land, and previously undiscussed gender perspectives. Her practice utilizes a wide range of media, including handicraft techniques such as embroidery, fabric painting, and collage, as well as painting, sculpture, performance and costume making, and video work. This diversity of materials and techniques is often leveraged to transform Le Bas’s surroundings into enormous, immersive artistic spaces. This exhibition features an art object entitled Exquisite Corpse (2024), as well as hand-sewn doll-like pieces Spring (2000) and Winter (2003). Le Bas’s nomination for the 2024 Turner Prize, is just one more example of the upward trajectory of her artistic career.

Hiraku Suzuki has consistently pursued the expanded concept of drawing, combining a long-standing interest in archaeology since childhood along with a fundamental dynamic of maintaining contact with the outside world while drawing out internal subject matter. This artistic approach led Suzuki to create the concept of “interexcavation”. His lines are an attempt to correspond with the complexity of the world by visualizing internal signs and trajectories of movement, creating tubes or conduits that connect to something in time and space. This exhibition will feature drawings inspired by both the contrast between light and darkness, and resonant sound. Both of these elements are sourced from caves that have ancient murals, a constant source of reference for Suzuki’s work. In addition, exhibition attendees will encounter several small pieces in which Suzuki has painted over photographs of archaeological artifacts with silver as a way to make imaginary memories emerge.

While Suzuki recently described his drawings as “attempts to write long texts using fragments of signs generated from improvised gestures,” Le Bas sees her own life as a single, vast expression, while Kobayashi interweaves buried voices and memories based on thorough research. The practices of these three artists, linked by a common act of weaving narratives together, invite the viewer on a journey to decipher what has previously been invisible while also offering a fresh perspective on an increasingly complex world.