Yutaka Kikutake Gallery is pleased to present “Representation,” an exhibition of new works by Nerhol from June 9^th to July 5^th, 2018.

Nerhol, an artist duo comprised of Yoshihisa Tanaka and Ryuta Iida, have produced works based on subjects including people, a roadside tree, animals, and water, as well as image data and recorded footage found on the internet as their source material. They have continued to develop their unique oeuvre through a distinct method of carving into stacks of 100 to over 200 different photographs they have taken of a certain motif, the result of which are images that appear to distort even the very time axis of the subjects themselves. Such works have consistently engaged in an attempt to unveil the multilayered manner of existence harbored within organic entities, which often tend to be overlooked within the context of our day-to-day lives.

This exhibition features works that mark the duo’s first attempt of appropriating mirrored surfaces as their subject matter. Such works however, do not engage in depicting specific motifs. The carved layers of mirrored surfaces act as a medium that give rise to irregularly reflected images, reflecting the viewer standing before the works and the surrounding environment in various ways. In other words, works that have ceased to present specific images, serve to paradoxically create a variety of images. The distorted mirrored surfaces become devices that carry within them the conflicting notions of production and disappearance, and through them encourage us viewers to question the nature of the image.