”Neue Fruchtige Tanzmusik”

Yutaka Kikutake Gallery is pleased to present Neue Fruchtige Tanzmusik, Yuko Mohri’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, which will take place from November 2 to December 3. The exhibition’s title is German for “new dance music that smells like fruit.” This show focuses on Mohri’s recent series Decomposition, in which she inserts electrodes into fruit to measure their internal moisture levels and converts changes in resistance, caused by withering or rotting, into sound. Here she exhibits Neue Fruchtige Tanzmusik (photo), a group of photographs that capture the process of fruit’s biodegradation, and Neue Fruchtige Tanzmusik (vinyl), an audio recording in LP form that documents the sounds captured in the Decomposition series.

Thus far, Mohri has presented installations that combine ready-made items, found objects, and devices she constructs to generate phenomena that change depending on the exhibition environment and other conditions. Energy generated by electronic circuits is diffused and reflected through the compositions of the works, conveying to the viewer, through sight, sound, and sometimes touch and smell, fragments of unpredictable phenomena that occur in daily life and the latent complexities of the overarching structure of the world.

Decomposition, on view in this exhibition, continues this practice by translating minuscule changes occurring inside fruit into sound, conveying the life of fruit that continues to emerge and evolve even after its connection to the soil and tree trunk has been severed. As one of the most popular and frequently depicted motifs in Western art, ephemeral fruit has been given eternal life in paintings. Another noteworthy point is that the artist took Buddhist kusozu (lit. “nine-stage paintings”), which depict corpses in the gradual process of decay and disfigurement, as a point of reference when creating this work. While based on the format of live electronics, practiced since the 1960s by predecessors such as John Cage and David Tudor that Mohri deeply respects and admires, Decomposition also uses dying organic matter as a medium of expression, and as such could perhaps be described as a “living dead electronic installation.”

The work’s title is a word consisting of “composition” and the prefix “de-,” which connotes “negation of” or "departure from.” Decomposition can be seen as a natural, spontaneous compositional method, which while conveying the inherent complexity and fluidity of various things and phenomena in the world, also functions as a device to derive aesthetic elements from them. We invite you to view the latest work by Yuko Mohri, an artist who has taken a consistent interest in the “unstable,” and who continues to employ displacement and dissonance as she reveals various aspects of the constantly changing energy around us.

【Venue】Yutaka Kikutake Gallery （Piramide bldg. 2F, 6-6-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0032）

【Exhibition Period】Nov. 2nd – Dec. 3rd　12:00–19:00  * Closed on Sun., Mon. and National holidays

*The gallery will be open from 10:00 to 18:00 during Art Week Tokyo (November 2-5).

*The photographs in Neue Fruchtige Tanzmusik (photo) will be replaced with others twice while the exhibition is on view. Further information will be posted on the gallery’s website and official Instagram account.

Please contact the receptionist below

Email: info@ykggallery.com

Tel: 03-6447-0500

Saori Nishitsuka

Artist

Yuko Mohri was born in 1980 and currently lives and works in Tokyo. She completed her MA at the Department of Inter Media Art, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2006.

Mohri has presented installation works whereby ready-made articles, found objects, and self-made devices are combined to give rise to phenomena that is susceptible to change depending on various conditions such as the environment in which it is exhibited. The energy produced by the electronic circuits is transmitted here and there throughout the composition of the work, and taps into the visual, auditory, and at times tactile sensations of the viewer to convey unpredictable phenomena that occur within the everyday and shed light on the fragments of complexity that are latent in the much larger world structure.

Mohri’s has presented her work numerously both within Japan and overseas, with recent solo exhibitions including, Parade (a Drip, a Drop, the End of the Tale), Japan House São Paulo, 2021; SP. by yuko mohri, Ginza Sony Park, Tokyo, 2020; Voluta, Camden Arts Center, London, 2018; and Assume That There Is Friction and Resistance, Towada Art Center, Aomori, 2018; as well as participating in group exhibitions such as the 23rd Bienniale of Sydney (2022); the 34th Bienal de São Paulo (2021); Glasgow International 2021 (2021); The 9th Asia Pacific Trienniale of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2018); 14th Biennale de Lyon (2017); and Yokohama Triennale 2014 (2014).

Her works are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane); Centre Pompidou (Paris); and M+ (Hong Kong).

In 2015, Mohri received a grand from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) for a residency in the United States. In 2018, she undertook a residency in China having been appointed as an East Asian Cultural Exchange Envoy by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan. In 2022 she traveled to France as a Cité international des arts: Lauréats 2020 of Institut français. In 2015 she received the Grand Prix at the Nissan Art Award, followed by her receipt of the Culture and Future Prize at the 65th Kanagawa Culture Award. In 2017 Mohri was awarded The New Artist Award at the 67th Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts.