“ To give a name is always like any birth (certificate), to sublimate a singularity and to inform against it, to hand it over to the police” Jacques Derrida
Mixed media installation & performance / HD video, animation, sound, wood, plants, earth, plastic, ink on paper drawings, text
Hagiso Gallery, Tokyo, 2015 | Curator: Pinpin Co
Dominique Baron-Bonarjee and Ryo Shimizu’s joint exhibition considers the act of naming in creating the parameters of each person’s understanding of the world and its systems of language, identity, gender, nationality.
The artists developed ideas independently, and in different locations, their work converges in this exhibition. Both take an approach that mixes facts and fictions, leaving a zone of ‘undecidability’ where a series of encounters, meetings and misunderstandings take place in a game of ‘Is this me or is this you?’
The exhibition is installation-based containing various aspects of the development of two films made by each artist. It also comprises drawings, writings and objects both found and created which were part of their individual practice and the work that evolved from a two week collaborative studio process.
Ryo’s film is based on a workshop he organised in Taiwan, where he playfully engages with the different nuances of meaning of the kanji (Chinese ideograms). Participants had to guess the identity of the person, based on the kanji of Ryo’s name and in this way, they developed an imaginary female identity as well as their own narratives for who this person might be. This fictitious person, coincidentally, had many points in common with Dominique, who then appropriated parts of the transcript to create another character.
With the support of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Institut Français, Tokyo
Dominique Savitri Bonarjee 