Koki Tanaka

KOKI TANAKA RESEARCH IN RESPONSE TO OBJECT + object/edit OUTCOME

"I was looking at everyday objects and playing with them to see how I could view and use them differently: this was the way I could escape the seriousness involved with the perspective of art history... I am curious about our behaviour, actions and reactions in everyday life. Previously my interest hinged on objects; more recently it hinges on people."

"When I faced postdisaster society in Japan I found out that this was just one aspect of thinking about the everyday. The meaning of ‘everyday’ had changed. In part this was because the Fukushima nuclear crisis meant that the postdisaster (originally an earthquake and tsunami) crisis has lasted a long time. It cannot be solved quickly. So unusual situations become ‘everyday’ in Japan. And I noticed that such a flipped ‘everyday’ could be everywhere – like in parts of the Middle East, where the threat of war might be a usual ‘everyday’ situation, while to us it is a remote or unusual one."

It interests me how some of the actions continue offscreen, yet as we can still hear the recoginsable sounds which allows the mind to assume what is going on. I also like the extent to which he is able to disassociate the objects from their typical uses, in many cases giving seemingly mundane items more personality and personification than their simple intentions.