Artist of the Day Series: Manya KATO Exhibition Catalog
Do not be fooled by Manya KATO
The first time I saw his work at a solo exhibition, an ostentatious three-dimensional work sat in the center of the room. As I approached it, I saw a switch. When I gently touched it, expecting what would happen if I pressed it, the word “OFF” lit up on the switch and nothing happened. And nothing happened, because it was OFF. However, for a moment, I could not understand what was happening, as I had always expected something to happen. However, it was my own assumption that something would happen if I pressed the button. I realize this and laugh.
We are always thinking about what is right, what is valuable, what will happen next, and what we should do, by mobilizing our various experiences, knowledge, and information. Since such thinking is done unconsciously, it is often dismissed with a single word, “That's common sense. However, Manya Kato's works whisper to us that this may not be common sense, but merely an assumption.
The character of his works seems to be deeply related to his experience of studying abroad in England from 1997 to 1999. Dart #2,” created while he was in the U.K., depicts only the top edge of a dartboard with 20 points. People unfamiliar with the rules of darts tend to think that aiming at the center of the target is sufficient, but in fact, focusing the arrow on this 20-point area may result in a higher score. Kato said that at first he wondered why his friends only aimed at the top of the target, but once they learned the rules, it was nothing but common sense to them. Then, he thought, “If I only have the 20-point part, that's all I need. What is interesting is that this dartboard, which is of sufficient and maximum significance to those who know the rules, is of no use to those who believe that the center of the target is the most important.
Differences in common sense do not occur only because of national differences. Rather, the biased common sense that lurks in everyday life is more numerous and less easily noticed. Kato uses familiar objects as materials to shift, remove, and falsify the common sense and information on which we base our thinking. Or, he laughs at and subverts the values espoused by blind common sense.
The moving model train in “Double Negative” appears to stop because the ground on which it is measured rotates in reverse, and the “Unidentified Falling Object” is described in the newspapers as an “invader from outer space. The “Unidentified Falling Object,” described in the newspapers as an “invader from outer space,” is in fact just a puppet. The train, which is supposed to be moving but does not move forward, and the doll lying there, contrary to the excessive newspaper reports, look as unreliable and uncomfortable as I, who presses the OFF button and puzzles, or you, who tilts your head in front of the artwork.
Still, I wonder if the train is really moving, taking into account the earth's rotation. If what is on display is a “full-scale replica,” could it be that Kato has really picked up an “invader from outer space”? The more one believes there is only one truth, and the more one tries to seek it, the more the maze continues forever. That is the trap set by Manya Kato.
Therefore, do not be deceived by Manya Kato. Nor should you be outraged at the nonsense. Nor should you seek the one and only truth in it. It only proves the inconvenience of not being able to step outside of the common sense. No common sense is right, and no value is absolute. Just know that common sense is only a promise to lubricate the functioning of one world.
Nariko Oguchi (Curator, Osaka Contemporary Art Center)
February 2002