web magazine PEELER reviews / April/May 2011 issue

　In many cases, events and matters that are considered common knowledge can look completely different when viewed from a slightly different angle. Manja Kato has been revealing such moments of change in the way we perceive the world through her works. The point at which he drops the matter is quite clear: “This is what this is all about, isn't it? This time, however, the point of departure is not so clear.

　Take, for example, the video work “Buds,” in which a young woman's face fills the entire screen. She puts a cherry in her mouth, munches on it for a while, and then pulls out a rounded fruit handle. Or “Tsuchinoko,” in which what appears to be a photograph is framed in a translucent molded-glass frame. (Before that, the aardvark is supposed to be a fictitious creature).

　What is this blur? As I thought about this, I realized that I was looking at the work of art while searching for the answer provided by Kato. Needless to say, there is no right way to feel when looking at a work of art. Even in studies where there is generally one correct answer, there are cases where this is not the case (for example, “1 + 1 = 2” is limited to the decimal system, while “1 + 1 = 10” in the binary system), and moreover, the world is full of things for which there is not one answer or for which there is no answer. Viewing artworks may be an exercise in accepting this fact and confronting society.

　According to Kato, the theme of this exhibition is something happening in the unseen. The vast amount of information that is broadcast daily by the mass media does not necessarily tell us the full extent of what is happening. However, many people assume that what they are told is all there is. Cherry pits tied in one's mouth or aardvarks that do not reveal their true nature. The sense of weirdness they evoke should make us realize that the core of the problem lies in the unseen parts of the various phenomena occurring in the world.

Yukiko Tanaka (freelance writer)

April 2011

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