CG / PB (we were in the kitchen, we refer to…)

Type: Catalog
Drawing: w//(100-1-1000)
Photography: System of Culture, Cage Gallery
Text: Chika Kato, Gottingham, w//(100-1-1000)
Graphic objects: Masayuki Makino
Published by w//(100-1-1000), 2025
Printed and bound in japan

Dimensions (Cover): W225mm×H297mm
Dimensions (Book/20 pages): W210mm×H297mm (A4)
Dimensions (Book/24 pages): W182mm×H257mm (B5)
Dimensions (Book/20 pages): W148mm×H210mm (A5)

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This catalog compiles two exhibitions held simultaneously in 2025, a collaboration between the architecture label W/ and the photography collective System of Culture. Both exhibitions explore the theme of reference in architecture and photography. The first, titled We Were in the Kitchen, comprises combinations of photographs and drawings, while the second, titled We Refer to…, features mosaic tile patterns embedded within wooden frames.

The catalog consists of three parts, bound together as three booklets of different sizes. The A4-sized booklet documents the ‘We Refer to…’ exhibition at Plateau Books, while the B5-sized booklet documents the ‘We Were in the Kitchen’ exhibition at Cage Gallery. The book design illustrates how these were independent exhibitions that were also complexly interrelated.

Specifically, the two exhibition records are bound in an alternating pattern. If we designate the A4 booklet as “A” and the B5 booklet as “B”, then this catalog contains pages labelled “A”, “B”, and “A or B”. These pages serve as a ‘window’ for images common to both exhibitions. The design allows readers to gain an intuitive ‘door’ to the works placed in the exhibition space and bring the idea of referential relationships — the exhibition’s theme — into the catalogue as a ‘house’.

The A5 booklet also features contributions by an architectural photography researcher and photographer — ‘Collaboration and Systems’ by Chika Kato and ‘Reference Subjects Are Reference Sources’ by Gottingham — along with the artist’s own explanatory text, ‘On Reference and Collaboration’, which serves as a viewing guide.

This catalog documents the architects’ and photographers’ exploration of a new collaborative system and serves as an attempt to re-examine the nature of two seemingly autonomous creative entities.