w/ 022 PB

type: object / image
function: exhibition
location: hakusan, tokyo
collaborator: system of culture, plateau books, masayuki makino(book), chika kato, gottingham(text), sherpa woodworks(frame-making)
date: 2025.8.23 ~ 9.27

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This collaboration began when w//(100-1-1000) approached System of Culture. We were interested in their thoughts on the images they had created. Our discussions were always based on the theme of ‘reference’, which is also the subject of Sugisaki’s research.

Architecture is always in reference to something. It is constructed in relation to a variety of things, from the relationship between building elements, such as columns and roofs, to the relationship with external factors, such as the surrounding environment and past architectural works. In this way, architects design buildings while exploring form, colour and scale. Photography is also an object of reference, being an inherent element of the subject matter and composition. The collaboration itself cannot avoid referencing the image of the photograph (and the photographer), and we would like to explore this theme.

Over time, the subjects of reference began to encroach upon each other’s territories. In other words, the architect (or architecture) began to reference the photographer (or photography) itself, and vice versa. This circle of cross-references gradually expanded into broader fields.

The following is the proposal for this exhibition.

While architects deal with architecture and photographers with photography as works of art, we examined the incidental elements common to both disciplines. This led us to consider elements such as picture frames and images created by decorations like tiles, and ultimately redesign the production process to destabilise their incidental nature.

The resulting objects each possess structures reminiscent of architectural elements. The frame-like parts feature two or more faces, blurring hierarchical relationships. The mosaic tile images embedded within the objects decorate one face as patterns, while on the other face they function as text (captions) that describe the objects from a first-person perspective.

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