Hiroyuki Hamada

None of the pieces in the show have come straight out so to speak. One way or the other, they each had some sort of interruption in my studio, which resulted in renewed momentum, drastic transformation, or added visual narrative. 

Making a piece always involves getting lost in its complexity—of all elements, dynamics and contexts—at some point. It seems that it is a natural part of the process to feel lost in order to come out with a cohesive whole while recognizing the layers of intricacy.  It’s a process of reconciliation, harmony and manifestation of the material reality.  The interlocking networks are coherent, with their logics seamlessly merging with the vast unknown in an open manner.

This is what I like about making art. We facilitate, witness and embrace how things can relate to each other on their own terms based on their existential conditions. It involves a sense of humbleness and humility in recognizing our smallness in the universe and a sense of unity and confidence in being part of a larger flow of life.

In the process, things are not discarded to create artificial demand. Things are not ignored due to unprofitability. Things don’t succumb to threats of exclusion. Things aren’t forced into a hierarchy governed by money and violence. So the making process demonstrates the potential of elements in time and space in some exciting ways. Artists dive into the mystery of life and live through a dynamic that gives us more than the sum of its parts. The process defies the imperatives of the current social formation to forsake and forget facts, history, and the inherent nature of things, as everything—including ourselves—becomes an object to be consumed and discarded. The path to perpetuate the pyramid scheme of wealth and power will always be countered by artists’ angles that relate matters in life-affirming ways. —Hiroyuki Hamada