Kishio Suga

Kishio Suga solo exhibition on view at Tomio Koyama Gallery and Spiral Garden, Tokyo

Taking place from June 11 to July 9, 2022, Suga's solo exhibition Not Being Present, Not Being Absent at Tomio Koyama Gallery will showcase new large-scale wall-mounted assemblages as well as a site-specific installation. This will be followed by a presentation at Spiral Garden in Aoyama (June 29 – July 11) which will focus on other recent large-scale assemblages. 

Suga has written the following statement in correspondence to the exhibition:

“Not Being Present, Not Being Absent”
If some thing is there, it comes into view regardless of whether one is particularly aware of it or not. Any consideration for using what one has caught sight of for some purpose or another would indeed necessitate further investigation. Should one determine that it could be of use, one may take it in hand and observe or gaze upon it from various directions and angles. That is, to confirm whether or not it could be used for the purpose one envisions. As long as it is a substantial entity, the existence and reality of the “thing” itself comes to the fore of one’s thoughts and contemplations. Under such circumstances, one leaves the thing close at hand for the time being until one discerns a possibility for its use. One waits until it rests naturally within one’s consciousness. One may forget the existence of the thing while waiting, or the reality that one requires may perhaps become lost over time. Such is the nature of things. That is why one must always assume a “state of absence,” and for this reason it is necessary to determine the peripherals by which the thing is supported. However, no matter the circumstances, one must not fixate on the thing itself. Things are always within a passage of time that is different from human perception. Things do not correspond to people, but correspond to realms of presence and absence.
Kishio Suga

More information here.