Blum & Poe and Mendes Wood DM Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Kishio Suga’s Soft Concrete
Blum & Poe Broadcasts, Summer 2020
Blum & Poe in collaboration with Mendes Wood DM presents a historical survey of Kishio Suga, marking fifty years since he created his groundbreaking work Soft Concrete at Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, in 1970. This online exhibition explores milestones in the artist's longstanding practice of creating site-based installations, alongside a presentation of his wall-based reliefs, works he has produced in tandem with his installations since 1969.
In a new video segment, Suga reflects on the experience of re-creating Soft Concrete in Los Angeles and Milan, the emergence of his perspective on the namelessness of "things" at the end of the 1960s, and his approach to making wall reliefs. Curator Mika Yoshitake has contributed a text which further examines the relationship between his installations and reliefs. This Broadcast also features the translation of his essay "Existence Beyond Condition" (1970) published just a few months before Soft Concrete was exhibited. This essay will be featured in a forthcoming anthology of newly translated writings by Suga, edited by Andrew Maerkle and published by Skira Editore and Blum & Poe.
Installation view of Soft Concrete (1970/2013), The Warehouse, Dallas, 2013.
The Rachofsky Collection.