Presented and directed by ONLY CONNECT + Hitoko Urago / Soshi Matsunobe
February 23 - March 17, 2019
The polyphony created by differing artistic voices plays a vital role in the project ONLY CONNECT (OC) which brings together four directors; artist Yutaka Inagawa, artist duo Mouhitori (Tamaki Ono & Kiyohito Mikami) and Hitomi Kamemoto (Studio Niji). The quartet’s concerns as artists and curators are used to foster an interdisciplinary platform for contemporary experiments and idea sharing. For this project the directors also welcomed the artists Soshi Matsunobe and Hitoko Urago to work with them as part of the OC OSAKA artist-curator team.
In this installation a crop mark, commonly seen at the edge of a design in commercial printing, is employed to create a mapping grid. Using this grid the curators organise and ritualise the contributions of participating artists. The directors play the role of an unseen medium - transmitting the ontological subtext of the artworks.In total, 5000 artworks including unique "archival objects" created through past OC activities are installed across two stories at CCO (Creative Center Osaka). These artworks, captured within a cryptic taxonomy created by OC, are presented in an ambiguous state, as forensic evidence or disintegrated relics. Gathered onto floors and walls objects representative of the artists’ spirits create a layered galaxy containing patterns of multiple alignment.
OC OSAKA is the fourth exhibition to stem from the ONLY CONNECT collective following Dogs in a Room (2015 – Onomichi), dr/op (2016 – Onomichi) and dr/op: Beyond Boundaries (2017 – Singapore, guest curator: Boo Sze Yang).
