Artist: Miho Dohi
Venue: Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, Japan
Date: July 13 – August 12, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo
Hagiwara Projects is pleased to announce the opening of Miho Dohi’s solo exhibition from July 13 until August 12.
In her works, Dohi combines such diverse materials as wood, brass, copper, yarn, cloth and paper, to create “objects that do not accept any preexisting classifications, but have convincing reasons for being.” She usually starts off by cutting materials into shapes, and then joins different materials together, while occasionally adding colors to alter their textures. The results are objects with never-before-seen shapes, created while skillfully controlling the harmony and repulsion that emerges between materials and forms. The dynamic quality of these shapes, along with the odd and uncertain feeling of something that combines the delicacy of cloth with the rigidness of copperplate, continue to fascinate viewers with an overwhelming sense of presence and vitality.
The works Dohi presents this time were made with a stronger focus on “inner” aspects, and while the things contained within are only fragmentarily visible from the outside, their presence arouses in us a broad range of emotions.
Whenever I spot pieces of wood or metal that grab my interest, I try and put them together.
At one point, these objects become so heavy that they inevitably tumble over. They never tumble evenly, and just when it seems to become clear what is inside and what is outside, they turn completely upside down, and all of a sudden, an object appears quite naturally out of that chaos.
Once an object has completely collapsed, something that hadn’t existed in me becomes something that is there now.
Miho Dohi, 2018
Miho Dohi : Born in Nara-prefecture, Japan in 1974. Works and lives in Kanagawa -prefecture. Completed postgraduate studies at Tokyo Zokei University in 2002. Selected exhibitions include Lulu (2017, Mexico City), “natu no tobira – curated by Jeffrey Rosen, Shane Campbell Gallery (2017, USA), HAGIWARA PROJECTS (2016, Tokyo), “SOMETHINKS2016 Artist recommendation vol.3 Rad Major Package” Art Labo Hashimoto (2016, Kanagawa), “Group Show” HAGIWARA PROJECTS (2013, Tokyo), Gallery Tomos(2012, 2009, Tokyo), “funcy mirror” Gallery KINGYO (2008, Tokyo), Nakanojo Biennale (2007, Gunma), “Miho Dohi /Hiroko Ogura” zodiac (2004, Tokyo), “19 Artists” Kanagawa Kenmin Hall (2000, Kanagawa).
