Urara Tsuchiya at ADA

Artist: Urara Tsuchiya

Exhibition title: Homebound

Venue: ADA, Rome, Italy

Date: May 23 – September 26, 2020

Photography: Roberto Apa / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and ADA, Rome

“I was originally invited to produce works for the project Homebound during a residency in Faenza. I came to Italy and stayed for January and February, before briefly returning to Glasgow. I then came back in March to install the exhibition in Rome, but by then the COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding and everything had to stop. So I stayed in Faenza during the country-wide lockdown and I’m still here some several months later. . .

During this time of quarantine I have made a number of objects in ceramic inspired by the household – mops, mop buckets, cleaning products, toothbrushes and used patterns from cheap underwear bought at the local market. To try and keep calm I looked for news items on the internet that weren’t about people dying in desperate situations. I had heard on the news that there was a toilet paper shortage panic in Japan, Germany and America.

The tree – one of the works – unfortunately exploded in the kiln, so I improvised and turned the hole into a cave where bears are hoarding their own toilet paper. My friend asked me if they were “stockpiling” them. I also added a face mask to a naked figure in one of the bowls – even though they are not observing social distancing rules.”

Urara Tsuchiya

Tsuchiya’s practice explores the disconcertion that can be found between the personal and social worlds. Tsuchiya’s work mainly includes ceramics, creating performances, videos, and live events. They often incorporates ceramics, soft sculptures, costumes, and home cooking. These function as props in an alternate environment that make space for different behavior. Tsuchiya work with the boundaries of, for example, animal/human and adult/baby to strange and humorous effect. Tsuchiya is interested in challenging the viewer to negotiate his or her own personal and physical boundaries. For instance, sometimes the audience is not invited to participate; instead they find themselves part of an orchestrated scene. Tsuchiya blurs and removes the neutralizing, distanced aspect of making her work obviously ‘art’.

Urara Tsuchiya (b. 1979 in Japan) lives and works in London/ Glasgow, UK.

Solo and Group shows include: 2020 – Homebound, ADA, Rome. 2019 – Warm Drizzle, Gallery Golsa, Oslo; Frieze Art Fair London, solo booth, Union Pacific. 2018 – Liste Art Fair, Basel, solo booth, Union Pacific; Girls Club, Glasgow International. 2017 – Urara Tsuchiya, Trade Gallery, Nottingham; Amazing girls/its complicated, Kevin Space, Vienna. 2016 – Room Service, Union Pacific, London; Neopagan Witch Bitch, Evenly Yard, London; 2015 – Connoisseurs world, Queen’s Park Railway Club, Glasgow.