Artist: Yuki Okumura
Exhibition title: Measuring Roman Ondák
Venue: Misako & Rosen, Tokio, Japan
Date: February 8 – March 8, 2015
Photography: Courtesy of the artist and Misako & Rosen
Roman Ondák plays a vital role in the creation of Measuring Roman Ondák(2015), by Japanese artist Yuki Okumura (b. 1978). During the exhibition, should he choose to accept an invitation to present himself, an attendant will mark Roman Ondák’s height, first name, and date of the measurement on the gallery wall. Beginning as an empty white space, from and for a certain time, the gallery may be marked with the trace of one specific person.
The inclusion of Roman Ondák in the process of Yuki Okumura’s art making, a surrogate sort of practice, has a long tradition in the history of performance-based art. By inviting another to actively participate in the creation of his/her art, the artist attempts to overcome traditional divisions between artist and other, production and reception.
Measuring Roman Ondák turns Roman Ondák’s original piece,Measuring the Universe, a work in which the domestic custom of recording children’s heights on door frames is turned into a public event, referring through its title to humankind’s age-old desire to gauge the scale of the world, into a consideration on the nature of author / viewership. The process creates a work of art with a single potential participant, merging art with everyday life in a confluence that is at the very center of Okumura’s artistic practice.