Junya KATAOKA + Rie IWATAKE
Balancing Tree Branch (A Contraption)

Dates: Thursday, July 6 - Sunday, October 29, 2023
Venue: Yokohama Gate Tower Start Gallery 2+4

Concept: tree kindles fire, fire becomes earth, earth turns to gold, gold renews water, water nurtures tree
Thinking of the balance of power in which matter and the environment are inseparable yet affecting and circulating each other.

Junya KATAOKA + Rie IWATAKE
Both born in 1982, they currently reside in Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating from the School of Art & Design, University of Tsukuba, they have created and exhibited their works as they moved between Paris, Yokohama, Taiwan, and other locations.
Characterized by a distinct spatial configuration that combines kinetic works replicating tiny everyday events via simple phenomena and two-dimensional works of imaginary and analogous images drawn from photographs and illustrated books, the artists give birth to narratives through the encounters between materials and designs, using a method in which the subjects of individual works loosely resonate with each other. Major exhibitions include Setouchi Triennale 2022, MOT Annual 2020 (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), OSTRALE Biennale 2019, BankART Under35 2017, PyeongChang Biennale 2017, and The 22nd ifva Festival (Hong Kong Art Centre).