Nillumbik Shire's Birrarung

Rei Naito
Born 1961, Hiroshima, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Selected solo exhibitions include Giving Back/ Reconnaissance, Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum, Kyoto, 2005; What Kind of Place was the Earth?, Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo, 2003; One Place on the Earth, D'Amelio Terras, New York, 2002; Recent Drawings and New Installation, Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo, 2001; une place sur la Terre, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 1996.

Selected group exhibitions include Stacked, D'Amelio Terras, New York, 2005; Warm! Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2003; MOT Annual 1999-Modest Radicalism, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1998. In this unique project Naito will be housed in the historic Birrarung house designed by Gordon Ford, deep in untouched Eltham bush land. Responding to this new environment, Naito will create a site-specific work that continues her fascination with, and use of, natural elements and space. Audiences are invited to view the works in situ at the completion of her residency.

City Square

Atelier Bow-Wow
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto born 1965, Kanagawa, Japan. Momoyo Kaijima born 1969, Tokyo, Japan. Both live and work Tokyo.
Selected projects include Juicy House, 2005; Ako House, 2005; Izu House, 2004; Black Dog House, 2004; Gae House, 2003; House Asama, 2001.

Selected exhibitions include Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan, 2005; Atelier Bow-Wow, Kirin Plaza, Osaka, 2004; Zones of Urgency, Venice Biennale,Venice, Italy, 2003; Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, China, 2002; How Latitudes Become Forms, Walker Art Center, Mineapolis, USA, 2002.

Atelier Bow-wow is an architectural studio formed in 1992 by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima that champions site and use-specific design. Tsukamoto and Kaijima create what they call ‘da-me’ (‘no-good’) architecture that consists of multi-layered structures with a variety of uses. Their practice epitomizes a new creative, adaptive aesthetic that has been identified as being an architectural style specific to Tokyo.

Their work in Melbourne primarily focuses on conducting public lectures and workshops within a thirty metre long greenhouse situated in City Square. The transparency of the structure is symbolic of their desire to open up their practice and methodologies to Melbourne audiences.

Taira Nishizawa
Born 1964, Toyko, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Selected current projects include Kawasaki House, Kanagawa, Japan, 2005; Itabashi House, Tokyo, 2006; Sunpu Church, Suzuoka, Japan, 2006. Selected past projects include Tomochi Forestry Hall, Kumamoto, 2004; Akishima House, Tokyo, 2004; Chofu Housing B, Tokyo, 2003; Chofu Housing A, Tokyo, 2003; Tsurumi House, Kanagawa, 2000; Endeneu Shop, Tokyo, 1999; Suwa House, Nagano, 1999; Ota House, Tokyo, 1998.

Nishizawa established Taira Nishizawa Architects & Associates in 1993, having previously worked at Keiichi Irie Architects since 1987. He has since completed a number of building projects, many of which epitomize his concern with the connections between architecture and the surrounding landscape. Nishizawa also lectures at three Universities in Japan – the University of Tsukuba, the Tokyo University of Science and Tokai University. His work at Melbourne’s City Square will focus on workshops, public presentations, and collaboration with architecture students.

Centre for Contemporary Photography

Hirofumi Katayama
Born 1980, Hiroshima, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Solo exhibitions include Vectorscapes, art & river bank, Tokyo, 2003 and 2002.

Selected group exhibitions include Site Graphics, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki, Japan, 2005; Site Seeing, art & river bank, Tokyo, 2005.

Katayama’s images seem at first glance to be photographs, but are in fact meticulously rendered drawings. He painstakingly recreates workplaces and other spaces using vector drawing programs. While also emptying them of human presence, Katayama introduces a sense of incongruity to these seemingly ordinary interiors.

Asako Narahashi
Born 1959, Tokyo, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Selected solo exhibitions include half awake and half asleep in the water 04/05, Zeit-Foto Salon, Tokyo, 2005; Funiculi Funicula, Photographers Gallery, Tokyo, 2003; Recent works, 03Fotos, Tokyo, 2001.

Selected group exhibitions include Yokohama Sunshine, BankART1929, Yokohama, 2004; Imagine: Narahashi Asako and Kaihatsu Yoshiaki, Parthenon Tama, Tokyo, 2003; Kiss In the Dark, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, 2002.

Narahashi’s use of focus and colour in her photography lends a feeling of otherworldliness, a sense of scale that positions the viewer in a world of models or toys. The sea in her series half awake and half asleep in the water tends to fill the frame and, like other motifs she employs that are often askew and blurry framing a skyline in sharp relief, acts like a moment in a half-forgotten dream.

Kazuna Taguchi
Born 1979, Tokyo, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Selected solo exhibitions include A Photograph Within, Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo, 2006; Galerija Zlatno Oko, Novi Sad, Serbia & Montenegro, 2005; Stars, Gallery Kaku, Tokyo, 2005; Still Life, Gendai Heights Gallery Den, Tokyo, 2004.

Selected group exhibitions include my cup of tea – Private Luxury, Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo, 2005; April, Gallery Kaku, Tokyo, 2004; Complex, Gallery Maki, Tokyo, 2003.

Kazuna Taguchi practice endeavours to question our ideas about realism on two-dimensional surfaces. Her acrylic paintings are completed only after the finished work has been photographed. This concept of the painting not being a completed artwork but merely a photographic subject – a phantom of the ‘real paintings’ captured in photographic images – challenges viewers to define what realism might in fact be within painting or photography.

Tomoko Konoike
Born 1960, Akita, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Selected solo exhibitions include Emergency Landing in Mimio, NADiff, Tokyo, 2005; Outside Over There, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2002; Thousands of Rough Sketches, Breathing, AXIS Gallery, Tokyo, 2001; Awakening from the Cold Glitter, Mizuma Art Gallery,
Tokyo, 2000.

Selected group exhibitions include Videoformes, Clermont Ferrand, France, 2006; Sketch in Motion, Sketch, London, UK, 2005; Psionic Distortion, Plum Blossoms Gallery, New York, 2005; MOT Annual 2005: Life Actually, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, 2005; The World is a Stage, Stories Behind Pictures, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2005; Officina Asia, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy, 2004.

Konoike’s role-playing map of Melbourne allows visitors to mark their own places of interest, creating a personalised social map of the city. Her larger installation reveals her evocative drawing style and cinematic framing and incorporates sculpture and anime. The work continues her recurring fascination with the adventures and pitfalls of a girl wandering amongst wolves.

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces

Tadasu Takamine
Born 1968, Kagoshima, Japan. Lives and works Tokyo.
Selected solo exhibitions include Review, Takahashi Collection, Tokyo, 2005; A Lover from Korea,NPO Tanba Manganese Memorial, Kyoto, 2003; Do what you want if you want as you want,Kodama Gallery, Osaka, 2001; Fuyu-no-Umi, Contemporary Art Institute, Sapporo, 2000.

Selected group exhibitions include Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2005; Visions of the Body, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea, 2005; Past in Reverse, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA, 2004; Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea, 2004.

Takamine will attempt to use a journey through the Australian landscape as an exploration of cultural exchange and as a catalyst for producing the works for Rapt!. His project involves driving from his residency at 24HRArt in Darwin directly to the exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, arriving just in time to install his work during the opening event. Takamine will create a number of video, photographic and ceramic works along the way accompanied by 24HRArt Director Steve Eland and Melbourne based critic Ashley Crawford.

Yuken Teruya
Born 1973, Okinawa. Lives and works New York.
Selected exhibitions include Kunstverein Weisbaden, Germany, 2005; Greater New York, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 2005; Fuchu Biennale, Fuchu, Japan, 2004; Internal Excess: Selections Fall 2003, The Drawing Center, New York, 2003.

Teruya’s work at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces displays a side of his practice that focuses on fame and celebrity. His portraits rework constellations of stellar bodies to form the profiles of wellknown celebrities.

Kings ARI

Naohiro Ukawa
Born 1968, Kagawa, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto and Tokyo.
Selected solo exhibitions include KAWA NAOHIRO’S!!! SEED WARS!!!, Transplant Gallery, New York, 2004; No Breath,Yasu Gallery, Tokyo, 2003.

Selected group exhibitions include DISCO UNIVERCITY, Kirin Plaza Osaka, Osaka, 2004; KITTY EX., Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2004; Tokyo Style, Stockholm, Sweden 2004; JAM,Barbican Gallery, London, Tokyo City Opera Gallery, Tokyo, 2002.

At Kings ARI Ukawa will explore the slippages between public and private space by constructing a toilet panopticon. The audience is invited to position themselves in a customised cubicle, complete with psychotropic video and sound for deep brain massage. One-way mirrors and secret cameras connected to the internet explore voyeurism, private lives and the perils of flushing.

Monash University Museum of Art

Nobuya Hoki
Born 1966, Kyoto, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto.
Selected individual exhibitions include Nobuya Hoki, Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo 2005; Nobuya Hoki, I-20 Gallery, New York, 2004; Slip knot, NADiff, Tokyo 2004.

Selected group exhibitions include; Secret Forest of Princess Knight, M.Y. Art Prospects, New York 2004; Roppongi Crossing: New Visions in Contemporary Japanese Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo 2004; New generation Japanese painters, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2003.

Combining Japanese manga characters with references to traditional style Japanese painting, Hoki’s linear paintings contain a rich diversity of imagery and motifs, including landscape, animals and portraiture. The different figurative elements of Hoki’s images slowly take form as they emerge from the wandering lines of his flat, continuous landscapes, marks made with a unique (and secret) pen/brush of his own invention.

Tomoaki Ishihara
Born 1959, Osaka, Japan. Lives and works Osaka.
Selected solo exhibitions include The Imaginary Number, Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya 2004; Tomoaki Ishihara, MEM Galleries, Osaka, 2003; Tomoaki Ishihara, Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka, 2003.

Selected group exhibitions include New Perspectives from a Separate Centre, Kyoto Art Centre 2003; Chaos: The Five Senses, Osaka Central Public Hall, Osaka, 2004; Counter-Photography: Japan’s Artists Today, Moscow Arts Centre, Russia, 2000.

In Ishihara’s recent works, in which he uses a scanning electron microscope, there is a clear differentiation between one's self and one's vision. What we see is unmistakably Ishihara's own image, but the subject, that has been reduced to a micro-organism imperceptible to the naked eye, is converted into a universal state of being defying the distinction between subjective and objective. Tomoaki calls into question art’s reliance on the visual, what he call the ‘blind spot of art’.

Yuki Kimura
Born 1971, Kyoto, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto.
Selected solo exhibitions include Untitled Puzzle, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, 2005; Something She Doesn’t Know,Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, 2003; New Garden, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, 2003; deep-take, Highway Gallery, Santa Monica, USA, 2002.

Selected group exhibitions include Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2005; Roppongi Crossing: New Visions in Contemporary Japanese Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2004; The 34th Artist Today: Approaching Reality, Yokohama Civic Gallery, Yokohama, 1999; Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, 1999; The Video-Bar, Oulu, Finland, 2000.

Kimura primarily works with video, photography and photographic installations, through which she investigates the transformative meanings of images. In juxtaposing new and found photographic images, Kimura explores the abstract qualities of colour and form, while allowing new narratives to emerge.

RMIT Project Space

Jin Kurashige
Born 1975, Kanagawa, Japan. Lives and works Paris.
Selected solo exhibitions include Old Holborn, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2005; Old Holborn, Galerie Tripode, Nantes, France, 2003.

Selected group exhibitions include Adelaide Festival, Paul Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide, 2006; T1 The Pantagruel Syndrome, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Torino, Italy, 2005; Mizuma Art Gallery the 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2005; Forum de l'Image (MJA), Les Abattoirs -Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France, 2004; Retour d'Athenes, Ateliers d'Artistes de la ville de Marseille, Marseille, France, 2003.

Kurashige works primarily with video, remapping time to experience many moments at the same time, creating works that map loneliness and isolation.

Yutaka Sone
Born 1965, Shizuoka, Japan. Lives and works Los Angeles.
Selected solo exhibitions include Amusement Romana, David Zwirner, New York, USA, 2004; Vertical Travel, Bowie VanValen, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2004; Amusement Romana, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, 2004, Jungle Island, MOCA - Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA, 2003.

Selected group exhibitions include Whitney Biennial, New York, USA, 2004; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2003; Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia, 2002; Bidibidobidiboo, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, 2005; Chikaku - Time and Memory in Japan, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria, 2005.

Sone will present a rendition of his Los Angeles studio, to allow audiences inside his working life. Incorporating drawing works surrounding a central fountain, this is a rare glimpse into this fascinating and unpredictable artist’s practice.

Seventh Gallery

Lieko Shiga
Born 1980, Aichi, Japan. Lives and works Berlin.
Selected solo exhibitions include Lilly, graf media gm, Osaka, 2005; Jacques saw me tomorrow morning, graf media gm, Osaka, 2002; Jacques saw me tomorrow morninguplink gallery, Tokyo, 2002; Floating Occurrence, graf media gm, Osaka, 2001.

Selected group exhibitions include Art Court Frontier 2005, Art Court Gallery, Osaka, 2005; Jacques, Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media, Yamaguchi, 2004; Graduate Show, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK 2003.

Shiga’s photographic practice employs re-photography to add complexity and otherworldliness to her imagery. Often working with communities, her Australian work will involve making personal contact with five hundred people in Brisbane while on her residency at the IMA. Her overview of various local communities through written surveys, interaction and observation will inform and shape her works for Rapt!.

Spacement Gallery

Kyota Takahashi
Born 1970, Kyoto, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto.
Selected solo exhibitions include Vanishing, Shin-bi, Kyoto, 2006; Light Cylinder Project, Tamada Project Space, Tokyo, 2004; Kyota Takahashi, Gallery La Vitrine, Paris, France, 2002.

Selected public projection projects include Nishiumeda Art Project, JR Train Station, Osaka, 2006; Hi-Energy Field, Kirin Plaza, Osaka 2004; A LIFE of EXPO, Expo Memorial Park, Osaka 2004; United Nations University Light Up, Tokyo Designers Block, Tokyo, 2003; Nijo Castle 400 Anniversary Light Up, Nijo Castle, Kyoto, 2003.

Takahashi will present a swirling projection covering the floor of Spacement Gallery. His spectacular abstractions and patterns overwhelm with their scale, but are hypnotic and often celebratory. Takahashi will also develop a large public work while in Melbourne for presentation on October 13 and 14. Check the website for details on the location in October.

West Space

Zon Ito
Born 1971, Osaka, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto.
Selected solo exhibitions include Key of Your Fountain,Kodama Gallery, Osaka, 2005; Veins, Konrad Fischer Gallery, Dusseldorf, 2004; The End of the Neighborhood, WATARI-UM, Tokyo, 2003; Alchemist MeetingKyoto Art Center, Kyoto, 2002; paeL, Kohji Ogura Gallery, Nagoya, 2002.

Selected exhibitions with Ryoko Aoki include dis & appearance, FRI-ART Center of Modern Art, Fribourg, Switzerland, 2005; Evening Traveling, Spoltore, Italy, 2005; I still believe in miracles, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 2005; AniMate, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, 2005; FUSION: Architecture + Design in Japan, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, 2004; Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2002.

Ito’s practice incorporates embroidery and drawing to form his images. Dismissing traditional drawing as too fast, Ito likes to work slowly and methodically. So with a literal push and pull, he sketches his stutter-step outlines one stroke at a time. At West Space, he will also present a collaborative animation with Ryoko Aoki.

Ryoko Aoki
Born 1971, Hyogo, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto.
Selected solo exhibitions include Super Flyer, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo, 2005; HAMMER PROJECTS Ryoko Aoki, Armand Hammer Museum of Art - UCLA, Los Angeles, USA, 2005; Sliding Circle, Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2004; gluesights, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, 2002.

Selected exhibitions with Zon Ito include dis & appearance, FRI-ART Center of modern Art, Fribourg, Switzerland, 2005; Evening Traveling, Spoltore, Italy, 2005; I still believe in miracles, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 2005; AniMate, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, 2005; FUSION: Architecture + Design in Japan, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, 2004; Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2002.

Manifest in a variety of media, Aoki's works are fundamentally based in drawing. Using feathery pencil strokes, stippled felt pen marks, and sure-handed contour drawings, Aoki sketches a morphing world outside of everyday reality. Entire landscapes exist at the same scale as individual details, figures morph into objects, and disparate elements exist in perfect harmony.

Aoki has worked with Zon Ito since 2004. Their collaborative work at West Space maps a psychedelic journey of transformation. Described as a ‘visual funhouse’, their collaborative animations explore the subconscious and physical relationships between the mind, body and the universe that bind us together.

Shiro Takatani
Born 1963, Nara, Japan. Lives and works Kyoto.
Selected solo exhibitions include Frost Frames, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, 2005; Frost Frames, Capitale Europenne de la Culture, Lille, France, 2003; Media Message, Sendai Mediateque, Sendai, 2001; Festival Exit, Maison de Art de Creteil, France, 2000.

As a founding member of Dumb Type selected performances include S/N, Adelaide Festival, Adelaide, Australia, 1994; Memorandum, Melbourne Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 2003; Voyage, Melbourne Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 2006.

Takatani will present two installations at West Space, incorporating video, sound, fibre optics, and light. Both are acclaimed existing works, though he will be updating Camera Lucida, an intimate piece using fibre optics to explore the micro building blocks of nature, while on residencies in Perth and Melbourne.