百瀬文 Aya Momose ‘I.C.A.N.S.E.E.Y.O.U’ 2019年12月7日（土）–2020年1月18日（土）

Aya Momose, known for her work which deals with the topics of voice and body, re-opens ongoing ques­tions from within her prac­tice that con­cern the act of watch­ing mov­ing images, via mov­ing images them­selves. Her work ex­poses the mo­ment of in which sub­jec­tiv­i­ty can waver, and the reality of the un­cer­tainty of our re­la­tionships with others. In her solo ex­hi­bi­tion I.C.A.N.S.E.E.Y.O.U, her first in Tokyo in three years, the art­ist ex­am­ines the po­si­tioning of the sub­ject - and the con­cur­rent waves of emo­tion this pro­duces - through the logic of the gaze. The ex­hi­bi­tion brings to­geth­er three new works that em­ploy ges­tures, such as a move­ment of eyes, or sign lan­guage, to in­ves­ti­gate the im­bal­ance be­tween the one who is seeing and the one who is seen. In so doing she high­lights the stag­gering dis­crep­an­cies that occur in a re­la­tionship with another.

The ex­hi­bi­tion shows an e­pon­y­mous video work - I.C.A.N.S.E.E.Y.O.U - in which the art­ist trans­lates the mes­sage “I can see you” into Morse code, and trans­mits it through her blinks to­wards the cam­era. The au­di­ence is compelled to face the art­ist, who, how­ev­er in­ter­mittently, closes her eyes. The central work of the ex­hi­bi­tion is the two chan­nel video in­stal­la­tion Jokanaan, which shows a live-action image of a man danc­ing on one screen, while com­put­er graph­ics on the other are gen­er­ated by mo­tion capture of the dancer’s move­ment. Stag­ing the opera Salome, the work at­tempts to subvert the sub­ject’s re­volv­ing around the cross­ing of the gazes; the se­duc­tive­ly danc­ing body who desires to be looked at, and the other who looks at him. The other video work in the ex­hi­bi­tion captures a deaf woman re­calling a con­ver­sa­tion with her ex-partner. Her words in sign lan­guage are oc­ca­sion­al­ly in­ter­rupted by the ex-boyfriend’s emo­tional bod­i­ly ges­tures. The work im­poses the lone­li­ness emerging from the dis­tort­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tion upon us - the in­ex­pli­ca­ble but ab­so­lute dis­tance and dis­con­nec­tion from the other.

In this ex­hi­bi­tion, the art­ist ques­tions the social mech­a­nism and norms, that are largely constructed on visuals. Such a mech­a­nism co­in­cides with the struc­ture of dom­i­nance that the video in­ev­i­ta­bly con­tains. The new video works ex­hib­ited here ap­pear to be the art­ist’s re­sponse to seek an equal re­la­tionship with the sub­ject, or her at­tempt to stand on the same plane as those who are shot through the cam­era. Momose juxtaposes the power re­la­tions embedded in mov­ing images, and the in­tol­er­ance and vi­o­lence of so­ci­e­ty which lurk under the surface of every­day life. Dealing with her own female body and sub­jec­tiv­i­ty, the art­ist chal­lenges the politics of gaze anew and seeks to emancipate sexuality.