Yoshiki Hase Solo Exhibition
“COLOSSUS”
▼OPENING RECEPTION
July 15th (Saturday), 2023 18:00-19:00
■Venue
KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY
4-7-6 Shirakawa, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0021 JAPAN
*car parking available in front of the gallery
■Period
July 15th (Saturday), 2023 - August 26th (Saturday), 2023
Wednesdays through Fridays 13:00 - 18:00｜Saturdays 13:00 - 19:00
(closed on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and National Holidays)
*summer holidays: August 16 (Wed) - 19 (Sat)
from the series “COLOSSUS” | 2021 | archival pigment print | 720 × 980 mm | © Yoshiki Hase, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY
from the series “COLOSSUS” | 2021 | archival pigment print | 720 × 980 mm | © Yoshiki Hase, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY
Landscape of a Summer Grove with a Colossus
from the series COLOSSUS | 2021 | archival pigment print | 720 × 980 mm
© Yoshiki Hase, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY
KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY is pleased to present COLOSSUS, a solo exhibition by Yoshiki Hase starting July 15, 2023.
Yoshiki Hase started his career as a photographer in New York, and spent seven years of activities before returning back to Tokyo in 2006, and has been actively exhibiting his series of artworks. In the 181° series, Hase experimented a new horizon of harmony in the landscape where he added a three-dimensional composition built by himself. In DESSIN, his first solo exhibition at our gallery, the artist brought objects formed by a collection of lines into a natural landscape, and shaped the impulse he felt the moment he encountered the scenery.
In COLOSSUS, his first new work in four years, the artist temporarily creates a scene in which a giant statue appears in a landscape of impressive natural beauty, such as water, sky, and greenery, leading to a new viewing experience that is a mixture of discomfort and nostalgia. In Hase's photographic works, these giant statues are summoned into natural landscapes that transcend time and space, as if to evoke a sense of awe that lies dormant in our subconscious.
Why are we fascinated by the creation and viewing of sculptures? Can there be a clear boundary between the natural and the artificial? We cordially invite all to Yoshiki Hase’s new work COLOSSUS, which seem to include a number of fundamental questions as such.
 “Revelation Block”from the series “COLOSSUS” | 2023 | archival pigment print | 560 × 400 mm | © Yoshiki Hase, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY |  “Twilight Landscape with a Colossus”from the series “COLOSSUS” | 2021 | archival pigment print | 990 × 1350 mm | © Yoshiki Hase, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY |
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 “North Wind Landscape with a Colossus”from the series “COLOSSUS” | 2021 | archival pigment print | 720 × 980 mm | © Yoshiki Hase, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY |
Artist Statement
Although I use photography to express myself, I have always been drawn to sculpture and painting more than photography. In sculpture, I feel that looking at the human figure in particular has brought me peace and an astounding inspiration. In this series, which I began to conceive in 2020, I brought my tools into nature to temporarily create my own “landscape with a statue.”
Statues are not natural objects, nor do they perfectly shape the human figure, but they seem to bring “life” to their surroundings and to the landscape, even if they are incomplete, lacking a head or a body part.
Humans try to control nature as if it were their own, but at the same time, it is humans who find something divine in that same nature and seek a spiritual belonging to it. Human actions are full of contradictions.
By photographing this fictional landscape, I feel as if I am trying to peek a little into a time when humans were able to maintain their serenity and dignity, and at the same time, were not so arrogant as life.
Yoshiki Hase
Artist Profile
Yoshiki Hase was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He was based in New York from 1999 until 2006 and currently resides in Tokyo.
His major solo exhibitions include “ENA” (2020, Gallery Main, Kyoto, Japan), “1st Composition” (2020, FASS Art Gallery, Istanbul), “181° – New Dimensions of Nature Landscapes” (2019, River City Bangkok Gallery, Bangkok), “DESSIN” (2019, KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY, Tokyo), “Refuse to Make Them Happen” (2018, G Gallery, Taipei), “ENA” (2018, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo), “almost nature” (2017, COURTYARD HIROO GALLERY, Tokyo), and “181°” (2014, PROJECT Gallery, Tokyo). Group exhibitions and photo festivals include “Lishui International Photography Exhibition 2019” (Lishui, China), “Dali International Photography Exhibition 2019” (Dali, China), “T3 Photo Festival Tokyo” (2017), “United Photo Industries” (2017, New York), Singapore International Photography Festival (2016), “Photo Saint-Germain” (2016, Galerie Zlotowski, Paris), and many others. Hase will participate in “Daegu Photography Biennale 2023” (Daegu, South Korea) in September - November, 2023 as a guest artist.
The major awards Hase has received include “The Best Single Photography Award” at “Dali International Photography Exhibition 2019” (Dali, China, with the series 181°), “LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards” (2018, with the series ENA), and “Tokyo International Photography Competition” (2016, with the series First Composition).
