Shinnosuke Tojo’s solo exhibitions across recent years often centered around “food” or “the storage spaces for food,” such as “pies,” “corn chowder,” or “fridge.” This exhibition is themed “meal boxes,” and like “The Refrigerator was □ ” solo exhibition held at the PARCEL gallery in Tokyo at the beginning of this year, the exhibition concept features “metal square food containers” that are commonly seen in everyday modern life. Shinnosuke Tojo often uses metal as his artistic expression, while the “square” is the shape he has been particularly interested in in the past few years.
Metal has a long history of being featured in paintings. Mosaic murals using gold leaf pressed between two pieces of glass can be seen in Basilica di Santa Pudenziana, built in the 4th century, while in the 15th century, during the later years of the Muromachi period, large pieces of gold leaf were pasted onto Washi as the background in the shouhekiga (interior wall painting) created by painters of the Kanō School. The glossy surface of the gold leaf allows light to be reflected and produces varying sheens from different light sources and viewing angles. Therefore, the reflection of gold leaf not only creates a contrast with the brightly colored mineral colors but also enhances the faint light sources that resemble candlelight, achieving the effect of adjusting overall lighting and shaping the atmosphere.
In addition, when the candlelight flickers or when the viewer moves around, it is often possible to see that one moment, the metal gold leaf captures the brilliance and becomes bright but is quickly overshadowed by the mineral colors and becomes dark in the next instant. The artwork's composition seems to be divided into two disconnected worlds: the transcendent realm and the secular. The viewer's gaze becomes like a soul, shifting between these two realms. This quality is why precious metals, such as gold and silver, have long been used in religious art. Compared to Christian art and Buddhist art, which prefer non-oxidized gold leaf, Japanese art extensively uses gold leaf and explores the unique material language of silver leaf. The characteristic of the silver leaf gradually oxidizing and turning black over time allows certain works to embody the distinctive temporal consciousness of Japanese culture.
Compared to gold, silver, copper, and iron, which appeared in Greek mythology early on and have been hierarchically classified, aluminum is a relatively young metal in human history and entered large-scale industrial production after being discovered in the 19th century. Aluminum is abundant in the Earth's crust and has characteristics such as high malleability, low density, and corrosion resistance, making it widely used in modern industry. Unlike the warm-toned luster of gold and silver, aluminum exhibits a cooler blue-toned, greyish sheen. Together with concrete, glass, and fluorescent lights, it shapes the fundamental materiality of modern living spaces. In addition, aluminum foil, with its antibacterial and preservative properties, is extensively used for food packaging in the food industry and household kitchens. It is even used to make take-out containers in the food service industry. While gold and silver leaf often appear in ancient religious art, aluminum foil may be considered a more modern and secular metal foil. This may provide insights into the implicit connection between the exhibition title and the materiality of Shinnosuke Tojo's artworks.
The exhibited series of works, which includes over ten pieces, are all in the exact dimensions; all are mixed-media works created in width and length proportions that resemble squares. The aluminum foil is laid flat and mounted on the wooden board, leaving behind parallel vertical creases on the surface of the foil. Shinnosuke Tojo used a hand-held suspended pneumatic engraver, leaving behind short horizontal arcs perpendicular to the vertical creases on the surface of the aluminum foil adhered to the wooden panel. Pigment is applied in parallel vertical bands following the direction of the creases. Some works incorporate additional techniques such as transfer printing, spray painting, and signing, creating markings reminiscent of construction references, scorch marks from metal welding, or graffiti-like written lines.
Although the works in this series are not large in their dimensions, the aluminum surface with vertical traces still instantly reminds viewers of waved metal plates during construction periods of urban buildings, or the old and damaged carriages of underground subways in major international cities, as well as the graffiti on them. The vertical creases and short horizontal curves created by a handheld pneumatic engraver layer into a matte effect that resembles sandblasting, reminding viewers of the scales of Scombridae. Within the square frame, alternating silver-bright scraped marks and translucent milky paint streaks create a visual effect reminiscent of vertically arranged sardines with silvery bellies and blue backs within rectangular metal cans. This establishes a metaphorical connection with subway train carriages and alludes to the exhibition's theme, which revolves around food containers.
Why are the paintings in the series all created in near-square aspect ratios? Ever since the invention of the Cartesian coordinate system, the cube of Rationalism has replaced the sphere of the Renaissance as the spatial prototype in human consciousness. However, in terms of the history of architecture, the earliest traces of the developmental trajectory from sphere houses to cube houses can be seen in the Neolithic Age. Sphere houses and cube houses each reference the need for public and personal space. In sphere spaces, public incidents and objects can be at the center, and since every person on the circumference is at the same distance to the center, whatever is placed in the center, either fire or food, can be shared. However, although sphere houses make it easy to share, it is less convenient for storage. The corners of cube spaces can be used to hoard or store food but are more difficult for sharing and lead to vertical and horizontal lines that separate people according to class and hierarchy.
Sphere houses center around objects, which are surrounded by humans and allow objects to be shared by the public. Cube houses center around people, who are surrounded by objects, allowing objects to be owned by personal individuals. Shinnosuke Tojo asks in his exhibition statement: “What shape does this world take?” In the modern world, the inner mind and the outer views that modern people see are all in cube shapes and the Cartesian coordinate system, while at the center of the coordinate system is the “self,” while the “others” of the modern world are understood as “another self.” Therefore, when the “two selves” meet is when the “two coordinates encounter;” or, to use the exhibition title of “LUNCHBOXx2,” it is when two lunchboxes meet. In coordinates centered around the “self,” things that are excluded will return to the “self” in the form of “traces” when it encounters “another self.”
Amid the two “selves,” these traces compose a complex “two-body problem” and ignite the lost, forgotten visual memories of people living in modern urban spaces. As the sleek, uniform images that almost seem like computer-generated architectural renderings continue to update the urban environment, there is rapid growth and accumulation of neglected, old, deteriorating, and disposable objects. They remain unnoticed by the blind gaze fixated on the radiant future. The modern perspective, dazzled by the direct gaze at the future, has become blinding. While relentlessly pursuing perfection and accelerating forward, anything that falters or falls behind is swiftly excluded from the focal point of vision and relegated to the periphery. However, these discarded remnants not only persist but also eagerly await, and the minute we relax our vigilance, they stand ready to slip back into our consciousness.
Article by Yuchang Shen
