‘Melting Rock, Still Wind’, Yamanaka Suplex annex MINE 5F, Osaka, Japan, (2023)

Group exhibition with: Shuyi Cao’s, Andrea Galano Toro, Artist collective Alchemyverse, Kees van Leeuwen

Organizer: Yamanaka Suplex,
Co-Organizer: Nan Ei Art Project
Curated by Yindi Chen
Special thanks to Cave-Ayumi gallery

Melting Rock, Still Wind inquires into the interrelation of the changeable and the unchangeable: the seemingly static rock can be reshaped by external forces, and the lingering wind is able to cross multiple areas and eras. The meanings of the name of the exhibition space “MINE” means “peak” in Japanese, the top of a mountain, and “mine” in English means the excavation in the earth and acts as a nexus between things that are above and under the ground, visible and invisible.

Featuring photography, sculpture, sound pieces, and video installations, the exhibition brings artists from different countries to share their ongoing research on landscapes where human and natural forces intertwine with one another and become indiscernible.

Kees van Leeuwen's photographs document his extensive research on nuclear bunkers. As concrete structures that prevent vibrations, bunkers alter our perception of space—of which only silence and isolation remain. The residues of geopolitical conflicts reveal the impact of human disturbance on landscapes and remind us of the possible planetary catastrophe. The sculpture in a wooden box combines concrete blocks made by the artist and sand sourced from the sea, exploring how the humanmade and the natural, the internal and the external interact and reshape one another.

UNTITLED - REGIERUNGSBUNKER (2023)
Inkjet on paper
594 mm x481 mm

CEREMONY OF CONNECTIONS (2021)
Concrete, sand, wood box, ribbon
55 mm x 127 mm x 127 mm