Unidentified Worlds

 August 14th – September 5th 2010 

 

Vernissage Friday, August 13^th, 5-7 pm

The exhibition will be opened by Eiji Shinkai, 

Head of Cultural Department, Japanese Embassy 

 

The exhibition by Yuji Watabe, called "Unidentified Worlds", consists of a series of drawings and a video installation "I want to see the Rainbow" which also originates in a drawing; a forest in which a rainbow slowly comes into view and disappears again. 

 

Watabe often works with the forest as motif or background exploring a world of poetic and mysterious topics. It can be seen as an allegorical space, marking the transition from the real world to imaginary worlds that he explores. In Asian culture forests are traditionally associated with myths and fables, where unexpected and unpleasant interactions occur and where it is possible to enter a world beyond physical reality. The forest can be seen as a timeless and symbolic place, Watabe sets a stage where dreams and irrational thoughts rule, a space that explores a transcendent reality.

 

The title "Unidentified Worlds" refers to the timeless aspect of the works and the fact that we are not dealing with exiting locations, but rather mindscapes that we identify in Watabe's motives. The drawings of landscapes shrouded by fog, snow covered bushes or lakes in forest surroundings are all done with a meticulous precision that is comparable with the sharpness of photography, but contains a different interpretation of time. It is like Watabe’s detailed drawing technique produces a veil of distance within the works, which stresses their ambiguity and connections to parallel worlds not to be decoded.

 

Yuji Watabe was born 1974 in Mie, Japan. He graduated from Nagoya University of Art and CCA Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, and has exhibited several places, including Hayward Gallery (UK), Fukuoka-Shi Museum (JP), Gallery Nii (JP) and most recently VOCA at the Ueno Royal Museum (JP).  The works of Yuji Watabe is represented in more private and corporate collections, for instance ICA Collection (Norway) and Teixera de Freitas Collection (Portugal). This is Watabe’s second exhibition at Helene Nyborg Contemporary.