Yuka Tsuruno Gallery is pleased to present a two-person exhibition by Tetsuro Kano and Nobuhiro Shimura, Ambient Reflexion, from November 27, 2021 to January 15, 2022. Both artists employ familiar objects and phenomena from daily life in their work; Kano creates installations and sculptures that envisage the existence of non-human beings and their respective perceptive worlds, while Shimura has presented video installations that evoke memories and histories. In this exhibition, the two artists explore new ways of articulating their creative vision through this direct coexistence, adopting the other’s work as a given environment.

　Tetsuro Kano proposes a variety of landscapes that exist beyond human intentions, and a diversity of worlds conjured by the distinct senses of perception exercised by creatures that live in the vicinity of humans by observing and internalizing the points of view of birds and plants. Building his practice partly on the philosophy of Jakob von Uexküll’s concept of umwelt (often translated as “self-centered world”), a biologist who advocates that “In all the hundred different Umwelten of its inmates, the oak tree as an object plays a highly varied role, at one time with some of its parts, at another time with others”, Kano’s work imagines that components of his work will be perceived by different organisms and presences, which both adds to its singularity and contributes to how these components aggregate into a synergetic environment. In recent years, he incorporates material and articles that have accumulated age, or have undergone maturation in nature, as well as materials that were discolored or deteriorated in the outdoors. Engaging with materials that have derailed from their conventional purpose, or for which the passage of time is not regarded as added value, appeals for a coexistence between various worldviews and ways of taking cognizance of the world which results from the accumulation and transformation induced by the power of nature.

　Nobuhiro Shimura has created many site-specific works that utilize light and film to evoke the histories and memories that a space holds, by projecting familiar objects and phenomena on various locations and materials. In recent years, he has pursued an interest in film and documentary filmmaking, as well as modern poetry, folklore, and mythology, as sources of inspiration. This has taken shape in the form of video installations that are not beholden to a locale and apply a literary approach to natural phenomena. In particular, his move to an old Japanese-style house in Katori, Chiba in 2019 propelled the deepening of his encounter with the nature that surrounds him, and developed his empathy for prior artists and poets who attempted to connect with nature in the same way. For his solo exhibition Interplay at KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre this past summer, he chose hazy moon, jellyfish, rain and the moonlight by the ocean as motifs to create abstract video installations that weave light and film, invoking various myths surrounding moons all over the world, as well as a worldview that wherein light and water circulate in conjunction with views on life and death.

　Ambient Reflexion, composed of their individual works as well as collaborations that conceive of each other’s work as a given environment, is at once a two person show and a space of reflection for the co-existential relationship that fostered between the two as they developed their artistic practice. While establishing each of their creative environments and practices as a premise, the exhibition seeks to formulate a renewed relationship that mutually recognizes the influences brought forth by the defining characteristics of each other’s work and also adopts the intrusions and modifications.
　
　
Artist Profile
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Tetsuro Kano
Born 1980, Miyagi. Kano holds a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Environmental Design/City Environmental at Tokyo Zokei University (2005), and a master’s degree in Fine Art from Tokyo Zokei University (2007). His recent solo exhibitions include Abstract maps, Concrete territories (Moerenuma Park, Sapporo, 2013). His recent group exhibitions include Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22 (Ishinomaki, 2021), ART MIYAGI 2019 (The Miyagi Museum of Art, 2019), A bird in the garden, a cat in the room (Japan Creative Centre, Embassy of Japan in Singapore, 2017), BETWEEN BOTANY AND ART (Aichi Prefecture Museum, Aichi, 2015), and In Search of Critical Imagination (Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, 2014).

Nobuhiro Shimura
Born 1982, Tokyo. Shimura completed his master’s degree in Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University, now lives and works in Chiba. He was a visiting researcher at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris for 2 years (2016-18) under the overseas study program for upcoming artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Recent solo exhibitions include Interplay (KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, 2021), Emerging Artist in Chiba vol. 1 Nobuhiro Shimura Afterglow (Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art, 2019), Mono no ke (Warrnambool Art Gallery, Australia, 2018), and group exhibitions include Garden of Life: Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020), 21st DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow (The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2019), The World Precedes the Eye (ICA Singapore, 2016), and Roppongi Crossing 2016: My Body, Your Voice (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2016).
　
　
Exhibition Outline
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Tetsuro Kano, Nobuhiro Shimura
Ambient Reflexion
Date: November 27, 2021 – January 15, 2022
Opening hours: Tue – Sat, 11am – 6pm
* Winter holiday: December 26, 2021 – January 10, 2022
* Closed on Sunday, Monday, and National holidays