Yuken Teruya You-I, You-I (2002)

HEAVY          All the way there, a dark, deep darkness,
POP              Vivid primary colors everywhere,
OKINAWA    Art of Darkness and Primary Colors from Here.
—Yuken Teruya

The consumable paper bag rises up as a "tree" in its original form in "Notice-Forest", BINGATA, which has been used since the Ryukyu Kingdom period, translates contemporary Okinawa and the world in "You-I,You-I" and "Monopoly" uses toy money to highlight the power of "symbolism" prevalent in our daily lives.

Yuken Teruya's first-ever large-scale solo exhibition in Okinawa introduces the artist's early works to the latest ones, closely examining the holistic view of his art.

Works by Teruya project the state of present Okinawa, a mixture of heavy and pop, while shaking up the "normality" in the daily lives we tend to pass by. The art of Yuken Teruya enables its viewers to experience overcoming the boundaries and divisions faced everywhere, bringing the future world imaginable to work together.

■Exhibition Catalog Now on Sale!

The official catalog of "Yuken Teruya Okinawa Heavy Pop"was published!
The catalog includes exhibition views, images of artworks, and images of past works that could not be introduced at the exhibition.
In addition to the words of the artist Yuken Teruya, the book also includes essays and dialogue by various authors.
 

144p + 16p saddle-stitched pages (with a separate 8p commentary on the artworks)
Price: 3,520 yen (tax included)
*Shipping, handling, and remittance charges are not included in this price. Please burden this on the purchaser.

【Contact】Email: yuimui@okichura.jp (Museum Shop Yuimui)

*Click to enlarge

　When you release balloons from our hands, the balloons fly freely into the sky. On the other hand, war relics, the witness of the Battle of Okinawa which claimed many lives 78 years ago, remain in the ground and are about to fade away in the flow of time. Even under the museum where we are standing, there may be fragments of artillery shells left behind, unnoticed. It seems as if these unseen traces of war have been sinking deeper and deeper into the ground as memories fade away.

　The balloons flying freely in the sky carry the heavy and very important “past,” which is being forgotten right now, to the “future” far far away.

Monopoly

　To imagine, interact, get to know each other and empathize will be the power to overcome the division of the world where you and I exist.

　Even when the U.S. military suddenly occupies the site where a U.S. helicopter crashed and forces Okinawans out of the site, pizza delivery staff still could cross the regulatory line to deliver pizza ordered by the U.S. soldiers. We can still find a way, sometimes an unexpected way, to cross the line.

　In all places, people have continued to resist the governance mechanism and power and attempt to turn the world upside down. We will never stop trying to turn things upside down, even if they go back to the way they were.

　The values that you and I take for granted can easily change as well. Even the luxury brand high-heeled shoes turn into a log for chrysalis to hatch into a butterfly. Money, which is used to measure and exchange the value of the things we buy every day, also transforms. In Teruya’s work, monopoly game money that can buy Park Avenue, is decomposed and transformed into other forms that have capital, religious, or historical values – for examples, churches and museums.

Notice-Forest Madison Ave (Tiffany & Co.) 2021

　Consumable paper bags we receive when we buy fast-foods or luxury brand accessories have a past that once existed as a tree in a forest. By cutting the sides of the paper bag into the shape of leaves and making a trunk shape, the paper bag once again becomes a tree in its original form, and a small forest world opens up there.

　Teruya says when he got the idea of Notice-Forest, he is inspired by Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. The acorn is now in the form of acorn, but it contains the true nature to be an oak tree inside. Eventually the acorn sprouts and grows into a large oak tree and the tree will eventually in turn produce acorns. Everything, even a single paper bag that is consumed and thrown away, contains the potential for the future within its present form.

You-I, You-I 2002 (detail）

　Bingata, a traditional dyeing technique of Okinawa, has been handed down to the present day since the days of the Ryukyu Kingdom, despite many hardships, including changes in systems due to modern Japanese governing and the burning of kimonos and tools during the Battle of Okinawa. In Teruya’s work, the patterns that appear in traditional Bingata are replaced by designs that represent today’s Okinawa - bombers, parachute troops, and dugongs living in Henoko - to express contemporary Okinawa and the world.

　In recent years, Teruya has been considering Bingata as a form of subjective expression nurtured in Okinawa, and through Bingata expression, he has broadened his themes to universal issues of power and expression, such as dominating/being dominated and the history of the people, with Okinawa as the main focus.

　In 1995, Teruya exhibited YAMAKUIMUSHI  (literally meaning mountain devourer). Teruya drew a mountainous landscape of lush trees using charcoal on 18 wooden pallets for distribution at ports and harbors to represent the mountains of Yambaru region. At the time, the destruction of Yambaru’s natural environment due to the construction of forest roads was an issue. In 2022, Teruya presented Chorus, a scaled-up version of YAMAKUIMUSHI, in which he assembled the mountains in three dimensions. Chorus was created as a new place of prayer (Baby Utaki), showing respect to those who have fought to protect nature.

　In many of his works, such as Constellation, which expresses the starry skies seen from around the world using paper bags, the Forest series in which toilet paper cores are transformed into branches and leaves, and La Mer, which uses paper puppets to represent the sea of Henoko, Teruya uses materials of natural origin that are mass-produced, distributed, and consumed, to connect the natural environment with people’s daily lives.