IKEDA Ryôji
(Japan 1947– )
- Title
- Light crossing border
- Place of origin
-
Japan
- Period
- Heisei period 1989 - → Japan
- Year
- 1991
- Media category
- Materials used
- etching and aquatint
- Edition
- A.P
- Dimensions
-
57.0 x 85.0cm image; 75.0 x 107.0cm sheet
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.r., pencil "R. Ikeda '91".
- Credit
- Gift of the artist 1993
- Accession number
- 423.1993
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Ikeda was born and raised in remote Cape Ochi-ishi on the eastern coast of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. Although subsequently educated at Musashino Art University and now resident in Tokyo, he constantly returns to the bleak images of his childhood environment.
In particular he returns to the memory of the now deserted, derelict building that had once been a radio outpost. The shack was isolated in a barren and inhospitable landscape where plants battled to adapt, fed only by rusty water that seeped from swampy ground veiled in dense fogs from the sea.
For Ikeda the dilapidated radio building epitomises history, recalling the advances in communication together with early aviators such as Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) who is remembered for the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic, from New York to Paris in 1927. History has the seeds of our transformation of nature, and it is this dialogue between history and nature during his own lifetime that Ikeda seeks to express poetically.
Jackie Menzies, Contemporary Japanese Prints: The Urban Bonsai, 1992, pg. 33.
- Bibliography (1)
-
Jackie Menzies (Australia) (Author), Contemporary Japanese Prints : The Urban Bonsai, Sydney, 1992, 33, 42 (colour illus.). cat.no. 18
- Exhibition history (11)
-
The Urban Bonsai, Queensland Art Gallery, 04 Mar 1992–04 May 1992.
The Urban Bonsai, National Art Gallery, Wellington, 20 Jun 1992–09 Aug 1992.
The Urban Bonsai, Christchurch Art Gallery, 12 Sep 1992–29 Oct 1992.
The Urban Bonsai, Manawatu Art Gallery, 13 Nov 1992–10 Jan 1993.
The Urban Bonsai, The George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, 18 Mar 1993–25 Apr 1993.
The Urban Bonsai, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 08 May 1993–01 Aug 1993.
The Urban Bonsai, Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, 11 Mar 1994–24 Apr 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, 19 May 1994–19 Jun 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, Campbelltown Arts Centre, 15 Jul 1994–21 Aug 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, Moree Plains Gallery, 11 Nov 1994–24 Dec 1994.
The Urban Bonsai, Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, 01 Feb 1995–05 Mar 1995.
