Tetsumi Kudo Japon, 1935-1990
Your portrait, 1963
Bois peint, métal et plastique
Painted wood, metal and plastic
Painted wood, metal and plastic
13,4 x 13,4 x 13,4 cm
5.12 x 5.12 x 5.12 in
5.12 x 5.12 x 5.12 in
TK035
©Tetsumi Kudo, Adagp, Paris, 2022.
This work remarkably illustrates the questioning of the place of chance and free will within the human condition and our imprisonments.
The image of the cocoon where man is enclosed with his hypertrophied brain and his body fragmented into tiny pieces is
part of the artist's mythology (Your portrait-chrysalis in the cocoon). “You can't live without a box. We are born in a box
(matrix), live in a box (apartment) and end up in a box (coffin) after death”, he continues. Carole Boulbes
L’image du cocon où l’homme est enfermé avec son cerveau hypertrophié et son corps fragmenté en petits morceaux fait partie de la mythologie de l’artiste (Votre portrait-chrysalide dans le cocon). «On ne peut se passer de “boîte” pour vivre. On naît dans une boîte (matrice), vit dans une boîte (appartement) et finit après la mort dans une boîte (un cercueil)», déclare-t-il encore. Carole Boulbes
Designed as die, the cubes - made between 1962-1968 and sometimes stacked - are filled with store bought goods and household refuse like alarm clocks and egg cartons connected to, and often fusing with, plastic dolls and papier mâché body parts. Usually titled with variations of the words, "Your Portrait," these are meant as provocative representations of the European state of being: Individuals retreat into cocoons to take comfort in mass produced stuff and mediated entertainment. Within these shells, they undergo a process of metamorphosis becoming one with technology. The idea of individual agency at the core of Western Philosophy becomes false; people are subject to random forces beyond their control symbolized by Kudo's motif of dice.
Provenance
- Galerie Burén, StockholmExpositions
- "Est-ce qu’on est toujours obligé d’avoir un titre ? Pour une exposition de groupe, c’est bien", Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Paris (FR), 2024.1
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