Kimura has frequently presented his work in contexts where the site itself carries a strong sense of meaning and a distinct history, including art festivals and outdoor exhibitions. Rather than simply placing a pre-existing work within a predetermined space, he carefully observes the various elements that constitute a site—its landscape, history, and the activities of the people who inhabit it—and develops his work in response to, and sometimes in adaptation to, these conditions.
For Kimura, sculpture is not simply the production of a three-dimensional object and its placement within a space. Beyond the physical materials that constitute a work, the surrounding environment and circumstances, accumulated time and forgotten memories, and even events or systems that may initially appear unrelated to the work are incorporated into its formation. In this sense, “sculpture” in Kimura’s practice is not something complete in itself as an object, but something that emerges through the relationships between an object, a place, and the various forces that surround them.
Confronting Kimura’s work can make us aware of how little we recognize the histories and circumstances embedded within things that we ordinarily see or use without a second thought. Once a familiar object is displaced and presented as a sculpture, it begins to acquire a different outline and a new way of being seen.
The title of the exhibition, Fixing Technology, encapsulates this way of thinking about sculpture. To “fix” something may initially appear to be a simple act of making an object stationary. Yet the act of fixing—often carried out in pursuit of a particular convenience or function—simultaneously creates a boundary between what is fixed and what remains outside it. To determine something’s position is, at the same time, to produce something that falls beyond that position.
In other words, the act of establishing an order inevitably produces margins, distortions, and relationships that cannot be fully contained within that order.
This exhibition presents Kimura’s approach to sculpture through his latest works. Here, boundaries emerge between sculpture and exhibition space, and between the work and its surroundings, inviting us to consider the inside and outside produced by systems of order and demarcation, as well as the fluctuations and distortions that arise along their edges.
Rather than simply looking at what has been fixed, the exhibition asks us to consider what has been fixed—and what has fallen outside of it. By turning our attention to these relationships, objects and spaces that normally escape our awareness may begin to reveal themselves with entirely different contours.
“Fixing Technology” may refer not only to the techniques used to physically fix or stabilize an object, but also to the act of giving form to the world as we perceive it: the human tendency to understand an object or event as having a singular meaning, and in doing so, to impose a boundary around it.
Kimura’s sculptures do more than place objects before us. Rather, they create situations through which we can reconsider the objects and places that are already there from another perspective. We hope that this exhibition will offer an opportunity to reflect anew on the things that often escape our attention, the time and histories embedded within them, and the relationship between order and the ways in which we perceive the world.