Please join us to celebrate the opening of Reflections of a Mind Absorbed with Play, a new exhibition by Motoko Kikkawa.
In keeping with her multiform practice, Motoko will be performing at the opening event.
“The brush and colour are easy to control and my drawings reflect my mind like mirrors. I’m absorbed with play at the moment.”
– Motoko Kikkawa
Born in Hino, Tokyo, Motoko Kikkawa arrived in Ōtepoti – Dunedin, a creative hub of Te Waipounamu, in 2004 and quickly became immersed within the energetic and overlapping sonic and visual arts communities existing there. Without being limited by any one medium or genre, Motoko works prolifically with sound, performance, improvisation, drawing, ceramics, textiles, paper, sculpture and photography, and is known by those in the Dunedin underground as one of the city’s hardest working artists.
For Reflections of a Mind Absorbed with Play, Kikkawa continues with a delicate style, working-from-small-to-big, explored at scale in 2017 for a solo exhibition at Blue Oyster Gallery, and further probed at a 2019 presentation at A Y U. With these pieces, Kikkawa creates intricate fields of watercolour and ink on paper, and this presentation of psychedelically detailed, imaginatively precise works marks another stop along a bifurcated path of exploration and refinement.
Despite incredible variety, Kikkawa’s many ways of working inform each other seamlessly. Beyond her ever-evolving suite of works on paper, Motoko’s practice extends in many directions including solo violin performances in classical contexts, collaborative sound experiments, scenographic interventions and ‘Blind Jams’ (a series of sonic and kinetic happenings linked to Motoko’s long standing involvement with Dunedin’s (living) sonic-arts history).
“Motoko Kikkawa is prolific. She is inexhaustible. She is boundless and her practice seems to have no limits. Always working on something new, always contributing to next weekend’s gig and sharing photographs of last week’s, Kikkawa has spent the past decade quietly establishing herself as one of Dunedin’s creative pillars. Observing her working on various projects over this time, I visualise each project as a new door opening onto a never-ending, ever-growing mega-structure that is her practice. While I’m not entirely sure what is behind each door, how many doors there are, or what this structure looks like as a whole, I know the doors and the passages toward and between them are all connected in a unique way.”
– Chloe Geoghegan, Shortsighted Girl’s Very Thick Wall, 2017
Associated performances:
Monday 13 July, 8pm – Vitamin S @ The Wine Cellar
Biography:
Originally from Tokyo, Motoko Kikkawa has lived in Dunedin since 2004. She holds a Bachelor of Philosophy from Nihon University, Tokyo and a BFA from Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin and works daily from a studio in Allbell Chambers.
Recent group exhibitions include: Your Luxury Gift at Rockies Auckland (2016), New Perspectives at Artspace Auckland (2016),(dis)placement at Fresh and Fruity Gallery Dunedin (2015), iD2K16 at Blue Oyster (2015),Work & Play at Blue Oyster (2014), Silk and Lace at Blue Oyster (2012) and the Blue Oyster Performance Series (2010).
Recent solo exhibitions include: Shortsighted Girl’s Very Thick Wall at Blue Oyster Art Project Space (2017), Money We Can’t Use Here at Rice and Beans Dunedin (2011) and Always there is something behind Inge Doesburg Dunedin (2010).
Sound-wise, Kikkawa is a past resident of Dunedin’s None Gallery and has played solo and in collaboration at The Audio Foundation Auckland, The Auricle Christchurch and regularly at various independent events such as Lines of Flight.
http://motokokikkawa.com/
https://www.instagram.com/motokokikkawa/
Opens: Thursday 9 July, 5.30pm (with refreshments from Liberty Brewing Company)
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12.00pm – 4.00pm
Closes: Saturday 1 August