Koki Tanaka (Japanese, b. 1975)
Japanese artist Koki Tanaka turns common objects and seemingly banal actions into reflections on the passage of time and the organization of everyday life. A booth selling palm fronds in a flea market in Los Angeles, a water raft built with waste materials and an entire exhibition filled with discarded objects collected from a museum’s storage are some of the interventions carried out by Tanaka in an attempt to trigger a reflection on issues of value and social criticism. At Frieze New York – which the artist describes as both a social place and a market place – Tanaka will insert a series of incongruous presences, inviting representatives from the ‘invisible communities’ that inhabit Randall’s Island to spend the day at the fair, carrying out activities that are not usually performed at Frieze. Tanaka’s orchestrated actions will drive viewers to interact with the participants and encourage them to rethink the space of the art fair as a public space.
Image: precarious tasks #0 communal tea drinking 2012, collective acts. Created with Aoy- ama Meguro, Tokyo and too much magazine.
Project supported by the Japan Foundation
http://www.shin-yo-sha.co.jp/mokuroku/books/978-4-7885-1344-0.htm
