A Piano Played by Five Pianists at Once (First Attempt)

  • Image, A Piano Played by Five Pianists at Once (First Attempt), Koki Tanaka
    Image, A Piano Played by Five Pianists at Once (First Attempt), Koki Tanaka
Image courtesy of the artist, Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzho

Koki Tanaka's A Piano Played by Five Pianists at Once (First Attempt), continues Room Gallery's Emerging Artist Series.  Tanaka's interdisciplinary art practice - combining painting, video, photography and sculpture - captures the ordinary, everyday event or object in its most poetic transformation.  The artist's task of discovery entails carefully documenting what he has accidentally encountered - things we ordinarily overlook.   Along the way, Tanaka gives himself over to a place in the legacy of Andre Breton's surrealist encounters, David Hammon's fluxus performances, Bruce Nauman's paradoxical propositions and Douglas Huebler's durational pieces.  Specifically, Tanaka's art derives from an action that he instigates in a given site: selling old palm fronds as a vendor in local flea market; showing sculptures to a friend's dog; or orchestrating a haircut simultaneously performed by a team of hairdressers.   Derived in post-recession Japan - and continued in the current US recession - Tanaka's ongoing project springs from an economy of means and the absurdity of chance.  In the end, he provides an unexpected, sublime experience of our quotidian lives.  Tanaka's newest project - A Piano Played by Five Pianists at Once (First Attempt) for Room Gallery - will be the latest stop in the artist's global journey.  Curated by Juli Carson.  | View Video | Tanaka Venice Biennale 2013

Artist: 
A Solo Project by Koki Tanaka
Exhibition Dates: 
Jan 12, 2012 to Feb 11, 2012
Reception: 
Thursday, January 12, 2012 - 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Publication: 

Gallery

  • Koki Tanaka Installation View