Hisae Ikenaga

Hisae Ikenaga - Only Wood VI

Technique: Collage on paper

Artist Biography: Hisae Ikenaga often works with everyday objects that he alters to give different meanings and uses. He has worked in several series: confronting industrial and artisanal production processes, humanizing objects, using "global" objects (objects bought from global chain stores that he manipulates and then arranges their parts in different ways to give new views on the particularities of everyday life) and possible genetic anomalies in mass-produced objects. Ikenaga works in a Duchampian heritage. Duchamp is the father of the practices of appropriation of the manufactured object, which is equally present in the Mexican artist's practices with furniture. Ikenaga breaks them down and articulates their parts to the point of giving them an anthropomorphic aspect, or even converts them into an instrument of artistic participation. Her other line of reflection on the object leads to a handcrafted realization of elements whose references come from nature, all this through the use of markedly artificial materials. Ikenaga's work is not exclusively playful and even less melancholic. Impregnated with the futile and transitory nature of the Japanese arts, his diverse manifestations seem to participate in a fluctuating way of both motivations. Hisae Ikenaga (Mexico, 1977) graduated from the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Print "La Esmeralda", Mexico City, and furthered his studies at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. In 2003 she did a postgraduate course at the University of Barcelona and in 2004 a Master in Theory and Practice of Contemporary Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts, UCM Madrid. She has had solo shows in different places, such as Matadero (Madrid, 2011), La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2009), Praxis International Art (New York 2011) and has participated in exhibitions in exhibition spaces in Germany (Kreativquartier, Munich, 2014), Mexico, (Museo del Chopo Mexico City, 2011), Hong Kong (Para/Site Art Space, 2009), United States (Praxis Gallery, NY, 2008) or Japan (Prinz Gallery, Kyoto, 2001). He currently lives and works in Metz, France. He has won awards among which we highlight First Prize Generation 2008, Obra Social, Caja Madrid, Spain; the prize at the I Bienal Azcapotzalco and the Foreign Studies Award (Kyoto) granted by CENART in 2000; in addition to the scholarship granted by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, he has recently completed a residency at the Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy.

 

Hisae Ikenaga often works with everyday objects that he alters to give different meanings and uses. He has worked in various series: confronting industrial and artisanal production processes, humanizing objects, using "global" objects (objects bought from global chain stores that he manipulates and then arranges their parts in different ways to give new views on the particularities of everyday life) and possible genetic anomalies in mass-produced objects. In his latest works one can see an interest in representing the production of tubular metal furniture to reflect the boundary between design and art as an everyday object. Irony and absurdity always play a key role in his work. Ikenaga works in a Duchampian heritage. Duchamp is the father of the practices of appropriation of the manufactured object, which is equally present in the Mexican artist's work with furniture. Ikenaga breaks them down and articulates their parts to the point of giving them an anthropomorphic aspect, or even converts them into an instrument of artistic participation. Her other line of reflection on the object leads to a handcrafted realization of elements whose references come from nature, all this through the use of markedly artificial materials. Ikenaga's work is not exclusively playful and even less melancholic. Impregnated with the futile and transitory nature of the Japanese arts, his diverse manifestations seem to participate in a fluctuating way of both motivations. Hisae Ikenaga has exhibited in numerous international institutions in Spain, France and Mexico. She recently presented her installation Archealogical Manufacturing at Rotondes Centre culturel luxembourgeois, Luxembourg. In 2021 she was awarded the First Prize Art In Situ of the Luxembourg College of Architects at the Forum da Vinci. The "Only Wood" project consists of a myriad of pages from interior design, architecture and "Do It Yourself" magazines in which Hisae Ikenaga removed everything that was not made of wood.