The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

ShigeoToya was born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan in 1947 and completed a postgraduate course in 1975 at Aichi Prefecture University of Fine Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions since 1974, mostly at Tokiwa Gallery, Ai Gallery, and Satani Gallery, all in Tokyo, and one exhibition outside Japan, at Thomas Solomon's Garage, Los Angeles, United States, in 1991. Since 1983 Shigeo Toya has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Japan and abroad, including 'ROSC '88', the Guinness Hop Store and the Royal Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, 1988; '43rd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale', Giardini de Castello, Venice, Italy, 1988; 'Three Sculptors', Arnold Herstand Gallery, New York, United States, 1989; 'A Primal Spirit: Ten Contem- porary Japanese Sculptors', a travelling exhibition touring Japan and North America, 1990; and 'Fourth Australian Sculpture Trien- nial', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 1990. Most recently he participated in 'My Home Sweet Home in Ruins: The Urban Environment ,and Art in Japan', Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, 1992. Shigeo Toya's work is widely represented in public collections throughout Japan in- cluding the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Behind Shigeo Toya's works is his serious attitude towards sculpture. In the traditional European context, sculpture raises the inanimate matter (material) to the level of 'existence' through the technique and modelling, building onto the inside (bone) structure. This significant characteristic of construction is seen throughout European sculpture. What matters here is the charac- teristics of construction. This, however, cannot be the only method of sculpture. Shigeo Toya's work is the opposite of this process, that is, he works from outside in. His approach is not 'construction'; it can perhaps be best described as 'excavation'. His work in wood (boxwood) goes beyond chiselling the surface - he cuts into the material with a chainsaw creating ragged surfaces - and thus the final product is quite different from decorative sculpture. The artist uses wood; his creative logic does not allow him to use stone. He does not work with a planned final image as traditional sculptors do. There- fore he needs to work with a material that he can develop in the process, and wood, JAPAN SHIGEO TOYA Woods 1111991-92 Installation comprising wood, ash, synthetic polymer paint 30 pieces: 220x30x30cm (each) Collection: The artist which contains air and water, is thus his natural choice. Through his dialogue with wood, his work is a process of searching for the invisible. An example of Shigeo Toya's work is a series called 'Forest'. The contours of a forest (which is recognisable by the trees) seen from a distance are not quite the same as the actual ground of the forest. He has experi- enced an ambiguous feeling in the forest- he could not tell if he was inside or outside it. In general, one cannot see inside a piece of sculpture, but this experience gave the artist a deep awareness of the existence of a border between inside and outside. With his work 'Forest', consisting of dozens of wooden poles in the exhibition space and with its overwhelming power of presence, Shigeo 77 Toya has succeeded in bringing the invisible into a level of 'existence'. Takeshi Kanazawa