Mind Set Art Center is very honored to present TREE OF LIFE-FORM╱SUBSTANCE by Shinji OHMAKI as the artist’s debut Taiwan solo exhibition along with our third anniversary. The artist has taken over our gallery and a reception center on Zhongshan N. road to present a two-part exhibition featuring a new series of “Echoes-crystallization ” & “Echoes-Infinity” and a large-scale installation with tree image replicas over the walls and ground. The artist will be present for the opening receptions at Mind Set Art Center on Sunday, 16 June from 15:30 to 18:30.

In the biblical story, the tree of life is a tree planted by Abrahamic God in the midst of the Garden of Eden, whose fruit gives everlasting life and immortality. Next to tree of life, there is tree of knowledge of good and evil, whose fruit makes people capable of telling right from wrong. But God warned Adam not to eat from it. As the story goes that Eve and Adam both ate the fruit, despite God's warning. They were each cursed by God. To prevent them access to the tree of life, God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. The juxtaposition of immortality and wisdom states a concept of dualism that is indeed interflowing and opposite at the same time. Ideas such as civilization vs. aborigine, development vs. extinction, and pre-experience vs. post-experience, are so confronting with each other but essentially homologous. OHMAKI explores these concepts with involvement of vast tree imagery, real oak branches and powder paintings in his new installation at the reception center. The powder paintings are further extensions of his “Echoes-Infinity” series. As far as the artist is concerned, the relationship between human and society has to be addressed and invisible issues must be brought out via the language of art. In the new series “Echoes-Infinity”, OHMAKI extracts the shapes from Taiwan endangered flowers and depicts the pattern on Taiwan floral cloth. At the reception center, he plans to place works that he makes on site along with the branch imagery as civilization flowers blossom out on the history of human culture. For Mind Set Art Center gallery, the artist intentionally chooses nature materials, like stones and fabrics, with new works from “Echoes-crystallization ” to actualize the substance of tree of life, which creates a poetic dialogue with the silhouette of tree of life at the reception center.

Born in 1971, Shinji OHMAKI is an artist who represents the latest wave of Japanese art scene. He has gained his reputation through the vibrant play of space and materials. The artist specializes in blending his practice with characteristic design on architectural settings, which blurs physical borders and inject personal interpretation and philosophy of relationship between time and space. His dynamic installations turn exhibition space into an extraordinary world and inspire viewers’ physical senses. His works are shown in many international exhibitions and collected by important insinuations around the world.

Tree of Life- Form│2013.06.15~ 09.22
Tree of Life-Substance │ 2013.06.16~ 08.18

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