msb gallery is pleased to present "DUMMIES," a solo exhibition by Shusuke Ao.

 

Ao's creation of inflatable dummies, which are replicas of real objects, began with military dummy balloons.

He has expanded from defense-related objects such as missiles and fighter aircraft and in recent years has presented works such as cars and photo panels, consistently inspired by his own deeply etched memories.

 

This exhibition will feature a group of works created to capture and preserve the state of objects within ever-changing images.

Will Ao's deceptive modelling form link with our experiences or memories to ballon up? We invite you to experience it for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artist Statement

 

The entity in the real space is perceived and taken into the thought space. The entity that has become an image begins to transform. The entity is lost regardless of one's will. The transformation of the memory of the entity that has become an image does not stop. The gap with the entity becomes wider and wider due to the loss, and even the memories that continue to transform become gradually diluted.

In the end, only emptiness remains.

 

There is no way to keep the lost entity in the real space forever. I cannot control the loss or transformation. To deal with this, I temporarily salvage the image of the entity in the thought space and summon a dummy into the real space. The surface of the dummy is painted with an image that has already been transformed in the thought space and has had its resolution thinned out, and the shape is created by the counter-interaction between the air pressure and the internal support structure. It is a projection of a antagonistic structure that tries to somehow maintain the image, and the instability of the Gestalt, which cannot be determined as being three-dimensional or two-dimensional, is similar to the existence of the entity in the thought space.

 

The emptiness that comes after loss and transformation is filled in advance by the dummy. Can we now say that we are prepared to deceive the eyes of time?

 

 

Shusuke Ao  

 

 

 

Shusuke Ao

1981   Born in Ibaraki

2004   BA Japanese Painting, Tama Art University

 

Public collection: Aomori Museum of Art

 

 

 

Solo exhibitions

2023   DUMMIES, Gallery Rokutsubo, Niigata, Japan

2021   Assembly, Models, Documentation, Reality, Aomori Museum of Art Community Gallery, Aomori, Japan

2018   In the night of missile rain, boy dreams of flying. solo exhibition, eitoeiko, Tokyo, Japan 

2011   Multirole Fighters, eitoeiko, Tokyo, Japan

           TRIAL, Museum of Aeronautical Sciences, Chiba, Japan

2010   PAX-4, eitoeiko, Tokyo, Japan

2006   Flight, open studio, Yokosuka, Japan

2004   man game, key gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2003   Everything on the shelfs in my brain, Ono gallery II, Tokyo, Japan

 

 

Group exhibitions

2025   Magical Mystery Fuchu, LOOP HOLE, Tokyo, Japan

2024   AOMORI GOKAN Arts Fest 2024 Interweavers in Open Fields, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, Japan

2023   Aomori Museum of Art Collection 2023-1 Special Presentation: AO Shusuke × Kishi Omori /ARMORY SHOW SITE-A: Damage Control, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, Japan

2021   (Commission work) The World of Tomino Yoshiyuki: A Retrospective of Legendary Anime Director, Niitsu Art Museum, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan

　　    A HUE WAS AN AUGUST JOKE /with EGAWA Junta, eitoeiko, Tokyo, Japan

           Tamabi DNA :A Genealogy of Contemporary Nihonga Japanese Paintings Since 1965, Tama Art University Art-Theque, Tokyo, Japan            

2019   (Commission work) The World of Tomino Yoshiyuki: A Retrospective of Legendary Anime Director, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan

　       The German Way of Life II, Haus am Dom / Zollamt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

           GENERATION W(AR), Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, USA

2017   LOVE LOVE SHOW The Second, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, Japan

2016   Art and Air, Tomakomai City Museum, Hokkaido, Japan

　　    META real, Kanagawa prefectural gallery, Kanagawa, Japan

2014   Art and Air, Verkehr Shimizu Port Terminal Museum, Shizuoka, Japan

　　    PLAYERS – Art starts from plays, Arts Maebashi, Gunma, Japan

2013   Quadrivium, CES contemporary, Laguna Beach, CA, Japan

2012   Featherweight, West Los Angeles College Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

　　    Co/Lab in Art Platform Los Angeles, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, exhibited installation Operation”B”, USA

　　   1End of war in the decade of the 2010s curated by Yohsuke Takahashi, eitoeiko, Tokyo, Japan

　　   Art and Air, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, Japan

　　   New City Art Fair, hpgrp gallery, NYC, USA

2011  Gateway Japan, The Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, USA

　　   act, with Yuji Ichikawa and Takushi Hibino, Akibatamabi21 in 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan