The artist focused on the dynamism of “Kamisobori,” a well digging technique developed and developed in the Koitsu River and Koito River basins in the western Kamiso region, and expressed this dynamism by overlaying it with a large metal work representing the artist. The work actually has a drilling function, and visitors can experience the work with their own hands while at the same time digging a hole in the ground. As the exhibition progresses, the depth of the hole will increase, becoming a new history of the technology handed down from generation to generation and engraved in people’s memories.
《The Well for the future》 sculpture, 2024, bamboo, iron
Viewers can see a panoramic view of the tea fields from the perspective of a frost-proof fan, and can pedal a bicycle to turn a windmill. In addition, by experiencing the work, the viewer himself becomes part of the landscape. When you get off the highway and the landscape changes at once to one filled with tea fields, you will feel that you have entered Shimada. The unique shape of the well-arranged tea trees and the line of frost-proof fans standing guard over them is a beautiful sight. Through this work, I hope to encourage dialogue between the locals and visitors, and to inspire them to love this beautiful tea plantation landscape even more.
《Tea plantation and Cyclist》 sculpture, 2024, bicycle, iron Cooperation: Non-profit Organization Crossmedia Shimada, Playground Project Ltd.
Pingtung is a windy region. Usually when I create artwork, I tend to create robust pieces that can withstand the wind, but for this work, I decided to take advantage of the strong winds. The force of the wind turns the shaft through the windmill, which in turn moves the wheels and ultimately transfers energy to all the wheels.
This work can also be rowed by humans to move the wheels. Visitors can experience the same energy as the strong winds of Pingtung being generated by human power.
The bicycle wheels used are parts of bicycles that were once used as rental bicycles in the area. The wheels were once discarded, but the way they spin and shine is very beautiful.
We hope that “Wind Wheel” will revive the discarded bicycle wheels in the region and keep them moving as a new symbol of the community.
《Wind Wheel》sculpture, 2023, bicycle, iron Cooperation: Original Idea Corporation (OIC), Art Front Gallery, Inc.
Omika Art Project is based in Omika, an area located in the southern part of Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and is based on the concept of “creating in the city, creating with the city. In this project, participants will deepen their understanding of local culture and history by creating a work of art based on the motif of the “Great Chimney,” a symbol of Hitachi City. The project also aims to create a new community (exchange and connection) by having a meal around the completed work, and to find more value in the city.
《Pizza oven and Jumbo chimney project》 Sculpture, 2023, Iron, Pizza Cooperation: Ohmika Art Project, Azuma Kobo Co.
The “HANMA in the City” sculpture is based on the motif of the “HANMA,” the wheel of a float that appears at the Sawara Grand Festival. This work reproduces the actual size of a HANMA with a 1.8 meter wooden wheel. Viewers can ride the bicycle and pedal to rotate the HANMA, but the mechanism of rotation is different from that of an ordinary wheel: the two HANMA rub against each other, producing wood chips as they rotate.
The worn wooden wheel and wood shavings represent the wheels of the float as they are scraped by the asphalt. Visitors can enjoy the work’s constantly changing appearance.
The unique sensation of rotation created by the wooden wheels and the echoes of the half-moments they rub against each other allow the viewer to feel a moment of temporary release from the hustle and bustle of the city.
This work focuses on the point where the symbol of modern society, the city, and the culture of traditional festivals intersect. Inspired by the floats of the great festivals, this work exists quietly amidst the hustle and bustle of the city. A fusion of various elements, the work aims to explore the relationship between tradition and the city, between silence and vibrancy, and between people.
Yumiko Tatematsu (curator, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)
Koichiro Azuma creates his works based on a dialogue with a certain place. His conversation partner for the new work shown as part of this exhibition at Artfront Gallery were the hanma, the wheels supporting the floats of the Sawara Grand Festival, one of the three big festivals of the Edo period and a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Through the motif of the hanma (specifically the type made of laminated wood that’s popular in Sawara’s Funado district), Azuma engages local customs, thoughts and feelings of the participants, and other things that escape our full grasp. Born from Azuma’s deep contemplation, his artworks investigate ongoing issues that sit in between the past and the future. Artworks possess the ability to express social issues, cultural backgrounds, worldviews, personal experiences and feelings. Azuma’s creations are like devices that evoke feelings and thoughts in the audience to facilitate empathy and sympathy. When Azuma lived in the city of Toride, he collected dozens upon dozens of old bicycle and used them to create sculptural artworks with movable wheels. Installed in the urban space of the city, the audience is able to freely set the wheels in motion using the power of their muscles. These works form a symbolic visualization of the way things, though stopped at some point in the past, can begin to move again. Their moving wheels possess an ability to bring to mind a number of feelings and thoughts – from Toride’s history as the “city of bicycles” to more personal memories of abandoned ideas, things that one couldn’t finish or had simply given up on, or thoughts that weren’t followed to the end – and give them new momentum. Through his art, Azuma not only raises awareness of various social issues, he also reminds us that communication requires empathy and understanding. The system of industrialization-driven global capitalism has started showing us its weaknesses. The Sawara region itself is faced with severe depopulation due to declining birthrates and its aging population. Wheels allowed us to move goods from one place to another; they played a vital role for humanity’s progress and the development of society. Likewise, the continued smooth communication of ideas and thoughts from one person to the next will have a significant impact on the further development of our society. We hope that Azuma’s new works, in which he devoted himself to the simple concept of the wheel, will challenge methods and mannerisms born from the collective experiences of generations from a contemporary point of view.
《HANMA in City》 HANMA (zelkova, paulownia), bicycle, iron Cooperation:Sawara Mirai Canal Co. , Moriya Interior Furniture Factory
“Rowing in the sky with TERU TERU BOZU” was planned as a signboard for the Shimada Dental Clinic on Omika City Road, and a collaborative work between Koichiro Azuma and sculptor andplayground equipment craftsman Hitoshi Ushijima.
This work has three functions: it is a sign, an artwork, and a playground equipment to experience. By paddling on the artwork, visitors can spin a globe jungle with the words “Shimada Dental Clinic” written on it.
Art Signs plans to create contemporary artworks that function as signs for local stores and install them in the community. Managing and operating public art is extremely challenging, but we thought that by giving them the function of signboards, we could continue to operate them as art with a manager.
Starting with the art sign installed at the Shimada Dental Clinic, we plan to continue to increase the number of art signs around Omika City Road, with the idea of leaving art in the community on a long-term and continuous basis.
《Rowing in the sky with TERU TERU BOZU》Playground equipment and art signage 2022 Bicycle,iron Cooperation: Hitoshi Ushijima, Playground Project, Ohmika Art Project
“Infinite Wheel” consists of 56 bicycle wheels connected to each other, all of them can be rotated by a human peddler. The viewers can be involved into the artwork and can move the bicycles that were no longer in use before. The title “Infinite Wheel” did not come from the number of wheels but from the fact that the wheel can be replaced from the community endlessly when the wheel of artworks gets old. I created this work while imagining that an endless cycle could be created from the work. I imagined a large number of wheels moving linked, reminds me of the small voices of the community permeating into society.
“Rotating Absence” is a sculpture created by combining 15 bicycles. It is exhibited at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2022. Visitors to the festival can actually ride the bicycles and rotates the pedal, and by pedaling the bicycle in the front, the work, which consists of six bicycles, rotates greatly.
To create this work, I collected unused bicycles in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture. I created this work while imagine that “time” and “memory” that had stopped since it was abandoned could be moved again.
”Floating Wheels” is a work in which bicycles are combined to resemble a single wheel, which is then lifted into the air and rotated. These bicycles were utilized as tokyobike prototypes and test rides, but ended up in the hands of no particular person. They looked like new bicycles, but they were not for sale. In the warehouse, which will be transformed into tokyobike’s new store in a few months, these bicycles will be transformed into a new type of bicycle by using them as a wheel. The bicycles, which could not run on land, are released from gravity and expressed as a new form of revival.
《Floating Wheel》sculpture/performance, 2021, bicycle, motor, iron Exhibited at KUMA EXHIBITION 2021
“TA-TEN-SHA” is an artwork of a bicycle run by a motor. In Japanese, a bicycle is called Ji-Ten-Sha (自転車) meaning the car drives by itself (自=Ji). In the history of bicycles in Japan, then, it used to be called as “Ji-Zai-Sha (self-controllable vehicle)” or “Ji-Rin-Sha (self-wheeling vehicle)”. The name of present Ji-Ten-Sha was a brand named by Torajiro Takeuchi, who did not put a deep meaning in the Chinese character “転“ (rotating). Nevertheless, the word Ji-Ten-Sha has been widely spread out, which makes me question myself. Why not “self-controllable-vehicle” but “self-rotating-vehicle”? From this question, I imagine where the bicycle itself is rotating. I tried to make the bicycle that meets the real meaning by rotating the vehicle itself. Yet, what I have created is not the “Ji-Ten-Sha” that rotates by its own power, but it turns out ot be “Ta(他 – other)-Ten-Sha” rotates by the power of the motor. Hence, the title of the work became “Ta-ten-sha”.
“Eight-Wheels-Bicycle” is composed of the motorized bicycle at the head and of eight tires which move in relation to the tires of the bicycle. It was conceived out of our lives with corona, where our going out have been blamed under the slogan of “refrain from no-essential going out” or “avoid crowds”, all appearing suddenly, to shift to online-based-lives. This “stay-at-home” period seems to urge “a life without our legs on the ground” , a life difficult for us to live on.
For me, this work reflects our vacant or fruitless stay-at-home period, and this expresses our situation with no legs on earth where we cannot go anywhere although the pedals and tires are wheeling and rotating.
I hope that this bicycle work with the name of imagination will question people in search of “what is humanistic life?”
《Eight-Wheels-Bicycle》2020 Bicycle, motor, steel Exhibited at LUMINE Meets Art AWARD 2019-2020
Recently, I have been fascinated by bicycles. When I lived in Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture, I was shocked by the fact that no one rides on a bicycle when Toride was famous as a bicycle town. I researched on why this happened. In the past Toride and Ibaraki tried to make their town famous for bicycles. One of the reasons why Toride tried to be a bicycle town is because there was a bicycle race track in the past. However, nowadays, Toride is a place where a lot of bicycles are left unattended and discarded. Thus, I decided to use abandoned bicycles from my town, which are local problems, to other areas as artworks.
One of the other important materials I use is metal.
I spend most of my day in my metalworking studio. Metal is a very stubborn material. Cutting, bending, and joining all takes an enormous amount of time. Even if steel is the material which rusts when it is abandoned alone, it is very strong. It can endure tremendous weights as you can see from my artworks.
The bicycle reborns through my creative activities of combining bicycle and metals. In the past, the bicycle for me was a device that widened my potential to the maximum. Bicycles allowed me to ride everywhere I went, and I felt like I could go anywhere I wanted.
One of the interesting elements of bicycles is that each bicycles has its own story. Where they were bought, how they were used, and where they went with the owner. Whenever I received unwanted bicycles, I heard many stories from the owner. Thus, I wondered what if I could breathe new life into these ownerless bicycles, whose time and history have come to a standstill, by collecting fragments of their previous owners’ memories and turning them into works of art.
“Floating Bicycle” is the artwork of two bicycles, from the same owner, floating by a centrifugal force. It was interesting to find out that, in spite of those two were owned by the same owner, they had differences in diameter of tires, the weight, and the design. As the speed of rotation increases, two bicycles gradually come to balance. By connecting two seemingly unrelated bicycles with the phenomenon of balance, I wondered if this may be possible to evoke the image of the previous owner.These bicycles, discarded and lost in its function, have reincarnated in balance with each other and began to move once again. Their last struggle begins.
“■icycle (unreadable title)” has its forehead part of the bicycle in pixel. In this work, the averaging process of the photo into data was executed in the real world. Also its title cannot be deciphered any more. Once in data, anything can be resolved as the average pixel in the same size. I took a photo of the bicycle, transferred it into data, and I averaged the materials in the real world physically. In the image, we recognize the things by light and color, but in the real world we differentiate things also through the materials or their texture. Thus, I used the same iron and the paint for the basket part, while I employed real rubber tires for the pixel of the tires parts. The artwork may look like a computer error as if I may have processed the image in the real world, but still we can recognize the distortion which brings us back to the present world. In short, this artwork may be in-between the real and the virtual.
“TA-TEN-SHA” is an artwork of a bicycle run by a motor. In Japanese, a bicycle is called Ji-Ten-Sha (自転車) meaning the car drives by itself (自=Ji). In the history of bicycles in Japan, then, it used to be called as “Ji-Zai-Sha (self-controllable vehicle)” or “Ji-Rin-Sha (self-wheeling vehicle)”. The name of present Ji-Ten-Sha was a brand named by Torajiro Takeuchi, who did not put a deep meaning in the Chinese character “転“ (rotating). Nevertheless, the word Ji-Ten-Sha has been widely spread out, which makes me question myself. Why not “self-controllable-vehicle” but “self-rotating-vehicle”? From this question, I imagine where the bicycle itself is rotating. I tried to make the bicycle that meets the real meaning by rotating the vehicle itself. Yet, what I have created is not the “Ji-Ten-Sha” that rotates by its own power, but it turns out ot be “Ta(他 – other)-Ten-Sha” rotates by the power of the motor. Hence, the title of the work became “Ta-ten-sha”.
“JI-TEN-TEN-TEN-TEN-TEN-SHA” is the artwork where one of the parts of a bicycle is overlapped again and again. I actually cut the pictures and pasted them in a real world, not only on the computer. Then, I used the techniques of metal casting and hammering, this mysterious form was created while communicating and interacting with materials. It looks like a processed work of image-altering, yet when the viewers come close, it is, in fact, a hand-made product. Just as Duchamp transformed the value of art 100 years ago, by separating the daily objects from situations to make concepts into art, the value of art is changing again. This is due to the improvement of the information process brought by computers, the simultaneity of information, or the expandability of images from the virtual world. I assume that the value of the current contemporary is moving forward to the next stage or epoque. In the computer world, it is easy to replicate by ignoring gravity effortlessly. Recently, with the development of techniques such as CG or VR, this enables the birth of art in which works can be created even if they do not exist in the real world. In the real world, however, we cannot handle the materials easily as we can in the computer world. This work presents the concept of ready-made, while It is also a challenge for me to resist against the virtual world through my own craftsmanship with hand process.
《JI-TEN-TEN-TEN-TEN-TEN-SHA》cast metal, 2018 Bicycle, aluminum material
”Tire Machine” is a work in which a motorcycle tire is rotated and moved parallel to a wall, leaving tire marks on the wall. The tire gradually scrapes the white wall of the museum’s exhibition room while making a rattling sound. At first glance, the device appears to be a large scale, but what it produces are only small tire marks. As time passes, the indentations become deeper and deeper. This work is also meant to be a drawing, but it is clearly different from the drawings I usually make. The monotonous and endless drawings created by endlessly repeating the same actions give us an eerie feeling as if the technology created by human beings has left our hands and begun to walk on its own.
In “Bicycle,” a wire brush contacts a metal roller to energize and light an incandescent light bulb, but the light is interrupted by the motion of the bicycle wheel, which rotates periodically in a mechanical device. We feel that the sparks generated by the contact are a “small universe” that is created by a large-scale device and then quickly extinguished. The incandescent light bulbs that blink in inverse proportion to the sound of the spinning wheels echoing in the exhibition hall seem to breathe and “live” as if by unpredictable vibrations. Also, the bugs that occur on computers are errors in accuracy, occurring despite the fact that they were designed to work precisely. This work is meant as an attempt to reproduce bugs in the real world while combining ready-made products that have been mass-produced with precision.
“INAZUMA” is a project in which I myself ‘become light’ by converting my own movement into light by generating electricity with an alternator attached to my bicycle and making the incandescent light bulbs I wear glow. I love incandescent light bulbs and could not accept the shift to LEDs in our society. I felt intuitively, though I could not express it in words, that the incandescent light bulb should not be eliminated from the world. I found an answer to my own feeling about incandescent bulbs by “becoming light,” and through the light generated by my movement, I asked the question to society as to what “light” really means in the true sense that the world needs. But when I stopped pedaling my bicycle to see myself as the “light,” the light disappeared.
