Shiseido Gallery
Closes in 11 days
In an age where artists employ just about anything in their art, Robin Rhode's bare-bones approach is refreshingly new. With the aid of a few performers, a piece of chalk and a disused wall or urban lot, the real world merges with the invented to magical and humorous effect. A bicycle crudely drawn on the flat, two-dimensional world of a pavement becomes a space for real kids to play; a disused wall becomes a canvas on which plants grow before being transformed into furniture. Rhode's unique performance-art-meets-graffiti style is on view at Ginza's Shiseido Gallery through animations and storyboard series of photos -- think Eadweard Muybridge, the world's first stop-motion photographer, street-wear clad and updated for the 21st century. However, unlike Muybridge, who wanted to document movement for his 19th-century peers, Rhodes' highly evocative images slow the world down so that viewers can glimpse the freedom and joy possible in the mundane. For him, the world is as big as "your imagination and willingness to play, allow. With next to nothing, one can defy gravity should one choose." Though many have seen his work as a way of resisting the state of urban poverty, his message is a more universal one, which, combined with his low tech,down-to-earth approach, has made him a figure to watch. In 2005 he gained much attention not only at the Venice Biennale, but also in New York at MOMA's annual New Photography show. So if you want to expand your world, as he has his, head down to the Shiseido by July 30th.
