Olga Korper Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of internationally celebrated guest artist Ken Matsubara's second solo exhibition, Utsusemi. In Japanese, the Utsusemi is the cicada shell, shed by the insect as it grows. The cicada itself is thought of as a spirit guide, aiding in personal development and transformation. The cicada represents the glorious future of reincarnation and becoming, the shell – Utsusemi – is what's left behind.
Inspired by a chapter titled Utsusemi in an ancient novel The Tale of Genji, Matsubara explains his sympathy for the prince's experience as he rushes into the bedroom of the woman he loves to find she's run away and left behind only a silk shift on the bed. He explains that life, to him, feels as though he can only ever grasp at the surface of the thing, the shell alone, without truly grasping reality.
Matsubara certainly provokes the thoughtfulness of prince Genji in his most recent work. Subtle portraits UV printed on shimmering brass blend with silent videos of mysterious figures hidden inside metal singing bowls combine to give the viewer the impression that there is a secret in the next room, and we are here, grasping at silk as it slips through our fingers.