A Review by Saito Tsutomu
Originally published in Japanese on note.com
I ventured to Nezu to see Tazaki Ari’s solo exhibition “I Am the One Who Lives in the Basement of Your House” at Bi no Ya. The exhibition space featured more than ten works, ranging from small pieces to large-scale canvases. “Endless Circle” commanded attention as a large-scale work painted on a 1303×1620mm canvas, hung prominently on the wall directly facing the entrance.
The Underwater Vision
At first glance, the painting presents an unsettling darkness, but deeper observation reveals divers holding hands approaching from the depths of the composition, while a fish’s tail at the center identifies the scene as underwater. Near the base of the fish’s tail fin, human figures form a circle reminiscent of the children’s game “kagome kagome,” though they could equally be interpreted as hands grasping the fish’s tail. The fish, shown with its back turned, is partially cropped from view, while a raptor’s talons appear at the edge of the canvas—apparently having just caught its prey.
The human circle around the fish’s tail appears doubled or tripled through painted shadows, creating the illusion of multiple rings surrounding the fish. The shadows suggest the figures are standing from an overhead perspective, generating a disorienting effect where up and down become indistinguishable in the underwater environment.
Environmental Commentary
The work depicts a Steller’s sea eagle that has just secured prey to sustain its life, alongside the fish that will become its sustenance. The artist accompanies the work with text explaining how human society and civilization’s infrastructure ultimately cause the death of such eagles, based on wildlife conservation activities and interviews. Upon closer inspection, the dark frame encompassing the entire composition takes the shape of diving goggles, revealing that viewers are seeing through a diver’s perspective, potentially becoming part of the circle of divers holding hands in the distance.
Complicit Spectatorship
The viewer becomes an unwilling participant in the artist’s world. While one might claim innocence regarding the damage that railways and social infrastructure inflict on wildlife, anyone benefiting from modern civilization bears equal responsibility as a participant. Rather than offering moral judgment, the work seems to calmly convey how these chains of influence extend endlessly—though the painter communicating this message must also participate in the same chain.
The fish’s tail at the center and the eagle’s talons visible above symbolize the natural food chain and starkly express the harsh reality of survival competition. However, human society intervenes in this natural process. One human ring appears to obstruct the eagle’s hunt, while another ring of divers encircles them, and seemingly detached observers loosely surround the hunt. While the work carries a moral, educational atmosphere, the goggles painted nearly to the canvas’s full size create a forced nesting of subject and object.
Structural Innovation
The “kagome kagome” reference appears to express the complexity of social structures and human relationships. Most intriguingly, this human ring extends beyond the picture plane, suggesting that the boundaries between the depicted world and reality remain ambiguous.
The goggle-shaped frame surrounding the entire work functions as one of the piece’s most innovative elements, serving as a device to incorporate the viewer’s perspective into the work itself. The viewer is expected to become part of the work’s world, encouraging engagement with broader global concerns. However, whether viewers notice the goggles depends on their attention to detail—here I recognized the nested structure of subject and object. This structure attempts to reveal the relationship between observer and observed, subject and object. Viewers look at the work while simultaneously being absorbed into it, becoming part of its reality.
Exhibition: “I Am the One Who Lives in the Basement of Your House” at Bi no Ya, Nezu
Art work: Endless Circle
Year: 2024