Tami Ichino
Silent Vibration
September 14 - October 27, 2018
Press release in French
Press release in English
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Article: Tami Ichino - Poesie und Philosophie des Nähe, Artlog, by Katharine Holderegger Rossier, 15.10.2018
The year 2018 marks a turning point in the career of Japanese-born artist Tami Ichino. Following her participation at several group exhibitions, she now presents a solo exhibition, Silent Vibration, which brings together new paintings and sculptures that raise questions on the perception of sound.
Simple, peaceful and well-balanced, Tami Ichino’s compositions show different facets of the world. The previous series entitled Choses qui ne peuvent être vues mais elles sont (2014-2017) and Vue vers le haut (2015-2018) highlight the existence of elements usually considered as insignificant. With subtlety and clarity, the artist likes to reveal their interest. These incongruous and decontextualized objects are sublimated by their surreal aspect and by the artist’s sophisticated technique based on the unique use of the three primary colours.
Tami Ichino gives her paintings a metaphorical significance and makes them the witnesses of an invisible reality. Silent Vibration is no exception and reveals multiple layers of meaning and perception. The mechanical vibrations of sound join the pictorial vibrations in the series Morceau à quatre mains (Romanza) where two piano scores are juxtaposed and which colours further illustrate the musicality of the composition. The sculpture Eardrums echoes Morning Moon Wind, reminding us of the importance of gravity between the moon and the earth. Influenced by the Japanese physicist Haruo Saji, Tami Ichino considers that without the moon, sounds, as well as our perceptions, would be very different.
On the one hand, the artist deals with the question of the origin of sound from a philosophical, metaphorical, scientific and physical point of view, as illustrated in paintings such as Temps vertical whose very descriptive treatment betrays the artist’s analysis. On the other hand, she focuses on her intimate experience of the senses as seen in the work Rythme à trois temps, a series of nine paintings re-created from a memory. The artist gives perceptions a personal value that she reactivates in a way that could be described as “sound impressionism”. With these two reading axes, Tami Ichino links the individual to the community and recalls the question of scale. Silent Vibration is conceived as a whole in which content and form are harmoniously united: the works dialogue with each other both intellectually and formally.
Tami Ichino was born in 1978 in Fukuoka (Japan), she lives and works in Geneva. Selected solo exhibitions: Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, CH (September 2018); Espace Kugler, Geneva, CH (2012); Palais de l’Athénée, Salle Cornier, Geneva, CH (2012); Halle Nord, Geneva, CH (2010); Galerie Faye Fleming & Partner (today Gowen Contemporary), Geneva, CH (2009). Selected group exhibitions: Beirut Art Fair 2018, Beirut, LBN; Villa Dutoit, Geneva, CH (2017); Château de Vuillerens, curated by Karine Tissot, CH (2017); Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, CH (2017); Galerie Forma, Lausanne, CH (2016); Studio Sandra Recio, Geneva, CH (2015); Fondation Alice Bailly, CHUV, Lausanne, CH (2015); Centre d’art d’Yverdon-les-Bains, CH (2015); Ferme de la Chapelle, Grand-Lancy, CH (2014); Hackney Wick Group Show, London, GB (2014); Espace Topographie de l’Art, Paris, FR (2014); Kunsthaus, Langenthal, CH (2009).