Honesty is the greatest fidelity at Yamakiwa Gallery / Tokamachi, Niigata

Honesty is the greatest fidelity 

Zehra Arslan, Robin von Einsiedel, Motoko Ishibashi

26th November 2016 – 25th February 2017

Yamakiwa Gallery
Kamiebiike, Matsunoyama, Toukamachi-shi 

Niigata, JAPAN 942-1426




Zehra Arslan




Robin von Einsiedel


Motoko Ishibashi






Zehra Arslan





Motoko Ishibashi

Zehra Arslan






Robin von Einsiedel






Robin von Einsiedel


Motoko Ishibashi






 Robin von Einsiedel

Zehra Arslan and Robin von Einsiedel






Yamakiwa Gallery is pleased to present Honesty Is the Greatest Fidelity, an exhibition of new works by Zehra Arslan, Robin von Einsiedel and Motoko Ishibashi, completed during their residency in Tokamachi, Japan. The exhibition will feature various bodies of work: from site-specific installations, paintings and two new video pieces. HITGFwill also feature a talk at S.Y.P Art Space in Tokyo, reflecting on the artists’ time in Tokamachi. A screening of ‘the ballad opera’, a new video piece, followed by a discussion on distortive narrative methods as a depiction tool of contemporary landscape and culture, will take place on the 28th of November.

Tokamachi
(on love, politics and nature)

Dear Tony, Elisabeth and Catherine,

I guess the works are trying to investigate a kind of transient way to claim space without necessarily occupying it. I was thinking of rhythm a lot and the rhythmicality of things. This could be in terms of walking as an investigative tool to generate content. The undressing of the landscape made me think of honesty as an instrument to digest and construct ideas. The thought of a kind of transparency, ghostlike presence of the work kept recurring. I also thought I wanted this whole thing to be more of a handshake than a hug. Does this make sense? I wanted the work to be there without claiming any occupancy. I guess we are looking at the intersection of various forms of history through repetition. The pieces become in a way fixed foreign bodies or parts of bodies, which are pushed into the background. Almost resting, pausing and reflecting on the space they’re in. I didn’t want there to be any surprises. You know what the problem is with surprises? That it is evidence of an unwitting neglect of one another, and ourselves.

                           Text by Zehra Aslan