Take a good look at the various systems around you. Now start questioning what you see: "Is that really it?" "Aren't there other possibilities?"

The title of this exhibition, In Search of Critical Imagination, suggests a doubtful view of the status quo and a need to discover alternatives. As proponents of this attitude, we present the work of six up-and-coming artists.

Using familiar materials like vinyl and adhesive, Onishi Yasuaki creates airy yet spectacular sculptures. Loosening the threads in textiles, Tezuka Aiko draws out the usually invisible structure and history concealed within them. Through the messages that are conveyed by an infinite number of small hanging spheres, Kawabe Naho disrupts the relationship between memory and experience. By allowing living creatures to intervene in his work, Kano Tetsuro suspends the meaning of the environments and materials that people make for each other. Yamamoto Takayuki conducts workshops that lead in a different direction from conventional children's education. Based on her encounters with people who live with the sea, Yamauchi Terue creates spaces that awaken new sensibilities.

Training their eyes on what they see in front of them, the artists take a slightly different view of existing things, and by modifying them, present us with a host of other possibilities. After experiencing the new installations created by the six, each of whom is associated with a different genre, materials, and methodology, you are sure to begin applying your own critical imagination to the world around you.

Artists(in alphabetical order):
KANO Tetsuro(b.1980)/ KAWABE Naho(b.1976) /ONISHI Yasuaki(b.1979)
TEZUKA Aiko(b.1976)/YAMAMOTO Takayuki(b.1974)/YAMAUCHI Terue(b.1982)

*image (left)
Suspended Organs (reactor), 2013
Untied readymade fabric, stitching and knitting with red threads extracted from readymade fabric on cloth
335 x 800 x 265 cm
Installation at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Photo: Ute Klein, Kai Magnusson