Goro Murayama

Venue: Kyu Itoya

Curator’s Text: Title :《Robustness of informational textiles》

This work began when 2021 Fuji Textile Week exhibiting artist Aiko TEZUKA saw Goro MURAYAMA's hand-drawn sketch, swiched sync cellular automaton[hand drawing] #2. Inspired by the concept, she suggested that the drawing be made into reality, and thanks to the cooperation of a weaver in Fujiyoshida, Murayama was able to do just that.

A cellular automaton is a mathematical model in which a spatial grid of cells is viewed over time, generating various patterns by assigning rules to each cell of the grid. As this model also manifests in the creation and growth of living organisms, Murayama developed his mathematical model by reading into various issues, such as creation and death, as well as the creative process of humans and machines.
The work exhibited here uses Murayama's mathematical model program to analyze the characteristics of the patterns that arise and then compares attributes of regularity and randomness. He also says that he is able to measure the “robustness” of the information, which has been systematically discussed in the fields of bioethics and information engineering. From this, he finds the exquisite balance between life and its environment, that is, the inevitability of a lifespan. At the same time, the “robustness” of textiles is superimposed on the physical storage medium of digital data, much like how the primitive mechanisms of a computer work in a Jacquard loom to create something physical, which Murayama considers to be extremely meaningful.

Programming：Tatsuki Tomoyama | Cooperation：Makita Shoten, Textile Fuji, Hikari Orimono

Artist Profile: Goro Murayama
Born in Tokyo, 1983. Artist. PhD. (Fine Arts). Murayama expresses self-organized processes and patterns through paintings and drawings. 2010 shiseido art egg prize winner. 2015 Completed the doctoral program in oil painting (mural painting) at Tokyo University of the Arts. 2015-17: Artist-in-residence in Vienna as a Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs overseas training program for emerging artists (visiting researcher at the Intercultural Philosophy Laboratory, University of Vienna). Recent exhibitions, 2022 “Setouchi Triennale”, Ogijima Island / Kagawa （’19）, 2022 “Drawings – Plurality” / PARCO Museum TOKYO / Tokyo, 2020 “Painting Folding” / Takuro Someya Contemporary Art / Tokyo, 2019 “Aichi Triennale 2019” Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art / Aichi, ”L’homme qui marche　Verkörperung des Sperrigen” / Kunsthalle Bielefeld / Germany, “The Extended Mind”, Talbot Rice Gallery at University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh / Scotland, and many others. Currently, he is presenting his new work "Painting folding 2.0" at NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC), in which he is developing an attempt to design protein structures that could exist in reality through the predictive calculation of "Alpha fold" from handmade textile paintings.

photo: Yoi Kawakubo