Chim↑Pom
Based in Tokyo, the collective Chim↑Pom was founded in 2005 by Ellie, Yasutaka Hayashi, Motomu Inaoka, Toshinori Mizuno, Masataka Okada and Ryuta Ushiro, and is considered to be one of the foremost groups of practitioners within the contemporary Japanese art scene. Their work includes interventions through performance, video, painting, installation, curating and organising events. They examine aspects of everyday life in Tokyo, and have also worked in Hiroshima and Fukushima, satirically questioning what is usually left unquestioned. Sharp social critique is central to Chim↑Pom’s work, but it is always executed with a certain playfulness – and is all the more incisive for it.
Paradox has been a core theme in recent years, with works based around pieces of a jigsaw puzzle becoming a motif to highlight existing borders: nations and territories, private and public, legal and illegal, or history and social situations. The puzzles comprise surfaces taken from various locations, swapped with identical pieces cut out of a gallery wall. To Chim↑Pom the nature of this exchange is potentially transgressive, creating unresolved borders, dilemmas and contradictions.
2015 marks Chim↑Pom’s tenth anniversary, and in January they were the recipients of the Prudential Eye Award for Emerging Artist of the Year. Notable group exhibitions and numerous solo exhibitions have been devoted to the collective, including Zero Tolerance (2014-15) and Chim↑Pom (2011) at MoMA PS1, New York; Mujin-to Production, Tokyo; Don’t Follow The Wind (2015) in the radioactive exclusion zone in Fukushima; Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Tokyo (2013); PARCO Museum, Tokyo (2013); and Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei (2012). Their work is in the public collections of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; The Japan Foundation; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Asia Society Museum, New York; and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Chim↑Pom is represented by Mujin-to Production, Tokyo.
Based in Tokyo, the collective Chim↑Pom was founded in 2005 by Ellie, Yasutaka Hayashi, Motomu Inaoka, Toshinori Mizuno, Masataka Okada and Ryuta Ushiro.
Solo exhibitions
The Electrical Parade Never Was A Satisfaction To Me., hiromiyoshii roppongi, Tokyo
Chim↑Pom × Qusamura – ‘Hiroshima!!!!! Exhibition’ preparation show @Hot Spot Galleries, hiromiyoshii roppongi
Hiroshima!!!!! Exhibition Preparation Show Hot Spot Galleries in Hiroshima City
PAVILION, Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Tokyo
Beautiful World: SURVIVAL DANCE, PROJECT FULFILL ART SPACE, Taipei
Chim↑Pom (screening), MoMA PS1, New York
K-I-S-S-I-N-G, The Container, Tokyo
SURVIVAL DANCE, MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo
REAL TIMES, MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo (traveled to Standard bookstore, Osaka)
Good to be human, YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokyo
Hiroshima!!, NADiff a/p/a/r/t, Tokyo
Disposed Dick, Gallery Vagina (a.k.a. MUJIN-TO Production), Tokyo
Hiroshima!, Vacant, Tokyo
Becoming Friend, Eating Each Other or Falling Down Together / BLACK OF DEATH curated by MUJIN-TO Production, hiromiyoshii, Tokyo
Japanese Art is 10 Years Behind, NADiff a/p/a/r/t, Tokyo
Oh My God!, MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo
Selected group exhibitions
Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2014, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangladesh
DOMMUNE university of the Arts -Tokyo Arts Circulation-, 3331Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo
RedBull Music Academy, Tokyo
EAST ASIAN VIDEO FRAMES: TOKYO, Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland
Parallel Universes, The Shanghai Minsheng 21st Century Museum, Shanghai
TRANSLATION THEME PARK, Galleri 21 & Galleri Ping-Pong Malmö, Sweden
Politika, Upper Space Gallery, Manchester
The Mirror and Monitor of Democracy in Asia, Sangrok Exhibition Hall, Gwangju museum of Art, Gwangju
We can make another future: Japanese art after 1989, Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland
MUJIN-TO Production 8th Anniversary “MUJIN-TO infinity”, MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo
For a New Wave to Come Post-1945 Japanese Art History Now, Japan society, New York
Ushimado Asia Triennale, Okayama
Twentieth Anniversary Special MOT Collection Chronicle 1995-, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo
MOMAT Collection“There’s Something Happening Here II: 1923, 1945, and Beyond, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Duality of Existence – Post Fukushima | A group exhibition of Contemporary Japanese Art, Friedman Benda, New York
Godzilla, Silvershed, New York
Actinium Project SIAF Collaborative programme 2014, OYOYO, Sapporo
MOMAT Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Tomorrow Comes Today, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Digital Ark, Taichung
TAKAHASHI COLLECTION 2014 Mindfulness!, Nagoya City Art Museum, Aichi
Utopian Days – Freedom, TOTAL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Seoul
Topic in Focus | After the Quake: Thinking About Tohoku III, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
SHIBUKARU MATSURI, Shibuya PARCO, Tokyo
Atomic Surplus, CCA Muñoz Waxman Galleries, New Mexico
adidas Originals PRESENTS BETTER NEVER THAN LATE, Kodachi Seisakujo, Tokyo
Now Japan; Exhibition with 37 contemporary Japanese artists, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort
inToAsia: Time-based Art Festival 2013 – MicroCities, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, New York
Why not live for Art? II – 9 collectors reveal their treasures, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo
Takahashi Collection – Mindfulness, Sapporo Art Museum, Sapporo, Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima
MOT collection – From Me to You –Close but Distant Journeys–, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
All You Need Is LOVE: From Chagall to Kusama and Hatsune Miku, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
The 9th Shanghai Biennale – REACTIVATION, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art
Project Daejeon 2012: Energy, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
Son et Lumière, et sagesse profonde, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Get Up, Stand Up, Seattle Art Museum
The Angel of History – I Love Art 12 Photography, Watari-um Museum, Tokyo
Turning Around (curated by Chim↑Pom) Watari-um Museum, Tokyo
Double Vision: Contemporary Art from Japan, (Touring show) Moscow Museum of Modern Art and Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa
The Fire that Doesn’t Go Out, Richard D. Baron Gallery, Ohio
TPAM in Yokohama 2012, BankART Mini, Yokohama
Villa Tokyo, Kyobashi, Tokyo
Sky of Elpis, TOKYO DESIGNERS WEEK 2011 (TDW-ART), Tokyo
SHIBUKARU MATSURI, Shibuya PARCO, Tokyo
CITY-NET ASIA 2011, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Mildura Palimpsest #8 – Collaborators and Saboteurs, Arts Mildura, Mildura
Invisibleness is Visibleness: International Contemporary Art Collection of a Salaryman – Daisuke Miyatsu, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
Never give up!, PASS THE BATON GALLERY, Tokyo
Asia Art Award, SOMA Museum of Art, Seoul
Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
REFLECTION: alternative worlds through the video camera, Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito
Moving – The first and final group exhibition in MUJIN-TO, Koenji, MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo
Spooky Action at a Distance: A Big In Japan exhibition of new videos from Japanese artists, Black & Blue Gallery, Sydney
A Blow to the Everyday, Osage Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Urban Stories: The X Baltic Triennial of International Art, Contemporary Art Centre [CAC], Vilnius
Winter Garden: The Exploration of the Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
TOKYO NONSENSE, SCION Installation L.A., Los Angeles
KITA!!: Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
When Lives Become Form: Dialogue with the Future – Brazil, Japan, The Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Re-Act: New Art Competition 2007, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Awards
Public collections
Mori Art Museum (Japan)
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Japan)
The Japan Foundation (Japan)
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan)
Asia Society Museum, New York (U.S.A.)
Queensland Art Gallery (Australia)
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Japan)
Exhibitions
Related
Chim↑Pom website
Featured
iD by Felix Petty
FT by Griselda Murray Brown
ArtReview Asia by Taro Nettleton
Events
