Yuko Mohri
Yuko Mohri (b. 1980) lives and works in Tokyo. The recipient of the prestigious Nissan Art Award 2015, Mohri is an installation artist who recasts reconfigured everyday items and machine parts collected in cities around the world into a self- contained ‘ecosystems’, channelling and conducting intangible energies such as magnetism, gravity, temperature and light.
With a background in new-media art, Mohri’s practice engages with circuits and connectivity. Her current focus is on developing two long-term research projects.
Moré Moré [Leaky] is an assemblage of reconfigured everyday items, junk, and machine parts collected in London, set within a frame. Inspired by makeshift repairs to water leaks in the Tokyo metro, the kinetic installation forms a circuit, with found materials ‘wired’ together to contain flowing water. Urban Mining is a series of smaller sculptures comprised of materials recycled from the built environment. Electrified crushed aluminium cans are wired up to model street lamps that illuminate only irregularly; the recycled wires can only complete the circuit when pushed by air currents.
Both projects are inspired by the artist’s experience of the built environment. In each work, Mohri recasts systems – leak repairs and streetlights – into new, idiosyncratic circuits where found objects act as intermediaries, persuading environmental forces such as light and air currents to act upon them.
Mohri was selected as a grantee of Asian Cultural Council 2014. Her recent major exhibitions include: Yokohama Triennial 2014 (Yokohama Museum of Art, 2014), Sapporo International Art Festival 2014 (Seikaitei and Chi-Ka-Ho, 2014), Unseen Existence (Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2014) and Orochi (Gallery waitingroom, Tokyo, 2013). Mohri’s upcoming exhibitions include THE BEGINNINGS (or Open-Ended) (Minatomachi Potluck Building, Nagoya), The Way Things Go (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2016) and Roppongi Crossing 2016 (Mori Art Museum).
Mohri undertook a residency at the V&A in Summer 2016, and has recently completed a two-month residency with Camden Arts Centre in October 2016. These two residencies were geared towards the production of new work. In February 2017, Yuko Mohri will have her first UK solo exhibition at White Rainbow.
Yuko Mohri
Born in Kanagawa, Japan, 1980.
Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
Solo Exhibitions
Circus without Circus, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
Pleated Image, waitingroom, Tokyo, Japan
The Beginnings (or open-ended) [2nd period], Potluck Building Gallery, Nagoya, Japan [two-person exhibition with Peter Fischli & David Weiss]
Observation of the Senses, Asahi Art Square, Tokyo, Japan
Sauvage – Wild in the City, Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo, Japan
Yuko Mohri, Art Taipei 2013, waitingroom, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Tokai Polyrhythm, Kawaguchi Media Seven, Saitama, Japan
Show Case, Baus Theater, Bakuon Film Festival vol.6, Tokyo, Japan
OROCHI (Snake), Gallery Waitingroom, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo, Japan
Circuits, Adanda Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Circles, Gallery Waitingroom, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo, Japan
Circles, Agencia de Apoyo a la Arquitectura, Barcelona, Spain
One Day Dallas, Roji to Hito Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Everyday Laos, 20202 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions
Digital Design Weekend 2016, Victoria and Albert, London, United Kingdom
Roppongi Crossing 2016, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Regeneration Movement, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
S-House Museum, Okayama, Japan
The Way Things Go, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2015 Jaguar Asia Tech Art Prize, Art Taipei 2015, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan
The Beginnings (or Open-Ended), Potluck Building Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
Spectrum, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan
Mirror Mirror, Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY, United States
Some Like It Witty, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong
Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo 2014, Red Bull, Tokyo, Japan
DOMMUNE University of the Arts, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
PICA Salon 2014, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Perth, Australia
Yokohama Triennale 2014, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan
Media Art/Kitchen Aomori, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (ACAC), Aomori, Japan
Sapporo International Art Festival 2014, SEIKA-TEI & CHIKAHO, Sapporo, Japan
Summer Group Show, Gallery Waitingroom, Tokyo, Japan
Causality: Kinetic expressions, 1335MABINI, Manila, Philippines
Art, Media and I, Tokyo, Art Fair Tokyo 2014, waitingroom, Tokyo International Forum Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Casette & Radio-Casette-Deck Diffusion Project, TENSAI-SANSUJUKU, Tokyo, Japan
Transmediale 14, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Another Side of ISOZAKI ARATA’s Solaris, Tokyo University of the Arts, Art Media Center, Tokyo, Japan
Media Art/Kitchen, Gallery National Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
Art DJ KATA-000, Kata Liquidroom, Tokyo, Japan
The Things We Have Overlooked, Sendai Mediatheque, Miyagi, Japan
SHIBUKARUSAI (Shibuya Cultural Festival), Parco Museum, Tokyo, Japan
X_Sound, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, Korea
Tokyo Art- Power Plant, Tokyo University of the Arts Gypsum Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
SHIBUKARUSAI (Shibuya Cultural Festival), Parco Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Azumabashi Dance Closing 2011, Asahi Art Square, Tokyo, Japan
Re-Reproduction / Senses in Contemporary – for Awazu Kiyoshi, Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, Japan
Radiator Festival 2009, Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham, England
The 5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale (Media City Seoul), Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Extended Senses, Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, Korea
AV Festival 08: Broadcast, Discovery Museum Newcastle Gateshead, Newcastle, England
Ars Electronica, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria
Technopolitan Museum: DENXhibition, Osaka, Japan
Dislocate, Koiwa Project Space, Tokyo, Japan
Transmediale 06, Die Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
Exploration of Time, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), Yamaguchi, Japan
Frontiers of Communication, NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC), Tokyo, Japan
Collaborative Projects
Residencies
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
Public Collection
The Nissan Art Collection, Yokohama, Japan
Grants and Awards
40 under 40 Asia Pacic: The Most Inspirational Young People in the Asia Pacic Art World, Apollo Magazine
Granted for Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Foundation
Arts Council Tokyo Fiscal Year 2015 (Single Grants), Arts Council Tokyo (for the exhibition, Observation of the Senses)
Nissan Art Award 2015, finalist, Nissan Motor Corporation
Grow Up Artist Project 2014, work grant, Asahi Art Square
The Bacon Prize, Art Fair Tokyo 2014
Research of Arts and Cultural Exchange for ASEAN (18th to 23rd Feb), Japan
Foundation Barcelona Exchange Residency Program, Tokyo Wonder Site
Daiwa Foundation Small Grant, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Granted for Arts & Culture, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Asia-Europe Foundation Award
Prix Ars Electronica, Honorary Mention (Interactive Art Category), Ars Electronica 06
Transmediale Award, 2nd Prize, Transmediale 06
