Programmed to coincide with the first solo exhibition by Daisuke Ida at 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo that extended the artist’s ongoing enquiry into the work of art in the age of digital reproduction. (b. 1987, Born in Tottori, Japan)

Photo Sculpture explores the artists’ critique of the mode of production of the original and copy, image and realism, what is authentic or real; a thematic for his work. In principle, a work of art has always been reproducible. Artefacts could always be imitated, digital reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new. Historically, reproducibility advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but in our digital age with accelerated intensity. It is possible to send anywhere or to re-create anywhere sensations, or more precisely a system of stimuli, object or event in any given time or place. With 3D printing, the technique of reproduction has reached an essentially new stage.

Collectively titled Photo Sculpture and referencing The Gates of Hell (French: La Porte de l’Enfer) a monumental sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Ida’s reproduction of this iconic work through the process of its reproduction given the work new significance simply beyond the realm of art. Here the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.

It’s reproduction, a plurality of possible copies, reactivating the object reproduced.

Ida’s work of art acquires a kind of ubiquity, the reproduction and transmission of work of art is the work itself. Ide’s works then call for a reappraisal of the aura of the original work, presence in time and space, its unique existence questioned through its digital reproduction.

Organised by 3331 Arts Chiyoda