{"id":102,"date":"2024-03-15T11:04:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T11:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/?p=102"},"modified":"2026-02-03T03:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T03:14:14","slug":"adam-chodzko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Adam Chodzko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden<\/em>, a solo exhibition of video and mixed media by British artist Adam Chodzko (b. 1965, London), was produced during a two-month international residency in Japan. This was the artist\u2019s first solo show in a Japanese gallery.<\/p>\n

The exhibition presents a suite of works exploring Chodzko’s ongoing investigations into how communities connect with their sense of self, place, history, and the world beyond. In Rupture 2015<\/em>, Chodzko examines what may be revealed or concealed in such encounters\u2014between gallery, audience, neighbour, art object, and foreign artist\u2014through interwoven mythologies that blur documentary ‘truth’ with science fiction to convey a psychological surrealism. Acts of empathy become transformation: a gallery becomes a human body, a group of people become strangers in a 1960s postcard, the artist becomes parts of trees in the gallery garden. These processes are visualised as a form of \u2018folding.\u2019<\/p>\n

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden<\/em> also considers the idea of a \u2018Mixed Bathing World\u2019\u2014the theme of the Beppu Triennial\u2014from a Western European artist\u2019s outsider perspective. This idealised view of communal innocence is mapped onto two found postcards (from Henrico, Virginia, and Tampa, Florida), both based on the same 1963 photograph of people passing through a Beppu arcade. One is a black-and-white image showing two girls in the foreground; the other, hand-coloured, crops them out and fabricates details. This revision casts doubt on the photographic \u2018truth\u2019 and triggers a process of deconstruction by a group of participants in Kannawa, who reflect on the image\u2019s psychological and communal dimensions. Ideas of innocence, shame, and exile unfold through this \u2018return,\u2019 with Beppu\u2019s steam becoming a metaphor for emotional release and uncontrollable knowledge.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Somewhere Else, In Order to Complete Them<\/em>, a myth is recounted in which artists are credited with shaping Beppu\u2019s identity, even attributing the city\u2019s constant steam eruptions to a 1970s artist intervention. Chodzko links his own practice in Kent, UK, to these Beppu eruptions, suggesting a deep, geological connection. A series of moving image works\u2014from slide projections to video\u2014are shown in Beppu\u2019s Kannawa area but also \u2018reach out\u2019 to other locations such as Governors Island (New York), Athens, and Belgrade. A video installation capturing Japanese audiences watching the work in Fujiya Gallery was later shown in the UK, again questioning where and how we locate ourselves in the world.\u00a0The monitor playing this video and its surrounding environment within Fujiya Gallery was filmed, during the exhibition, being encountered by a Japanese audience. The resulting \u2018video of a video\u2019 was presented in an exhibition Chodzko in the UK, at Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury, again to call into question where and how<\/em> we might be in the world.<\/p>\n

Watch >> Film<\/a><\/p>\n

In Our Host Postponed the Drinks Until After the Storm<\/em>, the \u2018host\u2019\u2014perhaps the artist or the gallery itself\u2014reaches out to neighbouring buildings via a proposed bamboo plumbing system, designed to deliver a drink between neighbours. This exchange is interrupted by a looming storm, leaving the gallery\u2019s \u2018arms\u2019\u2014the bamboo structures\u2014pruned and bandaged in the garden. Inside, the gallery holds what remains of the system, now a \u2018useless\u2019 art object. Photographs of the neighbours show them endlessly waiting to complete their exchange.<\/p>\n

In Here.<\/em>, a pair of momohiki<\/em> (Japanese agricultural work trousers) and the pruned branches of all trees in the Fujiya Gallery garden form the work. Each branch pointing to a bearing of 280\u00b043\u203200\u2032\u2032\u2014the direction of Chodzko\u2019s home in Whitstable, Kent\u2014is cut. This subtle intervention alters the garden permanently. The artist hides his action within the momohiki<\/em>, suggesting a concealed shame. Yet, like a dream revealing what we try to suppress, the amputated branches\u2014clad in the trousers\u2014appear to walk away, returning home.<\/p>\n

Chodzko has exhibited at major institutions worldwide, including Tate Britain, Tate St Ives, Venice Biennale, PS1 New York, Ikon Gallery, the Henry Moore Institute, and the Folkestone Triennial. His work has been commissioned by Creative Time (New York), Frieze Art Fair, Hayward Gallery, and Film and Video Umbrella. He has also featured in British Council-curated exhibitions, from General Release<\/em> (Venice Biennale, 1995) to Private Utopia<\/em> (Japan, 2014).<\/p>\n

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden<\/em> was curated by Keith Whittle and commissioned and co-produced with Beppu NPO as part of the Kashima Artist in Residence 2015, supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Chodzko<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","col-md-4 col-sm-6"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/keithwhittle.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Adam-Chodzko-Postcard.jpeg?fit=672%2C448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5178,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/5178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}