The Outside's Inside

Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany, 2004

  The polarity and ambivalence of inside and out, together with space, architecture, organic matter, light, color, motion - are the parameters Shiro Matsui uses in his art. His works live with a charged field, marked by dynamics, communication, interpenetration and energy exchange. 

  Spaces are linked by pipes and hoses, flexible materials are used to form tunnels and entrances, passages and funnels, producing constructions whose forms essentially - although not solely - follow the dictates of the space, the character of the material, and the elementary laws of physics.

The Inside's Outside (2004)
yellow ripstop nylon, 10 fans, wire, 440x715x580 cm


  The magnificent, dazzling yellow tunnel that in 2001 connected the rotunda of Tokyo's old National Museum with the ground floor was based on a precisely calculated interaction between the architecture, the elasticity of the stretchy material, and the laws of gravity. 

In his Heidelberg installations, Shiro Matsui goes one step further and creates organ-like structures whose form is determined solely by wind. In the main exhibition hall, a taut, bright yellow membrane divides the space in to two more or less equal halves. 

  The rear section cannot be entered, the thin but nevertheless impregnable wall reaches two thirds of the way up to the hall's roof. It opens up at its centre as if life is breathed in to it by a group of powerful by highly varied fans, thus forming a cave that we may enter. The visitor removes his or her shoes, as is the custom in Japan, and crosses the threshold to a beautiful, seemingly weightless ambience of light and color - with surprisingly no trace of wind.

If, however, he or she wishes to know what it looks like form outside, the visitor has to ascend to the upper gallery, where a totally different panorama opens up. The association of the sheltering uterus is augmented by a vision of a giant phallus. 

The Outside's Inside (2004)
blue ripstop nylon, fan, chip board, 750x400x110 cm

Viewed concretely in Heidelberg, we see a blueness shining up form the depths. Outside space infiltrates the inside. An expansive construction in several parts, comprising organs that almost completely fill two rooms, distends and then collapses in the rhythm of breathing. 

Suitcase (2004)
brass plated steel, 45x60x100cm  


  The spy hole in the case-like safe refuses to grant any view inside, once again undermining our normal expectations, while compensating for this by a manifestation of the unexpected: on opening the door the world outside is mirrored in the shiny polished bronze that which the exhibition's title refers to: "The Outside's Inside".


Text by Hans Gercke