“There are many alter egos of you all over the world,” teases Japanese artist Kazuki Takamatsu, whose latest body of work, Parallelization Era, is on display at Los Angeles gallery Corey Helford through Nov. 11, 2023.
Kazuki’s sixth solo show at Corey Helford, his first since 2021’s Your Wings, Parallelization Era “expresses the parallel processing of human beings, who use multiple brains to derive a single answer at high speed.” Using a combination of airbrush, drawing, and computer graphics, a signature technique he calls “depth mapping,” Kazuki creates eerie portraits of a society with the answers to all of life’s questions. “In recent years, I feel that we don’t think for ourselves but rather we ask the internet all our questions,” he says. “We’ve entered an age in which we can share answers that feel good to us with someone we don't even know.”
Inspired by classic Japanese manga, Kazuki uses his depth-mapping technique to create layered compositions that give viewers a glimpse into a haunting abyss. Translucent figures float through an inky, eternal night, accompanied by perfect doppelgangers, all thinking the same thoughts.
“You will be given answers one after another, answers that you have never experienced,’ Kazuki says. “What you should do in the future, and even what you should buy. I feel a strange sense of wonder in this age where efficiency is so important that we no longer worry about a single answer and think deeply about it. Someone is a part of me, and I am a part of someone else.”
Parallelization Era is on view through Nov. 11, 2023, at Corey Helford Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. The exhibition runs alongside Because I Wanted You To Know by German artist duo [coarse] in the Main Gallery and Bound by Nature, a three-artist exhibition in Gallery 2.
“There are many alter egos of you all over the world.” — Kazuki Takamatsu
Kazuki Takamatsu: Website | Instagram
All photos published with permission of the artist(s).
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