The Fire

Size: H162.1 × W130.3 × D3 cm (F100)

Medium: oil on canvas

Year: 2025
Edition: one of a kind (unique piece)

Certificate: ⚪ ︎

Signature: ︎⚪ ︎

Various photographs, posters, and objects are arranged in a place like a working table. In the center, there is a picture of the marble sculpture “Giustiniani Hestia” from the Torlonia Collection in Rome. This photograph is attached to a cardboard and cut out according to the shape of the sculpture, and the background part hangs from the upper right back with two wires. Multiple images of flames that look like wallpaper are placed at the back of the screen, and from the back right to the front left, a mural depicting the process of making bread, excavated from the tomb of a butler who served an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, floats diagonally in the hollow. In contact with that, the furnace (earthenware used for cooking) that commonly appears in “Bread, Fire, Cooking” and “Hearth and Bakers” looks blurry and hides. Behind the Hestia statue, there is a cardboard structure that supports the photograph of Hestia, and an adhesive is applied and it seems that it is not dry.

The goddess Hestia, who appears in Greek mythology, controls the order of the furnace, home, and nation. It became an object of worship, and a hearth was placed in the temple instead of an altar, and it was enshrined so as not to extinguish the fire. Since that time, the hearth has also been a place to bake bread, so bread has become a symbol of Hestia.

Since images such as Hestia, the furnace, and bread making in ancient Egypt are lined up in images of fire, it can be said that the relationship between fire and humans that has continued since ancient times, and the history of bread, is shown. Nonetheless, in the present, where it is possible to gather information from the past, present, east, and west for a single subject by searching on the web or AI, Kumakura's act of physically cutting out, gluing, and hanging each image and element can catch a glimpse of the authenticity of the information, separation from the original context, the relationship between the real thing and the reproduction, and things like throwing at the fact that someone can manipulate the information.

In terms of the relationship between the real thing and the reproduction, there is a bakery and cafe space attached to the exhibition hall Gallery & Bakery Tokyo 8 min., so people will see the work along with the aroma and taste of bread. The experience of thinking about the relationship and history between bread and humans while chewing on the real thing may be said to be a trick unique to this place.

Kumakura Ryoko's production begins by setting a theme. Next, pieces in line with the theme are collected from web searches and book information, a place like a workbench is set up digitally on an iPad, etc., and the pieces and composition are examined. After that, as the artist herself says, “making a motif,” the work table is reproduced in a real space, the wire is bent, the image is printed out, cut, glued, and arranged. Once the content and structure are fixed, the motif is copied while looking at what was taken and output in painting format.

Most of the elements that appear in the work are images found on the web or in books, and after all, replicated information that circulates in a state where the real thing is somewhere. This information continues to tell the story and background related to the original, but it does not mention that it is a copy itself. However, in Kumakura's works, attention should be paid to the fact that mechanisms that emphasize the uniqueness of reproduction and raise questions are applied during the motif making process.

Period
May 31 (Sat) - July 1 (Tue), 2025

Venue

Gallery & Bakery Tokyo 8 min

Address

104-0031

TODA BUILDING 1F, 1-7-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Google maps

Opening Hours
08:00〜19:00

Closed

Open every day during the exhibition period

Admission
Free

Access

3 min walk from exit 6 of Kyobashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line.

5 min walk from exit B1 of Nihonbashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line.

8 min walk from the Yaesu Central Exit of Tokyo Station on all JR Line.

Tokyo 8 min official Instagram