Kazuko Splendor

Kazuko Splendor presents a body of work that bears the signature elements of Gonzalez Noguchi’s work; notably her engraved metals precision of species of orchids and an assemblage of seemingly random items that are rich in narrative and provenance as they originate from her grandparents’ home in Japan. Hand-crafted objects, industrially finished surfaces, prosaic artefacts and images are layered, and through this a shift in meaning and purpose is acquired. Gonzalez Noguchi is seeking to challenge and refine the combination of industrial, handmade, and pre-existing objects towards articulating different states of remembering. The display includes two new works made particularly for the space of La Boulangerie! that reference the French luxury influence and infiltration in the mainstream Japanese culture particularly in the 80s and 90s. The works titled Comfort cavity I & II, illuminate a collection of personal archives that form the integral structure of her sculptural language, of innocuous possessions and images that compress to form a relief. The biscuit tins presented in the window of La Boulangerie!, habitual gifts that once satisfied one’s sweet tooth, now house accumulated buttons, diary annotations, towel offcuts, photographic documentation of orchids and engraved copper plates. After sweetness comes decay. After one state of functionality comes another, the tins become simultaneously rooms, sculptures and screens. A record and a projection where principles of hybrid thinking and hybrid making are felt through orchids and text, hobbies and professions, internalisations and expressions are played out into the Parisian dusk at the plane between public and private domain.