Ishizuka’s workshop Graphic Movements is based on a simple exercise, participants pair up back-to-back and sit down and stand up without using their hands, which requires both cooperation and trust. The principle of this movement is found in the Japanese martial art Aikido, where you react to and use your counterpart’s movement. The attempts both succeed and fail, leading to misunderstandings and new interpretations, and sometimes to manifestations of feelings and emotions. It’s not necessary for the participants to succeed – the artist appreciates that everyone taking part, including those who cheer on or offer advice from the sidelines, may experience and share the emotional moments that arise. In all its simplicity, this physical, poetic and playful movement embodies the universal concept of humanity.

A form of language-based movement is also represented in another group of works, which were created in connection with a residency in Lithuania, where Ishizuka learnt that certain letters had formerly been banned. Q, W and X, which do not exist in the Lithuanian alphabet, were prohibited in given names in official documents for decades, until 2022. Considering that the letter W is often used in Polish names, and that Poles constitute six per cent of Lithuania’s population and its largest ethnic minority, she found this especially disconcerting. On a visit to a graveyard, Ishizuka noticed that the ethnicity of the people buried there could be discerned by the inscriptions of the letter W on the gravestones.

This new knowledge, and the fact that the artist happened to have a roll of red-and-white-striped barrier tape from Sweden, led to a series of works with the collective title Sculpture of W. Her portrayal of the once-banned letter W, as a symbol of minorities and an act of resistance that defies being registered as such by the authorities, was initially carried out on site in Lithuania, often in several ephemeral ways. On one occasion, the artist performed an act that consisted of a rhythmical gymnastic-like movement, drawing a W in the air. Her “paint brush” simply consisted of a few metres of the barrier tape she had brought, tied to the end of a metal ruler.

In our exhibition, several variations of Sculpture of W are presented. Two stills from the film documenting the event described above, transform a few fleeting seconds of the ribbon’s movements into near-sculptural objects – Sculpture of W (ribbon, variation run) and Sculpture of W (ribbon, variation float). A new temporary sculpture has been installed in the gallery, Sculpture of W (ping pong), where the subtitle refers not to the sport but is a pun relating to the positioning of the barrier tape – the Japanese onomatopoeic word for doorbell is “ping pong”. In Sculpture of W (primal correction), Ishizuka revisits calligraphy, this time with a self-critical nod, as the attempt to depict the movement of the ribbon is performed on Japanese calligraphy paper with the same type of red mineral pigment as a master uses to correct a student.

A consistent feature of Mako Ishizuka’s practice is her ability to generate encounters. Bringing together languages and cultures, individuals and generations, large and small. In relation to the exhibition at Konsthall 16, she is not only making room to meet on site but also outside the actual exhibition space, with workshops held around the county as part of her project.

Like a musician inviting an esteemed colleague to an album or a concert, Ishizuka treats us to yet another encounter by inviting the artist Patricia Treib to participate in the exhibition. When Ishizuka first saw works by Treib, she was immediately impressed by the dynamic movements in her paintings, executed with a Japanese brush, that register the physical effort involved. Even if this was not Treib’s intention, Ishizuka discerned a form of calligraphy in the motifs of these paintings. The central parts of Patina II reminded her of the Chinese pictograph for hometown, which can be interpreted as two people sitting opposite each other with a pot on a table between them, while Sinuate resembled the pictograph for a galloping horse.

Movement is a key element in Treib’s paintings, but content-wise, they are based on memories of motifs and colours amassed over a long time. Numerous saved moments and glimpses, such as the contour of a sleeve in a painting by Piero della Francesca, or the face of an old clock, serve as catalysts. These gathered fragments of motifs are translated by Treib into sweeping, vaguely figurative yet abstract shapes that somehow allude to their origin. Regardless of theme, there is a kinship between the two artists that is of a poetic rather than overtly visual nature, and the works of each are of a highly personal nature.

Mako Ishizuka invites us to ruminate on the meaning of being human, and to reconsider our relationship to the world. Regardless of style and format, her projects and works are imbued with a genuine appreciation of the underlying encounters that they build on and communicate to us. We hope that this exhibition will also offer memorable encounters and experiences.

Our warm thanks to the private collector and Galerie Nordenhake, who have lent us the paintings by Patricia Treib, and to Region Stockholm for support to the workshops held in connection with the exhibition.

Ulrika Levén, curator