Takashi Hokoi
Born in Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa, Japan, in 1984, he graduated from the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2010, and has been a part-time lecturer at the Tokyo University of the Arts Three-Dimensional Workshop Studio since 2016.
When I was a student at the University of Tsukuba, I was a member of a human-powered airplane club. I participated in the Bird Man Contest and flew as a pilot. I began creating works that visualize invisible winds based on my experience of having my plane tossed around by the slightest breeze.
On the other hand, in 2010, after completing the graduate course at Tokyo University of the Arts, I started working for NHK as a cameraman and was assigned to the Fukushima Bureau. During the Great East Japan Earthquake, I provided aerial coverage of the tsunami that hit the Sendai Plain from a helicopter. While I was able to survive the tsunami by flying, the footage I shot while witnessing the damage was broadcast live around the world. On March 12, while covering the tsunami and nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture, a hydrogen explosion occurred at a nuclear power plant while I was in the coastal area, and at the subsequent press conference by the governor of Fukushima Prefecture, I realized for the first time that the energy used in my native Kanto comes from Fukushima and Niigata, and that I am indifferent to where the energy I need to make a living comes from. I was shocked to realize that I had spent my entire life without paying attention to where the energy I needed for my daily life was coming from.
These experiences have led me to question the relationship between energy and nature from a variety of perspectives, using the motif of wind as a theme. I am currently living between Fukushima and Tokyo, and I would like to face my expression with gratitude for being kept alive by nature and for being allowed to use energy. Rather than dividing nature and human society in two, I would like to ask dynamic questions with a multifaceted sense of value while traveling back and forth between the two.
I am currently participating in art festivals around Japan and overseas artist-in-residence programs.
2022 Chaing mai and Nakanojo exchange program (Chaing mai, Thailand)
2021 Nomura Foundation Grants for the Arts (Japan)
Nakanojo Biennale 2021 (Gunma, Japan)
HIBIYA BLOSSOM 2021 (Tokyo, Japan)
2020 SIM Artist in residence (Reykjavik, Iceland)
Vermont Studio Center Artist in Residence (Vermont, USA)
Vermont Studio Center Artist Grant (Vermont, USA)
2019 Nakanojo Biennale 2019 (Gunma, Japan)
2018 Rokko Meets Art (Hyogo, Japan)
2018 Seizan Iizaka Onsen Art Festival (Fukushima, Japan)
2017 Nakanojo Biennale 2017 (Gunma, Japan)
2016 Exhibition “Traveling Fukushima with Cherry Blossoms" (Kanagawa, Japan)
2015 When the Wind Blows: Fukushima and Portadown Cultural (Northern Ireland)
2014 Alafud Art Annual 2014 (Fukushima, Japan)
2013 Tsuchiyu Alafud Art Annual (Fukushima, Japan)
