About Jeu.
Established in 2019, Jeu. is an art duo consisting of an architect Hideaki NISHIMURA and an artist Yumi TOYAMA.
The purpose of Jeu.'s artistic activities is to discover and demonstrate a different way of thinking, feeling, and looking at things by playing with the unseen laws and structures of the world lurking in the depth of our perception —which we call "DEEP REALITY"—.
For this reason, Jeu.'s artistic manifesto is "PLAY WITH DEEP REALITY", and through various media —sculpture, drawing, photography, video, installation, architecture, and land art—, created by integrating the knowledge, skills and experiences that each of us specializes in, such as mathematics, physics, architectonics, anatomy, cosmetology and chromatics, we attempt to embody our artistic dialogues, thoughts and plays with "DEEP REALITY".
Artistic Technique
Jeu.'s works are the result of a fusion of individual interests, techniques, and artistic visions.
A series of "2.5-Dimensional Leather Painting/Sculpture" is created by embossing/debossing and dyeing on the surface of leather, representing the artistic theme of the interrelationship between body, perception, space and dimensionality through the pulsation of light and shadow produced by the surface manipulation and an unique atmosphere of leather dyeing differing from water or oil painting.
Some of Jeu.'s works are born from the knowledge and experience gained in the process of architectural design, such as building materials for special applications, computer simulations for light analysis and environmental engineering, and proportions based on structural mechanics.
Artist: Hideaki NISHIMURA
Hideaki NISHIMURA is a first-class licensed architect in Japan and the representative of an architectural agency ANTI -Atelier across Art and Architecture- (www.anti.archi).
Since earning his master's degree in architecture in Italy, in addition to his works as an award-winning architect, he has also been creating installation artworks and land art projects.
As a specialist in the manipulation of space, his constant interest is to visualize the laws of the world that are not reflected on the retina, such as the circulation of forces in the universe and nature, the relationship of each element in space and time, and the tension between the inside and outside of an object.
His attempts to visualise invisible laws can be found in his some artworks such as BALANCE | IMBALANCE (www.anti.archi/balance-imbalance)" and "WATER CONCERTO (www.anti.archi/water-concerto)".
In order to give shape to the traces of such "DEEP REALITY", he is expanding his field of activity from architecture to contemporary art.
Artist: Yumi TOYAMA
After studying oil painting and silverpoint drawing, Yumi TOYAMA worked as a colourist and a manicurist in the luxury fashion industry in Paris.
Her nail artworks (www.instagram.com/v.uej/), characterized by subtle colours and minimalistic sculptural expressions, were highly appreciated from major fashion companies such as VOGUE, CHANEL, CHRISTIAN DIOR and CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN, and she had been commissioned to work on a variety of projects such as brand advertisements, magazine shootings, and beauty consultings.
During her creative experience in the glamorized luxury fashion industry, however, her artistic interests gradually turned away from the fictional world of branding toward the real world without any deception.
The purpose of her creation has now shifted from merely pursuing visual beauty into evoking contemplation and self-reflection through the messages and questions contained in her artworks.
As a creator who was once complicit in establishing the fictional fashion system, she believes now that what we need to communicate to the world today is not to encourage people to escape into an artificial fantasy world, but rather to confront "DEEP REALITY" that is not influenced by the superficial fictions.
This is the reason why she has changed her life from a manicurist in the fashion world to a contemporary artist, pursuing the theme of "DEEP REALITY" to bring a new perspective to people's perceptions in our world full of fictions.
