Takahiko Suzuki
Takahiko SUZUKI Solo Exhibition-踅夜市 se̍h iā-tshī | 2022.11.05(Sat.) - 2022.12.03(Sat.)
ART TAIPEI 2022 | 2022.10.21(Fri.) - 2022.10.24(Mon.)
Art Tainan | 2022-03-05 ~2022-03-05
Der-Horng Autumn Photo Show | 2020.09.21(Mon) - 10.17(Sat)
Extra city + Group Exhibition of Cities Dialogue | 2019-08-10 ~2019-08-31
2019 Art Taipei｜Der-Horng Art Gallery Booth P08 | 2019-07-06 ~2019-07-07
Art Taipei 2018 | 2018-10-26 ~2018-10-28
KIAF 2018 Art Seoul | 2018-10-04 ~2018-10-07
2018 Art Tainan | 2018-03-16 ~2018-03-18
Art Central HK 2018 | 2018-03-27 ~2018-04-01
Global-StoreProject is an ongoing creative project by artist Takahiko Suzuki that has been running for more than a decade. The project’s Chinese name is "全球商店計畫". "The overused cliché term 'globalization' is translated as 'cosmopolitanism' in Japanese, and it leaves me with an initial impression that 'the world is unified and equal,' even though it is the exact opposite." - Takahiko Suzuki
A 2.5D photo that looks like a model.
The 3D photos made from 2-dimensional photos tend to look similar to models. However, it is actually a real photographic image. People may not be able to tell the difference between a "model" and "2.5D photo", but if they understand the definition of model and photo, they will know that these two concepts are completely different. Therefore, it has been given the name 2.5D photo, a new photographic concept term created by the artist himself. The components of these 2.5D photographs are also open for non-commercial use on the Global Store Project/global-store.info website, and the artist has shared the copyright/creative commons (CC) license terms for the work, allowing viewers to download the elements to make 2.5D photographs from the store.
Those interested can freely download and create their own works.
The Advertisement poster with the theme of "tomorrow will be better"
Poster of a store advertisement featuring a completed 2.5D photo; with a clear blue sky and white clouds as a background, the poster of a store advertisement stands at an elevated vantage point. A set of latitude and longitude coordinates are marked in the center of the screen, along with the Global Store Program website in black and white at the bottom. The form of this poster is taken from the design template of real estate sales advertisements that we can see everywhere in our daily life: a kind of imagination and expectation of a better future ahead. For most viewers, such a poster may be two-dimensional and uninteresting, thinking that it is a direct shot of the store itself, then with the background removed and replaced with blue sky and white clouds.
But for people with photography expertise, it is easy to observe some clues. Due to the depth of field when taking 2.5D photos of objects at close focus elevation, it is necessary to focus on each corner of the object after taking the photo. The images then need to be formed into a collage to create a panoramic focused image, a process which is both tedious and hardly noticeable... but the artist is able to test the viewer's sharp eye in such a simple and unpretentious way.
The performance art of a sign-bearer for off-site advertising
Finally, the poster, which is imbued with the message that tomorrow will be better, is made into a signboard that is taken to a city other than the one where the store is located. A person is recruited to stand on the side of the road with the sign to show to people and cars passing by (just like the job of a sign-bearer for a property development that is often seen on the side of the road). Independent businesses, usually located where people live, are mostly known only to local people. People who will shop at these stores, or the advertising effect of the store itself, will only happen in the local area. By moving from city to city around the world, the artist takes the posters of these stores, advertises them in different places, and then photographs the performance art of sign-bearers. The latitude and longitude of the location of the sign-bearer are also included in the photo of the sign-bearer, so you will see two sets of latitude and longitude coordinates on this photo at the same time; one is the location of the store. Another is where the sign-bearer is located at. This advertising form is a message network in which a message is spread from "here" to "there" in a two-dimensional image with a three-dimensional layer. The Global-StoreProject also utilizes QRcode technology, the easiest way to communicate digitally, in its exhibitions, thus linking the different forms of media at each stage of the project. From 2.5D photography, store advertising posters, street sign-bearers, advertising performance art, and online business service communication, all are integrated into the exhibition site through this easy-to-use software. While viewing the works, visitors can use their mobile phones to scan the QR codes located next to the work descriptions, posters and 2.5D photography works to link to the web information of the objects on site. This includes navigating to the store's location via Google Maps, information on the type of store, and elements that make up the 2.5D photo. These interspersed networks of "here" and "there", invisible in the field, are the main structure of the project's external form.
Conclusions
The network architecture of Takahiko Suzuki's Global-StoreProject fully exploits the maximum amount of "globalization" that an individual artist can perform. This globalization, which is carried out by the artist for unique independent regional stores, fights back against the dominance of the omnipresent globalization of monopolistic corporations. But rather than resistance, the whole project is a quest and attitude for fairness. However, since the world fell into the COVID-19 crisis and trade wars in 2020, the globalized economic structure began to be overturned. At the same time, the closure of national borders due to pandemic prevention has compelled people to shift from the global consumer vision of the past to focus on the possibilities of local, and regional economic models, a change in direction that is consistent with the local, independent store characteristics that Takahiko Suzuki has always emphasized in his Global-StoreProject.
Global-StoreProject website
http://global- store.info
To be announced