Sam Stocker: Surrogate Structures

"Surrogate Structures" is an exhibition catalogue for the British artist's, Sam Stocker, installation at The Container, Tokyo. It is the 14th catalogue in a series published by the gallery to archive and promote artists in Japan and abroad. The catalogue showcases writings by the gallery director, Shai Ohayon, and Tokyo-based writer/artist James Jack, as well as notes by Sam Stocker. The publication chronicles Stocker's, a recent PhD graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) graduate, art creating process for his site-specific life-size sculptural installation at The Container. Responding to a specific site is a pivotal element in Stocker's works where historical and geographical findings are dressed in highly personal associative events, memories, and thoughts. Slowly, through a journey of discovery that Stocker consciously undertakes, shapes and concepts emerge and grow, taking on a life of their own to piece together a new piece of art. Although at first look many of his structures seem untidy, they present keen attention to detail and high aesthetic accuracy. The shapes and structures are convincingly premeditated, and enable the viewers to experience the installations both physically and psychologically. Much of Stocker's process is collecting materials and making connections, some sort of a cerebral game, in efforts to "find the work". Thereafter, production starts, fitting in all of the components together, like a puzzle. Although the final pieces are exhaustively planned, they are still also tentative and come to life with the instinctive input of the artist. Stocker does not seek to justify his works or give them a purpose. It is art for art's sake-terribly subjective and "pointless", but it is this purism that is fundamental in the way Stocker defines his role as an artist. He seeks to create bits of his own world, live his own art, surrounds himself with it, in an endeavor to present his version of truth through his art making. Sam Stocker's installation at The Container, Surrogate Structures, such as in his previous works, is inspired by research and visits the artist conducted to the area. One such location that influenced the artist's work for the exhibition is the existence of a Fujizuka just behind the location of the gallery. Fujizuka are small mounds, replicas representing Mount Fuji, found in and around Tokyo. These surrogates became popular during the Edo period to enable pilgrims who could not climb Mount Fuji to experience the ten stations of the mountain right to the summit. The irony of the concept intrigues the artist, but also the nurturing nature of Fujizuka, comforting the needy like a womb, a vessel, a box. The Container is a contemporary exhibition space in Nakameguro, Tokyo. The space opened in March 2011 to create a site that encourages people to engage with art installations and works, where the emphasis is on curation and the accessibility of contemporary art and ideas to the general public. As the name suggests, the physical space is no more than a constructed shipping container (485x180x177cm), made to measurements of old Japanese shipping containers, housed inside Bross hair salon, in one of Tokyo's most loved and trendy neighbourhoods. The Container invites Japanese and international artists to make site-specifc installations four times a year. Each installation remains on view to the public for two-and-a- half months. Since 2013, The Container also started to publish full-colour, bilingual (Jap/Eng) exhibition catalogues, available online and at the gallery. The space receives extensive international coverage, including ArtAsiaPacific, Artforum, Hyperallergic, Glass Magazine, Art & Antiques Magazine, Dazed & Confused, Blouin Artinfo, Art-iT, Bijutsu-Techo/BT, NHK, Tokyo Art Beat, The Japan Times, and The Sunday Times, travel guides and in-flight magazines, to mention only a few. www.the-container.com