Chu Enoki

 

 

Chu Enoki
Born in Kagawa, 1944. Lives and works in Hyogo.

A self-taught artist with a few drawing lessons at the age of 20, Enoki took part in creative activities as a member of “Kobe Japan Zero”, an avant-garde artists group that examined the exhibition form associating with public competition. He utilizes a various forms of artistic expression from ambitious performances – “Naked Happening” (Hadaka no Hapuningu) in 1970, and remarkable “Going to Hungary with HANGARI” in 1977, when he shaved off every hair from head to toe on the right side of his body and traveled to Hungary which has put him in a spotlight, to a large-scale installation in 1979, “LSDF” (Life Self Defense Force), an enormous canon sculpture pointing at a house of a Japanese gangster’s boss. Enoki’s provocative and unconventional performance includes mesmerizing “BAR ROSE CHU”, in the temporal bar he brought into an exhibition floor, and dressed as a hostess to entertain the visitors. On the other hand, with skillful experience in working at the metal manufacturing factory, Enoki continued creating machinery sculptures and objects with used steel and metal parts, and especially after Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster in 1995. His sculpture works reflect and derive from the futuristic urban city with recycled metal parts. Enoki’s modesty in spending his time to have continued working at the factory until a retirement age is a great impact to many contemporary artists of all generations.

His previous and major exhibitions include “Gyu and Chu: Ushio Shinohara and Chu Enoki” Toyota Municipal Museum, Aichi (2007), “ROPPONGI CROSSING 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2007), “Chu Enoki: This Man, Hazardous” Miyanomori International Museum, Sapporo (2008), and “Unleashing the Museum: Chu Enoki” Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo (2011), “LSDF-014” Yamamoto Gendai (2014), “Chu Enoki: Enoki Chu” White Rainbow, London (2015), “Tetsu to Enoki Chu” Soja Art House, Okayama (2016), “Busan Biennale 2016 Part Ⅰ: an/other avant-garde china-japan-korea” Busan Museum of Art, Busan (2016), “Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown” The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2018), “Chu Enoki x Yukinori Yanagi CROSSROAD 3: Man! Fight and Secure a Place to Live” ART BASE MOMOSHIMA, Hiroshima (2018), and “MADE IN KOBE” Gallery Shimada, Hyogo (2018).

 

Collection

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
Miyanomori International Museum of Art, Sapporo（MIMAS）, Hokkaido, Japan
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Takahashi Ryutaro Collection

 

News Archives

 

Exhibition