9s Gallery, TRiCERA’s art gallery, will host a solo exhibition by Sacco Fujishima, "WRONG HERO," from October 19th (Sat) to October 27th (Sun), 2024.
TRiCERA Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Tai Iguchi), a company that operates the contemporary art marketplace, will hold a solo exhibition by Sacco Fujishima, titled "WRONG HERO," at its art gallery, 9s Gallery, from October 19th (Sat) to October 27th (Sun), 2024.
Artist Statement
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” - Virginia Woolf
Recently, I conducted a survey on social media, where numerous voices concerning gender were raised. For instance, some women spoke of the hardships of being prioritized as the eldest son, while men expressed their struggles with being valued not as individuals but as "eldest sons." These voices, often entangled in socially imposed roles, tend to get lost within the vastness of the internet. "WRONG HERO" is an attempt to make these voices visible in the realms of games and art.
I've always felt like I've been treated as an "NPC (Non-Player Character)" for others in society. Like a supporting character, I've been expected to follow a script and simply complement the "protagonist's" story. But are we truly bound to our assigned roles?
The protagonist of "WRONG HERO" is a woman who chose to "reject being a princess and become a hero." She faces ridicule for being "a girl who…" while she fights, gradually updating her NPC-like perspective through interactions with villagers. Her very existence, as if planting a flag in a new reality, brings to light those buried voices.
In Japanese society, despite women composing half of the population, decision-making positions are overwhelmingly occupied by men. While individual efforts to change one's own roles are crucial, they alone cannot lead to the "next level." If societal "rules," as well as "preconceived notions" and "unconscious biases" remain unchanged, escaping the fixed gender roles becomes challenging.
This exhibition serves as an experimental platform to unearth these silenced voices and confront audiences with their imposed roles. As players, audiences may not only question their own choices but also recognize the need for systemic revisions.
Virginia Woolf said, "Anonymous was a woman," but we're tired of these roles. The protagonist of "WRONG HERO" is no longer willing to be a "princess" waiting to be rescued, nor do men need to be burdened with the role of "heroes who must be strong." It's time for everyone to break free from the predetermined scripts of "hero" or "sidekick" and create their own new quests.
Work (Development Image)
Gallery Comment
Starting October 19th, 2024, 9s Gallery will host "WRONG HERO," a solo exhibition by contemporary artist Sacco Fujishima.
Sacco Fujishima is an artist who gained significant attention in 2020 with her presentation of a virtual demonstration. By considering reposts on social media as participants, she placed avatars in a virtual parliament building, sharing the scene on social media. During the pandemic, when going out and gathering were difficult, this virtual demonstration drew attention as an attempt to combine individual voices into a unified chorus, reaching far and wide.
Furthermore, after organizing the virtual demonstration, Fujishima received countless comments via social media. While the claims voiced in demonstrations carry great power, the individual journeys leading each person to their assertions often get disregarded. However, in the virtual demonstration, raw voices accumulate in their original form. Fujishima has diligently produced a collection of works, both in the real and virtual world, that aim to capture and make these "individual voices" visible.
The new work "WRONG HERO," unveiled in this exhibition, was conceived with the concept of enabling audiences to experience these "individual voices," which are often buried in the text-filled timelines, in a format beyond mere text.
For this purpose, Fujishima presents "WRONG HERO," a new work employing the form of video games. Video games, often associated with entertainment, possess significant characteristics as media art. They allow players to personally and immersively engage in the experience of adopting the masks/personas of others. Utilizing this characteristic, Fujishima presents a new perspective on social issues.
Moreover, "WRONG HERO" is also inspired by the unease Fujishima felt while playing games during her childhood. PlayStation, Game Boy – in the 1980s, the overwhelming majority of player avatars and protagonists were male.* Be it the world of swords and sorcery or the sci-fi realm of destroying enemy aircraft, an implicit gender norm was embedded within them.
The protagonist of "WRONG HERO" is a woman. Players interact with NPCs through her, encountering various prejudiced words based on gender ("Why are you XX even though you're a girl?"). Emotional and weak women, strong men who mustn't cry, a world where women and men are the only existing genders. The behavior of NPCs reflects the voices of individuals who experienced gender-based prejudice, collected by Fujishima on social media.
However, when the protagonist defeats monsters and helps people despite being "a girl," the NPCs begin to change their perspectives. This work fully utilizes the format of video games, allowing players to experience their own wounds and those of others. And how the voices of the individual NPCs change in response to the protagonist's actions.
On the other hand, another piece in this exhibition allows players to interact with NPCs using their own words. The dot-pixel NPCs appearing in "WRONG HERO" are displayed on the monitor in realistic forms, responding to players through the use of generative AI. Instead of being the female protagonist of "WRONG HERO," players can interact with others as themselves. This communication with others, even if we cannot fully understand each other, may offer a clue for achieving solidarity.
Similar to the impact of the "Earth Magician" exhibition held in 1989, the practice of engaging in dialogue among equals has been repeatedly tested, failed, and advanced in the world of contemporary art amid the wave of multiculturalism. This work can be considered a cutting-edge example of such practices.
This exhibition marks the first time 9s Gallery has featured a media-art-centric exhibition. We encourage you to participate by picking up a controller.
Art is "unintelligible." Therefore, participating in art is also an act of "understanding" what is "unintelligible." And this may be the only way to overcome the walls that prevent us from fully understanding each other.
*The ratio of character genders in video games has tended to favor men from the 1990s to the early 2020s. (A 2002 study focusing on 1990s games found that 13.8% of characters were female, 71.5% were male, and 14.7% were unspecified (animals or aliens) (“Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games”, MASS COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, 2002, 5(3), 279–293).
Work (Development Image)
Exhibition Details
Dates: October 19th (Sat) - October 27th (Sun), 2024
Opening Hours: 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM Opening Party: October 19th (Sat), 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Closed: October 21st (Mon)
Venue: 9s Gallery by TRiCERA
Address: 3F, The Wall, 4-2-4 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
Access: 10-minute walk from Roppongi Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, 10-minute walk from Hiroo Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, 10-minute walk from Nogizaka Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line.
Contact: 03-5422-8370
Artist Profile
Sacco Fujishima
An artist creating experimental works that traverse the realms of analog and digital, 2D and 3D, reality and virtual reality.
In her early career, she presented a series of works featuring piping and factories, using dense patterns in a "self-made order" with colorful expressions. In recent years, she has created works that capture "individual voices" flowing through social media, prompted by her piece, "Virtual Demonstration," which was presented during the COVID-19 lockdown and involved gathering participants on social media to carry out a virtual demonstration.
Comments