TATSUMI ORIMOTO: OIL CAN

13 May 2010

Oil Can is a performance by Tatsumi Orimoto taking place on Thursday 13 May at 12:30pm. Oil Can involves the artist and 15 volunteers standing solemnly in 44 gallon steel drums. Employing humour, often to the discomfort of the viewer, Tatsumi Orimoto’s artistic practice examines forms of communication. Throughout the duration of this performance, the absurd gives way to a tender and serious existential questioning. Neatly in rows, people appear marooned and isolated by their steel confines. Though physically close and in the same situation as their neighbour, no one is able to connect to another.

Tatsumi Orimoto was born in 1946 in Kawasaki, and studied at the Institute of Art, California. In 1971 he moved to New York, where he worked as an assistant to Nam June Paik and was introduced to Fluxus. In 1977 he returned to Kawasaki where he currently lives and works. His performances have been presented in several countries including the Biennale of Sydney, Sao Paulo Biennale and Venice Biennale.

Presented with the assistance of Galerie DNA, Berlin and Momentum Sydney.