東風床 (Kochidoko), an exhibition by Keiko Taniguchi × Tangent Essays | Mar 21 - Apr 28, 2024

Bungee Space is delighted to present 東風床 (Kochidoko), an exhibition featuring a site-specific project initiated by Keiko Taniguchi and Tangent Essays, on view from March 21 (open at 7PM) to April 28, 2024. Together, they designed and built a temporary tea room within the space, inviting Shuyu Peng, Sixuan Tong, and Taole Zhu as collaborators to explore the intersections of art, architecture, and community.

Part of the exhibition title, "東風" (Kochi), a word often used in tea ceremonies to represent spring, is derived from a haiku by Sugawara no Michizane. The haiku reflects Michizane's homesickness and longing for the arrival of spring wind. This sentiment resonates with the artists as they collaborate, embracing the moment of longing.

The tearoom is essentially a bunk bed turned upside down. Drawing inspiration from artist Li Juchuan’s “Dorm” (“宿舍,” Song Art Museum, Beijing, curated by Li Jia, 2023), where he populated a room with ready-made bunk beds typical of workers’ dormitories, Tangent Essays find it mischievously provocative that when flipped, the bunk bed somehow assumes architectural characters reminiscent of a tearoom—an elevated platform, a low-hanging roof, dimensions akin to a tatami mat, and an enclosure created by the bedposts. Encased by a tapestry of camouflaging pillows bound together with bungee cords, the tearoom assimilates the “white noise”—or rather the 雨音 (amaoto)—of the ambience into its outer layer, set against the silence found within a constrained space.

The exhibition's opening video by Keiko Taniguchi blends silent film humor with Japanese movie clips, showcasing the tea ceremony and daily tea culture. It delves into gender roles, from samurai traditions to postwar practices, addressing contemporary challenges faced by tea practitioners navigating evolving gender dynamics.

To showcase correspondence between Keiko Taniguchi and Tangent Essays, Shuyu Peng designs an installation that disrupts spatial perception by suspending a net from the ceiling over the tea room. This creates a tightly stretched conical shape, anchored by Taniguchi's video piece. Audiences are compelled to maintain an uncomfortable posture as they navigate the space, interacting with letters printed on fabric resembling tea towels suspended from the net amidst the sounds of colliding weights attached to letters.

During the exhibition, Keiko Taniguchi will host a series of tea performances at Bungee Space. For more information and reservations for the tea performance, please reserve a spot with Keiko Taniguchi through this link. For other inquiries, email to drinkmoretea365@gmail.com.