unearth | ROH

ROH is pleased to present unearth, a solo exhibition of Kei Imazu’s (b. 1980, Yamaguchi, Japan), for the second time with the gallery since 2018. The exhibition also welcomes contributions by Carlos Quijon, Jr., an art historian, critic, and curator based in Manila, Philippines.

As Quijon, Jr. describes in his essay, “One of the main thematic layers explored in the exhibition is the story of Hainuwele, a woman born from a coconut and who has the power to produce fineries of foreign lands through her own excrement. Men initially found her powers useful until its undeniable mystique disturbed them. Fazed by this mysterious woman and her power, they buried her alive, stomping on the ground until loose dirt became dense earth. Ameta, Hainuwele’s mother figure, learned about Hainuwele’s fate and found her dead body through an oracle. Ameta exhumed her remains, cut the body, and buried different parts of it across the village lands. Hainuwele’s remains transformed into tuberous crops, sustaining the village and the islands of Banda.

Imazu’s effort to reconsider the myth of Hainuwele constitutes a feminist exhumation not only of the mythical figure’s body, but her story as well. The artist mines stories that have been cultivated on this earth–a site of violence and loss, but also emergence and thriving life–to foreground poetics of transformation and metamorphosis. Layer upon layer, Imazu builds on a landscape where myth and history merge and become a method that assembles works and materials that are as varied as the contentious stories to which they allude.”

– Carlos Quijon, Jr.

Born 1980, Yamaguchi, Japan
Lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia

Kei Imazu utilizes everyday contemporary internet environment in collecting all sorts of artworks and objects that exist in and beyond the form of an image. After thoroughly going through her great volume of collected data, she distorts, reconstructs, and sketches them digitally. With the sketch she has created, Imazu traces it onto the canvas using oil paint, a method she currently employs to create her artworks.

Imazu received her Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from the Department of Painting at Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan in 2015 and 2007 respectively. Imazu has several solo exhibitions, including unearth at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2023); Sowed them to the earth at Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. (2023); Mapping the Land/Body/Stories of its Past at ANOMALY, Tokyo, Japan (2021); Anda disini / You are here at Museum Haus Kasuya, Kanagawa, Japan (2019); Measuring Invisible Distance at Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo, Japan (2018); and Overgrown at ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia (2018). Her notable group exhibitions include Bangkok Art Biennale: Nurture Gaia in Bangkok, Thailand (2024); Let’s See at ArtSpace @ HeluTrans, Singapore (2024); 1 at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); We Paint! at Palais de Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (2022); Last Words at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2021); We Are Here at Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, U.S.A. (2021); Roppongi Crossing: Connexion at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2019); and Aichi Triennale: Taming Y/Our Passion in Nagoya, Japan (2019); Kei Imazu is the finalist of Prix Jean-François Prat in 2020. Imazu’s works are part of the public collections of various institutions in Japan, among them are MUSEUM HAUS KASUYA in Kanagawa as well as Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, Taguchi Art Collection, and OKETA COLLECTION in Tokyo. Her works are also part of the public collections of San San Jose Museum of Art, California, U.S.A. and X Museum, Beijing, China.

Kei Imazu is a close collaborator of Bagus Pandega. Their collaborative work has been presented at various international group exhibitions, including The 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2024: silent apple in Changwon-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea (2024); WAGIWAGI at documenta fifteen, Hübner areal, Kassel, Germany (2022); Declaring Distance: Bandung — Leiden, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2022); Tiger Orchid, Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach, ROH Projects (2020); and AAAAHHH!!! Paris Internationale, Paris, France (2018).

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