en
/
es
Akira Ikezoe, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa

LISTE 2019

Room 0/3/G2 
Burgweg, 15, Basel, Switzerland
Coco. Cocos. Coconut. Coconuts. Lots and lots of Coconuts. Everywhere. On the floor, under the table, off the walls, on the paintings. Coconuts. Coconut Heads. Coconut heads in their day to day. Coconut Heads Between the Snow Mountain and High-Rises. Coconut Heads in the Starry Sky. Coconuts in the Route to Piñones.

In Akira Ikezoe’s oil on canvas paintings, human-like characters who have coconuts for heads are seen performing a wide range of playful actions, that successively reveal the idiosyncrasy and absurdity of contemporary society. The way in which the paintings are composed create narratives that evoke surrealist free association and traditional enoki paintings from Japan, through which anthropomorphise animal caricatures satirize society altogether.

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa’s coconut sculptures and painting installations are directly inspired by the ways in which cold coconuts are offered to passerby’s in Puerto Rico, and the way in which empty coconuts end up adorning small vernacular beach bars in the island. Seen as still lives, these painting and sculptural installations allow viewers to temporary dislocate from the confines of where they are exhibited -in this case, an art fair- into the tropics, transforming the space they inhabit into a surrealist setting where coconuts proliferate and people come together to celebrate life.