FOCUS＃7 Projects by Koki Tanaka ≪No Time to Sleep / Time to Sleep≫

“FOCUS” is a series of solo exhibitions at Kyoto Art Center that highlights mid-career artists who have built up a substantial body of work and established a strong track record. For its seventh edition, Kyoto Art Center presents Koki Tanaka’s solo exhibition, No Time to Sleep / Time to Sleep.

—————

There just wasn’t enough time today, I think as another day comes to an end. I bet you do too. This is an exhibition about that chronic lack of time.

In an age when we can get work done on our smartphones, labor permeates every facet of our lives. I find myself standing at the bathroom sink writing emails while getting my kid ready for her bath. Or I get sucked into the infinite scroll of social media and its continual flow of information. Then my screen lights up with the latest algorithmically optimized notifications seeking to show me this or that before I even know I’m interested. And of course that’s when I hear the ping announcing the arrival of another email that requires an immediate response.

The art critic Jonathan Crary describes our current society, where everything is driven by multitasking and the demands of the attention economy, as a sleepless society. Yet it is under these conditions, he proposes, that sleep can itself become a form of resistance. Likewise, the artist Jenny Odell advocates “doing nothing” in response to an addictive online environment where constant competition for our attention makes it impossible to concentrate.

Whether it’s sleeping or doing nothing, we could use some small exercises for changing our distracted lives.

For instance, sometimes I’ll close my eyes and take 15 seconds to listen to the sounds around me. Bird calls, distant sirens, the hum of the refrigerator, the creaking of the house, and other ambient noises gradually fill my ears and help me to reset a bit. It’s something you can do in the middle of work or while looking after your kid. Then open your eyes again, slowly.

I have no better idea than the next person about how to come to terms with our distracted lives and our lack of time for things like work and childcare. But my hope is to come up with a few proposals for doing so through the exercises presented in this exhibition. 


Koki Tanaka
July 22, 2026
(Translated by Andrew Maerkle)


—————-

——Record Exhibition————————–

On Kawara, Pure Consciousness
Pure Consciousness is a project in which works from Kawara’s “Date Paintings” series are displayed for a period of time in kindergartens and preschools, creating an environment where children can encounter the works in their everyday lives without preconceptions or prior knowledge. Initiated in 1998, the project has continued after the artist’s death, carrying forward its original concept, and has been presented at approximately 30 locations around the world.