HIROYUKI MATSUURA
Lot 2514

HIROYUKI MATSUURA

Closed27 May 2012

Price Realised

HKD 187,500

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HIROYUKI MATSUURA
(Japanese, B. 1964)
Rat Race
signed 'Hiroyuki Matsuura' in English; dated '2008, 3, 27' (on the reverse)
acrylic on canvas, with rivets
117 x 117 cm. (46 x 46 in.)
Painted in 2008

Private Collection, Japan

Specialist note

"They, with their acrylic skin painted on celluloid panels, are trying to have lives equivalent to our own. More and more they are evolving in tandem with digital society, gathering energy of a kind that transcends language, and becoming a global presence."

- Hiroyuki Matsuura
In Rat Race (Lot 2514) Matsuura aims a direct satire by employing the term "rat race," which conjures up the image of a lab rat trying to escape with a futile effort of restlessly running in a wheel, alluding to the competitive work environment of modern urban life. The term is branded in a white font on the black hooded jacket worn by the protagonist, the jacket itself being a kind of code for a social misfit, ironically celebrating the capitalist lifestyle that he inevitably, and seemingly reluctantly, is a member of.