Today on February 22nd 2018, Nishijima Toyohiko turns 52 years old.
He asked for his new homepage to be launched specifically on this date. We have worked on this as he requested and here we are: the web site is now relaunched in its updated format.
In this site, we present a lineup of Nishijima Toyohiko’s works from past to present and share with you his journey. This is his personal website, and we hope you enjoy every aspect of it.
The reason for updating the site lies in the number “52”. Nishijima’s father was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 52, and this had a material impact on Nishijima as a human being.
Nishijima recently shared his thoughts on turning 52 with me.
“When he was in good health, Father devoted his life to the world and to the local community. But once he was diagnosed he became more reclusive and spent more and more time inside the house. It made me sad to see him like that. From Father’s point of view, this change in his lifestyle may have seemed natural, but I felt myself that things had changed dramatically…
Fortunately, I myself am in good health today. I still have a lot of dreams and ambitions that I am passionate about achieving. For the sake of my father…it might be a strange way of putting it…but I want this year, the year I turn 52, to be the year I am reborn into a person who starts living his life in a different way. I want to release myself, to break new boundaries, and make this a turning point in my life.”
Nishijima has decided to relaunch his homepage on this special day. There is an additional purpose here as well. First, he has collected together his works and the stories of his journey on this website. He wants to go beyond what he has achieved up till now, and to be more public with his work by publishing more of it.
As highlighted in the title, the theme of the upcoming exhibition of Nishijima’s work is ‘Release’. At this moment, we do not quite know how or in what format this theme of ‘Release’ will be expressed. The concept and notion of art means different things to different people – so the explanation he gives you at the time of the exhibition might actually be quite limited. But what I want to tell you now is that this exhibition will take place on September 5th at the Mitsukoshi department store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Nishijima is currently hard at work and is relishing the opportunity to share his expression of the theme of ‘Release’ with his audience.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message.
Nishijima Toyohiko Office
Yohei Takeda
