For the work, the three artists would line up various articles at an antique market, then exhibit the items that failed to sell (the ‘unsold’ items) in a gallery. By doing so, they would endow the items that were not chosen with an even greater value than those that were.

For UNSOLD, Calle paired second-hand items with written descriptions that, while true, did not relate to the specific item it had been paired with. Sugimoto used real antiques and one artwork of his own, attaching notes that told the fake history of each item; while Aoyagi’s display, like the original installation that Calle had come across in the market, could be seen either as an antique stall or an installation, depending on the viewer’s interpretation.

Some things were sold while others weren’t, and in the afternoon an American tour-guide passed by leading a group and said, “There seems to be nothing worth seeing here. These are unsold goods.”

The majority of Aoyagi’s works contain mysterious aspects, because his works are governed by conceptual ideas, thoughts and words more than physical substance.

When he creates an exhibit or work for someone very familiar – solely for Sophie Calle, for example – there is no way for anyone other than the two of them to know its true substance. The rest of us must appreciate the work by imagining its circumstances based on the artists’ words, or testimony.

Words: Hikotaro Kanehira (independent curator)
Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Profile　Ryota Aoyagi was born in Osaka in 1976. After graduating from La Salle High School, he advanced to Tama Art University with the hope of becoming an artist. In 2005, he started to present conceptual installations. Since 2010, he has run a shop in Kagurazaka, exhibiting and selling objects.