"gaze on white noise"
Iroke is a post-historical artist/coder/rapper/designer/art director/curator in the Hague who grew up in Seoul. He is often inspired by mundaneness. He loves multicultural jokes to make a conjunctional point, where different perspectives collide. Life is a simulation and Art is about presence and absence to him. He makes statements through audio, paintings, sculpture, and installation. He studied Painting and Visual communication design for his B.F.A at Hongik University, Seoul, and then he received a master's degree at the Frank Mohr Institute for Painting in the Netherlands. He is collaborating with Agustin Martinez to release a music album in 2024.
Looking at Iroke’s work, you might come to the conclusion that misunderstanding is the default human relation. A ceramic towel reads ‘I said tower’, and a series of mugs deformed beyond recognition is called ‘Green tea time’. Daily watercolours on pee pads continue in the same vein, and a video shot in his EKWC bedroom is a rhythmical riff on the distinction between Hamburg and hamburger. For all its humour, Ottokaji Iroke’s play with words, images, sounds and signs often points to an underlying reality of societal tensions. A ceramic Identity Politics Bible is called ‘Ho Lee Fuk’. Trivial observations like the different shapes of croissants in the Oisterwijk supermarkets lead to gold-lustred sculptures referring Nike and the Venus of Willendorf to address thorny questions of food, fitness, success and body image. A word of caution is in order: only the holder of a Universal 'Passport' to the United States of Pizza may safely travel this carefully constructed field of associative meaning.
Nanne op 't Ende, May 12, 2023
CV upon request
@iroke.studio
Kvk: 80377955