YOD Gallery is pleased to present the artworks by Hintobi (the art unit by Issay Kitagawa and Kenshu Shintsubo) in their exhibition, "Invisible Eyes" at Hotel CLASKA in Tokyo.

Hintobi formed as an art unit in 2007 by Issay Kitagawa (artist, graphic designer and art director of GRAPH: he held our opening exhibition) and Kenshu Shintsubo (photographer). They had a clear mission to show their works as a unit. Whilst the realm of “Art” has always existed, the realm of “Design” progressed commercially after the war in Japan. Now is the time to create a new sense of value in “Art” and “Design” by going over the boundary between “Art” and “Design” . Kitagawa and Shintsubo have launched a new art movement by departing from their original fields and by working as a unit. 

The unit name “Hintobi” means, “I hope that the day will give us a hint for creation” (“hinto” in Japanese means “hint” and “bi” in Japanese means “day”). There is also a rhymed hidden meaning of “Dignity and Beauty” in Japanese. Shintsubo’s clean and decent photographs are edited under the direction of Kitagawa by arbitrarily adding the few essences of transformation, such as distorting a composition or cutting them into pieces. Hintobi tries to find preciousness and dignity by paying attention to our everyday life.

There are new works by Hintobi with their inspiration from the novel "GOTH" by a famous horror writer, Otsuichi. His novel has been filmed and the movie, "GOTH", is now showing from 20th December. The visual book, "GOTH Morinoyoru" is also published in which Shintsubo took visual shots and Kitagawa did book design. As a result, a new execution has emerged from the junction between the concept of "Hintobi" and the theme of "GOTH". We would see its essence by sharpening our "Invisible Eyes" in this unique space where the vivid reality stands between death dug out in the realm of "GOTH" and our everyday life captured by "Hintobi".