w/System of Culture: we were in the kitchen, we refer to…
2025年に同時開催された、建築レーベルw/(ホワイトラインズ)と写真家System of Cultureの協働によるふたつの展示をまとめたカタログ。展示はともに建築と写真における参照をテーマにしており、写真と図面の組合せで構成された《we were in the kitchen》シリーズと、木製の額縁にモザイクタイルのパターンが嵌め込まれた《we refer to...》シリーズからなる。
カタログは3部で構成され、判型の異なる3冊のブックレットが束ねられている。A4判のブックレットにはプラトーブックスでの「we refer to...」展、B5判のブックレットにはケージギャラリーでの「we were in the kitchen」展の記録が掲載され、それぞれが独立した展示でありながら、同時に互いが複雑に関連しあった展示であることがブックデザインを通じて表現されている。具体的には、ふたつの展示記録は互い違いになるように綴じられていて、仮にA4判の冊子を「A」、B5判の冊子を「B」とする場合、このカタログでは「A」と「B」、そして「AまたはB」というページが存在する。これらのページの存在によって、両展に共通するイメージを「窓」として機能させ、展示会場に配置された作品への直観的な「扉」を得た読者が、展示のテーマである参照関係というアイデアを「家」としてのカタログに持ち込めるようにデザインされている。
This catalog compiles two exhibitions held simultaneously in 2025, a collaboration between the architecture label W/ and the photography collective System of Culture. Both exhibitions explore the theme of reference in architecture and photography. The first, titled We Were in the Kitchen, comprises combinations of photographs and drawings, while the second, titled We Refer to..., features mosaic tile patterns embedded within wooden frames.
The catalog consists of three parts, bound together as three booklets of different sizes. The A4-sized booklet documents the ‘We Refer to...’ exhibition at Plateau Books, while the B5-sized booklet documents the ‘We Were in the Kitchen’ exhibition at Cage Gallery. The book design illustrates how these were independent exhibitions that were also complexly interrelated. Specifically, the two exhibition records are bound in an alternating pattern. If we designate the A4 booklet as “A” and the B5 booklet as “B”, then this catalog contains pages labelled “A”, “B”, and “A or B”. These pages serve as a ‘window’ for images common to both exhibitions. The design allows readers to gain an intuitive ‘door’ to the works placed in the exhibition space and bring the idea of referential relationships—the exhibition’s theme—into the catalogue as a ‘house’.
The A5 booklet also features contributions by an architectural photography researcher and photographer—‘Collaboration and Systems’ by Chika Kato and ‘Reference Subjects Are Reference Sources’ by Gottingham—along with the artist’s own explanatory text, ‘On Reference and Collaboration’, which serves as a viewing guide.
This catalog documents the architects’ and photographers’ exploration of a new collaborative system and serves as an attempt to re-examine the nature of two seemingly autonomous creative entities.
Type: Catalog Drawing: w//(100-1-1000) Photography: System of Culture, Cage Gallery Text: Chika Kato, Gottingham, w//(100-1-1000) Graphic objects: Masayuki Makino Published by w//(100-1-1000), 2025 Printed and bound in japan
