Shigeki Matsuyama returns to StolenSpace Gallery with his new solo show 'Quiet Circulation' bringing together works that meditate on our everyday encounters with images and information.
Last time we worked together was in 2024 for your solo exhibition Portraits of Dazzle. How has your practice developed since then?
Although I have not yet been able to present them publicly, I spent much of 2025 producing a large number of new works. Of course, the 'Portraits of Dazzle' series remains very popular, so in countries or regions where it has not yet been shown, I continue to organise exhibitions centred on that series, allowing audiences who have not previously encountered the works to experience them for the first time.
That body of work centred on placing eyes onto the silhouette of another person. In 'Quiet Circulation', however, there are works where you’ve removed the eyes entirely, leaving only the silhouette. What motivated this shift, and what draws you to these more pared-back forms?
Within the 'Portraits of Dazzle' series, the works without “eyes” are those themed around bots. In the standard works (with eyes), I use a video projector to precisely trace only the eyes from countless facial photographs—selfies and snapshots—uploaded to social media. I then redraw the outline of the portrait based on a real individual, but alter elements such as race, gender, hairstyle, and body type so that they differ entirely from the original source. Through this process, I explore the anonymity and uncertainty of information on the internet. By contrast, the eyeless works themed around bots depict entities that, like Siri or Alexa, possess a human-like presence through anthropomorphised communication. As these bot works do not have a real human model, unlike the 'Portraits of Dazzle' series, I do not paint eyes. Instead, I present them with “(bot)” appended to the end of the title.
In some of your new works, figures are depicted holding weapons. To what extent is this imagery shaped by the current global political climate, and how does it inform the way you conceptualise and articulate your work?
Directly speaking, they are not influenced by the current global political situation. As I hope will become clearer in my response to the next question, the 'Clipping' series addresses the spread of fake news and the role of bots. Since much bot-driven misinformation relates to politics and war, I draw upon motifs from paintings that deal with those themes.
These pieces were created through a dialogue with ChatGPT. Could you share what motivated you to engage in this exchange, and how you view the role of AI in the creative process?
Only the 'Clipping' series was produced through dialogue with ChatGPT. This series, which centres on the spread of fake news, expresses phenomena observed in the early stages of misinformation circulation—such as the use of bots to enhance credibility, or the detachment of information from its context through AI generation—by cutting fragments from well-known historical paintings. From the initial stages of production, I developed the imagery in consultation with the conversational AI ChatGPT.
In the 'Clipping' series, because the works are created through dialogue with AI, the AI frequently produces hallucinations and provides me with incorrect information. I deliberately incorporate these inaccuracies into the work. Of course, I cannot verify the accuracy of every piece of information myself; during the process, there may well be instances in which I unknowingly accept and reflect AI-generated misinformation. In this sense, AI is not merely a tool in this series but the subject itself. The completed works therefore contain elements that even I do not fully understand.
'Quiet Circulation' runs until March 15th, 2026.
To Request a list of available works, please click here.
View show in 3D here.
