• Ideas
  • May 06, 2015

Book Review: Precarious Practice, Koki Tanaka

PRECARIOUS PRACTICE: KOKI TANAKA

Artist of the Year 2015 Edited by Deutsche Bank. Published by Hatje Cantz, 2015. Hardcover, black-and-white and full-color illustrations, 256 pages. Photo by ArtAsiaPacific.

Given that Koki Tanaka rejects the idea of traveling exhibitions that are not adaptive or “site-specific,” Precarious Practice is the closest we will get to an unchanging, itinerant show of his works. Published by Deutsche Bank after his selection as their 2015 “Artist of the Year,” the book catalogues Tanaka’s varied oeuvre, successfully conveying his dynamism in a way that also demystifies the Los Angeles-based Japanese artist’s complex—and often nebulous—motives. The feat is all the more impressive when one considers Tanaka’s resistance to motionless representation—his work is mainly comprised of video installation and collective action, usually in non-traditional, or open-air locations.