外島貴幸TARKY Toshima (Takayuki Toshima)

Completed the B-semi Learning System of Contemporary Art in 2004.
Attended Yotsuya Art Studium in 2007–2008.

Explores and puts into practice ideas concerning “laughter,” “the body,” and “language” through artworks, sketch comedy, theatre, writing, manga, and video works. In 2011, formed the comedy unit O,1,2nine (O,1、2人, read “ō, ichi-ni-nin”) with Masayuki Yoshida (Tennis Court); the unit remains active.

Twitter (X): https://x.com/takayukitoshima
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toshima.takayuki.5
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmpz5p0E8jPA5DOBpPAa0bw

Selected exhibitions: “Cast off skin (OFF) and put on something (ON)〈Give answer of what exists between hiding origins (ON) and taking off them (OFF)〉” curated by TARKY Toshima (Takayuki Toshima) (TALION GALLERY) [Tokyo]; Salti’s 13th Exhibition Pacific Colors (moowoosoo gallery) [Seoul, South Korea]; “YŌDŌ PROJECT: Retouch Me Not [Special Feature on Contemporary Japanese Artists]” (The Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2021, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum); and others.

Selected performances: First Person 2.0 (1.5th Person) (blanClass) [Yokohama]; Whenever Wherever Festival 2021 (Spiral) [Tokyo]; The Belly Stealing the Back: Reprise (blanClass); Kaburi-kigurumari (Kamiya Community Hall) [Oita]; and, as a streamed sketch-comedy video work of approximately 70 minutes, The Real O,1,2nine (2024, TALION GALLERY), among others.

Criticism and essays: “Well … Becomes the In-Between, In-Meanwhile” (Eureka, August 2024 issue, special feature on Paul Auster; end-of-issue essay “Eureka”); “The Theatre of Identity, ACT, and the Power over Life and Death: On Las Meninas” (“Spiders and Brooms” Criticism Seminar | Criticism Contest: Special Award); and others.

Book: bid (co-authored with Tatsuo Majima; a collection combining a novel, manga, and drawings, 2013).

Roundtables and talks: “Invitation to Queer Reading”
(Hideaki Tazaki, Izumi Enaga, Asahi Konuta / ilya; moderator: TARKY Toshima (puppet))
“Toward Signs: The Brightness of Events, the Weight of the Subject”
(Masataka Matsuda, Rena Miyazaki, TARKY Toshima, Nike Tobita), Ko Murobushi Archive Cafe Shy (Tokyo).
“Is a History of Queer Theater Possible?”
(Shinichi Sekine, Nike Tobita, Rena Miyazaki, TARKY Toshima). The full text is available online.
As talk-and-performance events, “Surfaces and Traversals—Trans, Otokonoko, Genderqueer”
(Asahi Konuta / ilya, Masayuki Yoshida, TARKY Toshima), and its sequel,
“Surfaces, Traversals, Transformations, and Disguises”
(Izumi Enaga, Asahi Konuta / ilya, qp, Masayuki Yoshida, TARKY Toshima), among others.

Roundtable on TARKY Toshima’s work and artistic practice Part One　Part Two
“Nonsense =≠ Logic and Form”
Speakers: Takuma Ishikawa (visual artist/art critic), Takeshi Ueda (Director, TALION GALLERY), Hiroko Tasaka (Curator, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum), TARKY Toshima

A collection of selected works and performances through 2022: Takayuki Toshima Selected Works 2006–2022
PDF version　Browser viewer version

On note, the Selected Works Project (外島貴幸作品集プロジェクト) publishes updates not only about the works included in the collection but also about more recent activities.

Essays and critical writing include the following:

• “Well … Becomes the In-Between, In-Meanwhile” (Eureka, August 2024 issue, special feature on Paul Auster; end-of-issue essay “Eureka”)
• “The Theatre of Identity, ACT, and the Power over Life and Death: On Las Meninas” (“Spiders and Brooms” Criticism Seminar | Criticism Contest: Special Award)
• “Rotation and Gags: Bruce Nauman’s Anthro/Socio and Duchamp’s Coffee Mill” (“Spiders and Brooms” Criticism Seminar Correspondence Course | Selected Review)
• “Being Haunted by the Body, and Toward the Phenomenon of Human Embodiment” (review of cranky wordy things by mirukusouko (Milk Warehouse) + The Coconuts)