Predicate/Postoperatively

A video work made up only of animation and screens of text. Because it was made for an exhibition on the theme of “restoration,” it was an attempt of sorts to depict (also as a gag) various aspects of “restoration,” focusing on the body and on the words and acts related to it. Through the ways adjectives are used and through surgery on the body, it also takes up the theme of “beautification,” something quietly given value by society.

For example, “I want to be tall” expresses a desire concerning the body, and the word “tall” reflects the social conditioning of that desire. You can see this concretely by replacing “tall” with “having a long body.” Why don't people say “I want my body to be longer”? Or try thinking about the difference between “fat” and “roundish.”

Naturally, there are an enormous number of words and turns of phrase concerning human appearance. One theme of this work is how one might escape from these words that describe the body and appearance, and from the conditions behind them, or how rephrasing might call into question the grounds of desire. There are other elements as well, though, and for those, Toshima says, please actually watch the video.

This work was also revisited at the Symposium Commemorating the Publication of “Takayuki Toshima Selected Works”, held in 2023, where Toshima talked about it again and other guests discussed it as well. The full symposium can be read as “Nonsense =≠ Logic and Form” (in Japanese), an event commemorating the publication of Takayuki Toshima Selected Works, with Takuma Ishikawa, Takeshi Ueda, Hiroko Tasaka, and TARKY Toshima.