Soko Kashiko (Here and There / Everywhere)

Like The Bay Window Keeps Sticking Out Forever, this work was exhibited at TABULAE, a space that had previously served as both a private home and a shop. The artist photographed a room on the second floor, which had become little more than a storage space, and played the photographs on a monitor placed in that very same room. Viewers thus encountered the photographs on the screen alongside the actual objects and surroundings depicted in them, right there in front of them.

But that was not all. Alongside the video showing the photographs, a reading of texts was played aloud. Each photograph served as the subject matter for a text that reinterpreted what it depicted as a gag or a source of humor. Objects here and there began to whisper. Their whispers came from nowhere in particular, yet could be heard here and there, everywhere. So one should look around, here and there, from right there—or so Toshima is said to have remarked. Or perhaps not.

Cultural and Linguistic Notes for English Readers

The Title: Soko Kashiko (そこかしこ)

Soko kashiko is a Japanese expression meaning “here and there,” “in various places,” or “all over the place.” It evokes things scattered throughout a space rather than gathered in one particular location.

The title connects with the work's closing passage. Objects distributed throughout the room seem to whisper from all directions. The text then plays on the expression soko kashiko itself: since the whispers can be heard here and there, perhaps one should simply look around here and there.

The English rendering cannot reproduce the Japanese expression exactly, but “here and there” preserves the spatial sense and allows the repetition in the closing passage to echo the title.