A Trip to the Moon

Gaku Tsutaja
September 10 – November 2, 2019 

Gaku Tsutaja Exhibition Handout

In A Trip to the Moon Gaku Tsutaja creates fictional narrative structures based on actual historical events through which she exposes the implications of imbedded issues of race, ideology, ethnicity, class, and politics. Using various media, including works on paper, video, and sculptural installations, Tsutaja presents allegorical tales that mediate between differing versions of historical narratives. Through surrealistic tales that feature animals and human-animal hybrid protagonists, she portrays the issues of development and use of atomic weapons during and after World War II; Japanese internment camps; and Japan’s creation of post-war infrastructure and potentially catastrophic use of nuclear energy. 

Gaku Tsutaja was born in Tokyo, Japan, and currently lives and works in Queens, NY. In 1999, Tsutaja obtained a BFA with honors from Tokyo Zokei University of Art and Design, and moved to Fukuoka to participate in the Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyusyu as a research fellow. Tsutaja moved to New York in 2006 and received an MFA from SUNY Purchase in 2018. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in the US and internationally.