One of the things I felt strongly about during my stay in Derry was boundaries. Borders, walls, language, history, chronology, physical contours. Humans have shaped the world by segregating different things. They can help us, but they also create discrimination and cause distress. The world as perceived by every human being is built on boundaries set by humans. When I took a walk three hours west of the city of Derry to the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, I strongly felt its distortion in that empty road space. During this residency, I intend to research and report on such considerations of boundaries from my immediate surroundings. I live in Japan now and when I think about boundaries, I believe they will mix with my strong experience in Derry and develop into new considerations.

My works are experiments of installation and performance using food or natural phenomena, based on the idea that beauty is perishable, for example salt reacts with humidity and oil oxidises when exposed to air. By extracting these trivial phenomenon from everyday life, I create a space for realisation. An experience in the space blurs the boundary between knowing and unknowing and presents joyful feelings from the realising, and tolerance for ignorance. I have also taken many photographs in the course of my research and experienced many workshops on physical expression, so I sometimes use these methods to create artworks and share in the form of workshops.

Bio:

Hiroki Doi is a performance and visual artist based in Takamatsu, Japan. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from ICS College of Arts, Tokyo, in 2012 and has exhibited and performed internationally. Recently Doi has spent one year in Cork as a resident artist at The Guesthouse Project. During this time he travelled to Derry, where he was a guest of Art Arcadia in January 2024; and to Belfast where in March 2024 he performed Duo Performance「Salt」with Haru, as part of Belfast International Festival of Performance Art 2024. Past exhibitions and performances include Solo exhibition「marking work」tentline Kanagawa, 2022; Photo exhibition「Photo session in Kyoto」kumagusukuSAS Kyoto, 2021; Duo exhibition「Who went who couldn’t go」Zunzun-planC Kagawa, 2020; Duo exhibition「Nuretajizo project」Ebiharashoten Tokyo, 2020.