Artist: Kazuaki Yamane Venue: XYZ collective, Tokyo Exhibition Title: after "the riverrun the" Date: January 25, 2015 – February 22, 2015 XYZ collective is pleased to announce after “the riverrun the” by Kazuaki Yamane. this will be Yamane’s first solo exhibition, having previously participated in group exhibitions and residency programs both locally and abroad. Over the past few years, he has also featured in a number of exhibitions and fairs with XYZ collective, including “Man & Play: XYZ collective at Brennan & Griffin” and NADA Miami Beach (2013 and 2014). ——- ——- A hit song and Beckett (in lieu of an exhibition statement) A vintage record player was playing music in my room. Just before the song came to an end, the record skipped and went back to the beginning. I guess that there must have been some dust or a scratch on the vinyl. Even when I reset the record, the problem repeatedly occurred – the end was immediately followed by the beginning, over and over again. The song was “Till the End of Time” by Perry Como, a million-seller hit in the USA in 1945; the year the war came to an end. As the song continuously failed to finish, I was reminded of “Finnegans Wake”: the tale with no end. I felt a touch of deja vu as I have a reoccurring dream where I get caught in an infinite loop, making mistakes over and over again. In that dream, Samuel Beckett appears and says, “Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” I always pondered what better failure actually meant. *Finnegans Wake The final novel written by James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941). The title of this exhibition is a reference to the cyclic nature of the book whereby the last sentence finishes abruptly with “the,” before linking back to the beginning, which starts with “riverrun.” Kazuaki Yamane