"If what is called life is recorded only narratively and cannot be presented, how such a record is exhibited in the art space without distorting its qualities. Is it possible? In many cases, art documentation is presented in the context of the installation, but the installation is not only the images and texts, other objects installed on the spot, but also the space of the installation itself.

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   It is an art form that plays a decisive role. This space is not abstract or neutral, but is itself a form of life. Thus, the documentation is an act of writing oneself into a particular space. Forming as an installation is not an act of neutral exhibition, but an act of storytelling in the dimension of time, so to speak, an act of writing to life, "said *Boris Grois.

 

　* Boris Groys "Art in the Biopolitical Era-From Art Works to Art Documents"

　　(2002, via installationia-blog)

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   -"The now is" Writing- 

    Kariya's method: 1) indicates the simultaneity of three structures: the act of "writing," existence, and consciousness. 2) News articles and events that represent the context of the work are used to document its existence. 3) The work is realized both in "consciousness" and in the act of writing the three letters "The Now Is." These three letters represent the simultaneity of symbolism, materiality, and the act of writing, revealing the single system of life that they embody on the surface. This represents the simultaneity of all existence: consciousness, creation, continuity, and everything. The exhibition serves to encourage a perspective that continues to observe, examine, and explore the true nature of the virtual landscapes of our information society.

 

　Kariya uses the principles of art to present a record of virtual experience. The virtual represents the perspective of the temporal encoding "The now is," an attachment stored in a temporary frame that continues to flow without losing its shape. The pole, THE, is no longer THE, but an empty theory of eternal discourse; imagination presents the prize of creation. Therefore, virtual expression is encoded into everyday encounters. It is a playful science that merely simulates the present. The artwork is an attachment and explanation of personal belief, consciousness, existence, or itself. The painting THE, an illusion unconstrained by time and space, is integrated into the three-letter composition "The now is." In other words, the immortal past and future are presented and continually viewed in this "present at present." 

 

　In extreme terms, THE is no longer THE, the empty view of eternal debate, imagination is creation, and presents the prize itself. Therefore, we encode virtual expressions into everyday encounters. It is an encoding of a statement that is only a pseudo-present. The work is an attachment and explanation of personal beliefs, consciousness, being, or itself. The painting THE, an illusion unconstrained by time and space, becomes one with the three-letter composition “The is now”. In other words, we put our immortal future into practice in the present moment.

 

   -The Simultaneity of "The now is"-
　The three letters "The now is" are a code that declares the simultaneity of all existence. Each of the three letters independently connects referent, creation, and phenomenon into a single system. The three letters explain the structural concept in which the trinity of "subject, phenomenon, and existence" is simultaneously realized. Kariya consciously experiences the present through the act of description. Nature, phenomenon, and existence are all one. Therefore, each and every one of us, including the dust, possesses "the now is." And I am one with "the now is." Simultaneous with the dust. Therefore, there is no distinction. The structure "the, now, is" is a tool for observing intention, creation, and action. The unconscious is created through repeated description and action. We are powerful conscious beings. Our intended goals are materialized through repeated practical actions and intense contemplation. Starting with the virtual, we move down to the details of the real world, intending a scene that is vibrant with emotion.

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   -About The Face Sutra-
   A work is presented as a "structure" for observing superficiality. The surface is the back, or explanation of the background, and the back is the layer of observation from the viewer's perspective. It is a device that reveals the superficial side of structure. Structure is a story of superficiality, and story is a story of information. Explanation is a mechanism that evokes further explanation. How can these be reflected in society? The creative process, metaphorically referred to as "narrative," is intentionally left pictorially on the surface as traces of description. "Artistic quality" is presented as an in-progress action or a fragmented account of life. The countless minute details of the objects involved in the creative process—their relationships with things, events, and everything in the world—continue to be connected in a single line to the direction of the observer's perspective.

 

    -About The Armory Works-
   Kariya accompanied the exhibition of sister works at the 2019 Armory Show with the caption "Law and Order/His." Countless traces of conflict, background, and history remain "pictorially" on the painting's surface. These are labeled "errors," artificial labels for right and wrong, chance, necessity, meaning, and meaninglessness. At the same time, they are integrated into "the now is." Kariya moves between creation, fiction, objectivity and subjectivity, concept and expression. He observes a landscape in which he examiness, observe, and enjoys the structural traces of the brushstrokes—the drips of paint, the definition of surfaceness, and the dialectic of creation.

  At the solo exhibition "Archetype" this spring, Kariya had planned to create a "Face Sutra" piece, in which visitors would voluntarily wear face masks. However, the exhibition was canceled and closed early due to the arrival of April Fools' Days of COVID-19. The image of the face is a randomly selected time stamp from a newspaper article, cutouts pasted on the back of a Seed Sutra.

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   Imagination, chance, and necessity appear simultaneously. Paintings also contain transgressions—mistakes made in action. If the viewer encounters a misalignment of the three letters, it is the paint of a painting that they happen to see, the drips and smudges of a brush, the misalignment of a criminal's brush tip, hesitation, mistakes, or the waveform of scratches on the film of a fabricated "Space Opera 2025."