The rules of this game (artwork) are as follows.

1. In bed before sleep, set a microphone near the mouth and keep a tape recorder operating. Count and record numbers from 1 as far as staying awake.

2. Replay the recorded tape, and while listening, write down both the counted numbers and their lap times in minutes and seconds. The lap times begin from 0’00” with the starting count 1.

According to these rules, Fumio Takamizawa counted and recorded numbers with cassette tapes night after night. The recordings from 25 days were compiled into 15 cassettes and displayed in a domestic section of Japan International Art Exhibition that was titled “Realism in the Age of Reproduction and Moving Image.” Fifteen radio-cassette players were arranged along a wall at regular intervals with recording papers, they replayed his voice all at once. In the 1990s, Kunio Motoe said that this work “is now becoming legendized.” His remark shows not only the impressions visitors had of the work, but also the state of artwork with sound in the 70s. After the exhibitions, nobody could access such works except through hearsay.

In 1998, Ikuo Yamamoto stated that the Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence is the first turning point of Takamizawa. Shuji Terayama was moved by the work, which was featured in his essay “Ecriture of contingency.” Takamizawa was stimulated by his argument on memory in this text. He stated that he “felt as if it threw light directly on my obsession for memory which I have considered vaguely so far.” Since then, memory has been generally accepted as the most important motif of his works.

From Tomotaro Kaneko, “Jumping to memorize: Fumio Takamizawa, Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence“

February 11th-17th, 2018　Art & Space Cococara

Exhibition
Fumio Takamizawa, Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence, 1974/2018
Fumio Takamizawa, From Net of Wave, Wave of Net, 2018

Text｜Fumio Takamizawa / Tomotaro Kaneko
Talk｜Fumio Takamizawa / Minoru Hatanaka / Tomotaro Kaneko
Sound Recording｜Makoto Oshiro
Photograph｜Ryo Fujishima
Leaflet Design｜Tadao Kawamura

Leaflet
Fumio Takamizawa, “”Memory”, “Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence”, “Ecriture of accident”, and “The river of Heraclitus””, 1988
Tomotaro Kaneko, “Jumping to memorize: Fumio Takamizawa, Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence“, 2018

Cassette Edition
Fumio Takamizawa, Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence [excerpt] , 1974

1948　Born in Nagano

1971　Graduated from Tama Art University, Department of Painting, Oil Painting Course

Selected Solo Exhibitions
1971　Tamura Gallery, Tokyo (’74)
1972　Tokiwa Gallery, Tokyo (’77, ’78, ’80, ’82)
1973　Nirenoki Gallery, Tokyo
1975　Maki Gallery, Tokyo
1976　Shirakaba Gallery, Tokyo
1984　Gallery Te, Tokyo
1985　galerie 16, Kyoto (’87)

Gallery Natsuka, Tokyo (’91)

1987　Nabisu Gallery, Tokyo (’89)

1988　Loft Museum of Contemporary Art Ten, Niigata

1990　hino gallery, Tokyo (’92, ’93, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’99, ’00, ’03, ’05, ’07, ’11, ’12, ’14, ’16)

Yu · Art Station, Nagano

1992　Skydoor Art Place Aoyama, Tokyo

Selected Group Exhibition

1969　Lunami Gallery, Tokyo

1970　“Kyoto Independent”, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto

1971　Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo（’83））

“B Seminar Exhibition”, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa

galerie 16, Kyoto（’73）

1973　“AFFAIR & PRACTICE · BY 12”, Pinar Gallery, Tokyo

“Kyoto Biennale”, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto

“Expression by Image ’73”, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto

1974　“The 11th Tokyo Biennale”, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum of Art, Tokyo

“Expression by Image ’74”, Art Core Hall, Kyoto

1975　“Film Media in Tamura ’75: By Video” Tamura Gallery, Tokyo

“AFFAIR & PRACTICE・WHY IT”, Contemporary Culture Center, Tokyo

1976　“Kyoto Biennale”, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto

1977　“Tokyo Geijutsu-4”, Tamura Gallery, Tokyo

1978　”Tokyo Geijutsu-4”, Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo

“The 14th Artists Today: Devising Expression”, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa

1982　“Space of Freedom and Self-Restraint”, Yoyogi Art Gallery, Tokyo

1984　“The 20th Artists Today: Contemporary Expression concerning Plane and Surface”, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa

Gallery Te, Tokyo

1985　Shibuya Seibu Department Store, Tokyo

“’85 Hinuma: Landscape of Soil”, Hinuma, Ibaraki

“Decoding of the Behind”, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamanashi

1986　“The Three Artists”, Tokiwa Gallery, Tokyo

“Tama Vivant ’86”, Shibuya Seibu SEED Hall, Tokyo

“Monologue/Dialogue”, Nabisu Gallery, Tokyo

1987　“Fevering Surface”, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka

1989　“The 8th Exhibitions of Parallelism in Art”, Espace Ohara, Tokyo

1990　“Drawing Now”, hino gallery, Tokyo

“Small Size Collection”, Gallery Natsuka, Tokyo

1991　“Drawing, Four Artists”, hino gallery, Tokyo

1992　“Among the Figures”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo / The National Museum of Art, Osaka

“Video-New World: The Potential of Video Media”, O Art Museum, Tokyo

1993　“Reconstructed and Quotation”, Itabashi Museum of Art, Tokyo

1995　“Painting: Singular Object”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo / The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto

1999　“Two Persons Exhibition”, Yokohama Portside Gallery, Kanagawa

2006　“Exhibition commemorating Yoshiaki Tono: Water Always Flows Together”, Gallery Tom, Tokyo

2008　“Pre-Exhibition Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art: Siding Railroad”, Former Seibu Railway train factory in Tokorozawa, Saitama

2009　“The 1st Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art: Siding Railroad” Former Seibu Railway train factory in Tokorozawa, Saitama

Public Collections

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo