Table of Pencils by Motohiro Tomii

“table of pencils” (2010) | pencil, acrylic board | installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2011) | photo : Masaru YANAGIBA | design collaboration：HIROYUKI TANAKA ARCHITECTS | cooperation：Masuki Co.,LTD

Does art serve a purpose? Does it have a function? I would like to believe that it does.

Table of Pencils is the work of sculptor Motohiro Tomii. “Does art serve a purpose? Does it have a function?” These are the questions he asked himself as he set about working on this project. In recent years Tomii has been primarily concerned with the reason we make things. But instead of perusing an answer through his art – “Will we ever find the answers if we keep making things? No, definitely not,” he says – Tomii has quite literally turned the tables on himself, accepting that art is something incomprehensible. His objective is to understand, in fact, how much we don’t understand.
The Table of Pencils was created specifically to walk a thin line between conceptualism and utilitarianism. But leaving the “is it art?” debate aside, I thinks it’s a fantastic table. How fun would it be to walk into a super serious meeting around this table?

“table of pencils” (2010) | pencil, acrylic board | photo : Masaru YANAGIBA | design collaboration：HIROYUKI TANAKA ARCHITECTS | cooperation：Masuki Co.,LTD

Many thanks to Mr. Tomii (the artist) and Ms. Chinzei (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo) for helping obtain images.