Perch – Touching Distance

Asako Shiroki

30.10 – 22.11 2026

 

Asako Shiroki’s practice centres on fleeting points of contact, moments when diffe-

rent worlds meet without fully overlapping. At Cowgirl Gallery, Shiroki presents Perch –

Touching Distance, her first exhibition in Sweden. Through sculpture, drawing and video,

she traces the movement of plants across borders and examines how objects are reco-

gnised, classified and understood to belong. The title refers to a perch: a temporary res-

ting place and a point of contact between different ways of inhabiting a place.

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Shiroki’s craftsmanship, with a particular focus on wood, draws attention to material sur-

faces and their shifting meanings. In Rooted in Time, Memories in Bloom, a mirror conce-

aled beneath white quartz sand reflects a red clover. In Fate Laid Me Here, plants classi-

fied as non-native in Germany and Japan are embedded in reinforced gypsum. Through

distinctions such as ”native”, ”non-native” and ”invasive”, Shiroki considers how origins

are recorded, and who, or what, is understood to belong to a place.

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Close observation takes different forms throughout her work. In the drawing and ac-

companying video Follow Your Sun – On Midsummer Day, Shiroki traces the shadow of

a flower with a pencil over the course of a day. The work records the changing light, the

passage of time and the persistence of her attention.

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Her work quietly questions fixed boundaries with parallel worlds unfolding alongside our

own. She draws attention to the fragile yet systematic ways in which society orders the

world. It asks what remains beyond a first impression, and what changes when we move

closer, into touching distance.

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Asako Shiroki (b. 1979, Tokyo) lives and works in Berlin and Tokyo. She holds a PhD in

Fine Arts from Tokyo University of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited internationally

at institutions and galleries including MMCA Changdong, Seoul; The National Art Cen-

ter, Tokyo; the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Gallery 38,

Tokyo; and The Gimp, Berlin.

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As part of the exhibition, a screening of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film Memoria

(2021), selected by the artist, will take place at Hypnos Theatre on 1 November at 19:00.

The exhibition also marks the launch of Cowgirl Conversation Series #5, featuring an in-

terview with Asako Shiroki.

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Opening hours

Thursday – Friday, 15:00 – 18:00

Saturday – Sunday, 12:00 – 16:00

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Curated by Selma Modéer Wiking

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Cowgirl Gallery

Karlshamnsgatan 4

Malmö