“17th Domani: The Art of Tomorrow”, exhibits a diverse range of 12 emerging Japanese artists. From this engaging exhibition we get a taste of what work is current amongst Japanese contemporary art scene. This is the 17th exhibition held by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Overseas Study Program for Artists. The program sends young artist abroad in which training course of each discipline is provided for, in order to stimulate exciting work in the Japanese art world. This year’s exhibition is under the theme of “Density and purity of Japan Contemporary Art”, which,” focuses on artists who create highly delicate and dense works modeling and increase the purity of expression by such works.”

A life-size flat human figure creates a new language

Throughout all the different art pieces in the show amongst all of them there was a great “attention to detail”. Many of the drawings and painting are immaculately made giving them a real completeness. One room had striking drawing installation was made by the artist Chiaki Kamikawa, titled “Gathering for the admired twin-guru”.

The work consisted of various 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional drawings of different sized drawings of people arranged in the space. As all the objects were drawn onto white paper with pencil, when viewing the installation from a distance the white walls of the gallery space merged with the drawings created a 2-dimensional view. However as the viewer moves around the space the images continually change and we experience the 3-dimensionality of the drawings. Kamikawa’s work often uses symbols of religious belief, in particular stories of Western religious art. She works in a playful humorous manner and moves between the line of reality and unreality. Kamikawa’s installation makes us view drawing in a refreshing way for example the way a life-size human figure is flopped over a box, creates a new language.

Layers of coloured and grey pencils with bold effect

In contrast to Kamikawa’s bold drawing installations Naoko Sekine’s drawings consists of hundreds of different weighted, layered and textured lines to create beautiful art pieces. The method in which she draws with the pencil has an organic feel as, “the lines composing the piece are made not by a collection o f units but due to the changes of the lines themselves.” While many of her drawings are quite light shades, in her last work made in Paris during the programme she made a drawing composed of three layers of coloured pencil and lines and grey pencil lines which creates very deep and bold effect.

Fascinated by the complexity and depth of the city

While the majority of the exhibition featured drawings and paintings a Takahiro Iwasaki’s intricate sculptures holds a strong presence in the exhibition. He displays two sets of sculptures. One series of sculpture titled, “Out of Disorder” consists ambiguous scenes of steel towers and factories made from used clothing and everyday items.

While the other set of sculptures is titled “Reflection model”, which are impressive hand-made cypress wood models of famous traditional buildings that represent Japan. Both of these sculptures are intentionally displayed in the same room as they are meant to complement each other. Iwasaki explains how, ” I think I place pieces with different qualities in the same space because I am fascinated by what those things bring to the complexity and depth of the city.”

This exhibition provides an exciting insight into today’s Japanese emerging artist. Each artist work is enriched by the opportunity of develop their practise abroad and it gives excitement to see how their work continues to develop in the Japanese art world.

 

text by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi

 

Exhibition info
Title: 17th DOMANI : The Art of Tomorrow
Date: 13 Dec. 2014- 21 Jan. 2015
Place: National Art Centre Tokyo.
Website: http://domani-ten.com/english/

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is celebrating its twentieth anniversary next year, and Contacts is the second of three special exhibitions marking the anniversary with their collection. Each of the exhibitions is organized under different themes. This term, Contacts highlights on new connections between diverse artworks and artists.

The Contacts exhibition is spread throughout two main floors of the museum, divided into fourteen sections. In each section, artworks from postwar to contemporary periods with different genres, generations and methods are combined to provide a unique experience only possible in its space.

Perceptual Image That Communicates Through Senses

When viewers enter the exhibition, they first encounter layers of ‘sounds’ played in the museum’s iconic atrium. In this large atmospheric open space, sounds echo and reflect; creating a strange yet speculative symphony. This is the space where visitors can experience works through various senses.

Saburo Murakami’s “Work” appears to be rusty wooden box our naked eyes, however when it is ‘listened’ carefully, we can hear the box ticking repeatedly, which reveals to be a grandfather’s clock; what sounds like our heartbeats allows us to oddly familiarize with it. Yukio Fujimoto’s “Ear With Chair” is also an installation work with invisible features. It has two components; a chair designed by Kuramata Shiro and meters long pipes which audience can place their ears onto. It is an incarnation of the artist’s wondering idea; what if the shape of human ears were like long pipes, and what kind of sounds can we hear from them? Such genuine questions drove him to create this particular work which could be seen, listened, and seated.

Sculpture and Painting of Nature and Melody

In the room titled “Sculpture and Painting”, we can experience the combination of solemn beauty of a sculpture by Shigeo Toya and quiet and melodic paintings by Naoko Sekine.

Toya’s “Death of the Kilin of the Elephant of the Wood” positioned in the center of the room floor instantly captures the audience’s attention. The artist explains this work as ‘a sculpture representing structure of the forest’, and the forest is an interfacial space between the ground and the sky. By following its overwhelming size and complex textures on the rough surface made by a chainsaw, the viewer becomes a part of its subject, lost and searching, as though as they are in a forest.

In contrast, Sekine’s paintings are almost silent. They quietly wait on walls, mesmerizing us to enter into her mellow world. These paintings are created with layers of line drawings. Likewise Shigeo Toya, Sekine decides her lines as she progresses without a solid compositional image and planning, and those monochromatic and unreserved lines evoke us to think about nature. Sekine is also taking part in the 17th Domani; Art of Tomorrow exhibition at The National Arts Centre, Tokyo, where she discusses her encounters with ancient cave drawings during her stay in France. She explained how those drawings were applied on the pre-existing surface and simply not drawn as ‘images’, provoking her to think how primeval inhabitants could see cows and people in shadows and shapes of the stone surface, as we do with clouds in the sky and ink smudges on paper today. Such encounters where one can experience the sources of the most primitive senses are the inspirations to both artists continuing their practice.

Sculptural Experience

In the space “Sculptural Experience”, a collaborative nature with works of two artists is remarkably significant; “Gold Finger” by Motohiro Tomii was particularly made for the Contacts exhibition to collaborate with “Twenty-Second Steel Cardinal” by Carl Andre. Both artists’ practice looks in material and political aspects of sculpture. They both are created with sets of rules and systematic positioning and patterning, and are made of such industrial materials as steel and everyday materials as push pins. They comment on a conceptual relationship between art and labour to question where sculptural value lies.

Carl Andre thought sculpture as an expansive art form, from its ‘form’ to ‘structure’, then its encompassing ‘space’. “Twenty Second Steel Cardinal”, composed of twenty-two steel on the floor, is a piece which provides an unconventional viewing experience; as viewer becomes aware of their body and position by stepping on steel panels, the work progressively completes itself. “Gold Finger” by Motohiro Tomii is a flexible series which shifts its size and ratio for each exhibition. For this particular occasion, Tomii decided to recreate the work equal to the size of “Twenty Second Steel Cardinal”, and install it vertically on a wall, contrasting with Andre’s horizontal installation.

Animated Paintings Breathing in the Space

In the last room of the exhibition, viewers are introduced to the Dynamism of paintings by Sam Francis and Takashi Ishida.

Ishida’s “UNASAKA”, the sea slope, was produced over three weeks. Nine meters long scroll painting was done inch by inch, gradually pulled over to be painted. Every shot was photographed by a camera fixed at the angle and on the eyelevel of the artist to be animated. In the final result, it displays a record of the creative process; the black line advancing towards the edge looks as though it is travelling over the sea slope. In the next room to Ishida’s monochromatic animation, viewers encounter vivid colours of Sam Francis’s painting series surrounding brightly lit space. These three paintings embody artist’s interactions with canvases and acrylic paints rather than working on concepts. The canvas is ‘an arena in which to act’ as a postmodern art critic, Harold Rosenberg once said, for Francis, painting was a living form. It absorbed him as a part of itself, and could never be fully understood until the very end. This series goes over the boundary of the canvas to freely express such impulsive vibrancy and energy through lines and colours.

Extension; Rediscovery and Revaluation

The Contacts exhibition provides the joy of ‘realisations’. It is the revelation of each work’s potentiality; the collaboration unfolded and extended its hidden quality. It ‘contacts’ and bridges the viewers and the museum collection, artists and artworks, lines and colours, sculpture and painting and whatsoever that lies in-between. Throughout the journey of rediscovery, viewers can enjoy the new values and connections created between the works from various time periods and media.

Text by Hikari Masunaga

Exhibition info
Title: Contacts
Date: Sept 27, 2014 – Jan 4, 2015
* On Jan 2 and 3, 2015, visitors can enjoy this exhibition for free admission.
Place: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Website: http://www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng/exhibition/motcollection-contacts.html

After three years of major renovation and restoration the visitors are left speechless as they see the beautiful transformation made at the Re-opening of the Teien Art Museum. Alongside the re-opening the artist Rei Nato artwork harmonises well with the various rooms of the building.

Subtly placed miniature “humans”

Rei Naito’s calm work greatly compliments the different rooms of both buildings. Naito’s practise, “that at the verge of the imperceptible is nudged ever-so-slightly towards us, just enough for us to sense a change in its presence.” The way in which she subtly places her miniature “humans” made from acrylic on wood, throughout the two buildings makes the viewers observation more acute. Her work guides the audience and makes one really take notice and experience different parts of the building.

Great skills of Japanese craftsmen led the restorations

The Teien Art Museum has two buildings: the Main building and the Annex building. The Main building which is the Former Prince Asaka Residence went through incredible renovations and restorations, thanks to the great skills of expert Japanese craftsmen. The building has been restored as closely as possible to its original state so that the audience has an authentic experience of brilliant Art Deco architecture.

White cube newly opened in the Annex building

The Annex building has been rebuilt into a new white cube exhibition space which will enhance the range of shows and programmes held. The two different style of buildings marry well together giving a fine balance between the old and the new.

Text and photographs by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi

Exhibition info
Title: Rei Naito “The emotion of belief” at the Re-opening of
Date: Nov 22 – Dec 25, 2014
Place: Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
Website: http://www.teien-art-museum.ne.jp/special/en/

Check our Tumblr Blog to see more images of this exhibition.
http://azito.tumblr.com/post/104711885288/rei-naito-the-emotion-of-belief-at-the
http://azito.tumblr.com/post/104711871148/rei-naito-the-emotion-of-belief-at-the

A group show was displayed across a 6 floors office building in the heart of Ginza. This 84 year old building once served as Nagoya’s House of Commerce and will soon be demolished. The Curator, Toshio Shimizu created a show of various mediums of art, from videos to paintings, sculptures and installations. In addition to that the exhibition held lectures and artist talks almost everyday.’The Mirror’ is a world to be discovered little by little, with time and an open mind.

Reality is subjective

This show is based on the premise of Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

“The purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as ?twere the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.”

Hamlet explores themes such as existentialism and relativism, how the truth and the reality of things are subjective, and so are reflections in a mirror. Our identities are mirrored to us based on the society. To compose his vision Toshio Shimizu assigned 33 artists, among them are Anish Kapoor, Nicolas Buffe, Yuumi Domoto, Tatzu Nishi and Jenny Holzer.

In this exhibition, the visitor has to wonder through small corridors into small rooms, typical of any office buildings, which makes the experience somewhat playful, ironic and unique. At the reception area, there are two aquariums which is the result of Kosei Komatsu and Kensho Miyoshi’s collaboration specially for this exhibition. The medium of water is used to create fantastical forms, resembling a make-believe version on the bottom of the ocean.

Another obvious reference to Hamlet’s sophist philosophy is Hiraki Sawa’s projection of a dark girl in a white dress lighting a white candle, however her doppelganger blows it out. Across the room there are 3 mirrors from which one can see the reflection of this girl’s repeated ritual, from different angles.

Humans’ inability to control their inventions:

On the same floor of Nawa, the visitor encounters Satoru Tamura’s “Point of Contact for Incandescent Lamp #16″, this installation shows a lamp which 200 watts switch the device that makes a laser move. This laser moves in an inconsistent way, and draws a line which is equally inconsistent and imperfect. This work depicts humans’ inability to control electricity, to control their own inventions.

Alluding to this building’s past activities Kimio Tsuchiya created ‘Conference Room 305′. This piece comprises chairs wired to the ceiling in a circle as if they are floating in the air after the end of their lives. The result is very graphic and pleasing to the eye. From this room one can access an even smaller one, the world of Nicolas Buffet, “…the illusory depths of the mirrors.” The whole room is covered in black card board, with a pop up mirror and other ornaments drawn in white chalk. The artist spent two days inside this room drawing by hand every single detail and the result is like being inside a book.

Nicolas Buffet, “…the illusory depths of the mirrors.”

Also the visually impressive piece is Motoka Watanabe’s “The mine #402″, with look-a-like monkeys standing in formation like in the army in front of another monkey, it almost looks like the repeated reflection of this main monkey, another mirror allusion.

Hold the mirror up to nature:

The most representative artwork of this exhibition is Yuumi Domoto’s “Hold the mirror up to nature.” Yuumi Domoto wanted to paint time, in order to do that she created a pitch black room, with a very dimmed light, almost non existent, where the visitor seats alone for 3 minutes until his eyes get used to the dark and he can finally see her painting. The tenebrous background sound helps the very intimate experience.

‘The Mirror’ has a bookstore curated by books’ collector Seigo Matsuoka. The space was de- signed by Kengo Kuma, the ceiling is covered with the insides of LAN cables in their original colours, laying on wooden shelves filled with books, these fresh cuts of wood give the room a very fragrant smell.

Past Present and Future:

A room with a strong statement is followed, with “3 Buddha” a classic work painted by Tibetan monks at the Jonangpa School. The three buddhas represent: past, present and future. Facing this painting is Natsuyuki Nakanishi’s “Receptive Reading”, between the two paintings stand Lee Ufan’s “Dialogue” and Anish Kapoor’s “Untitled” (2004). The name of the artworks make the in- tentions of the curator very self-explanatory, a dialogue between the past and the present in which Anish Kapoor acts like a mediator.

Use what is dominant in culture to change it quickly

On the 6th and last floor are Tatzu Nishi’s photographs, these staged images at public or land- mark locations, are filled with sarcasm and humour. The artist reimagines spaces giving them completely different proposes, and this premise prepares the visitor for the conclusion of “The Mirror” with the following inscription: “Use what is dominant in culture to change it quickly”, by conceptu- al artist Jenny Holzer.

At “The Mirror” the visitor experiences a deep connection between art, literature and Philosophy, that just like a reflection on a mirror can be interpreted and experienced in many different ways.

None of these ways are the right or the perfect ones, they are just moments in our current lives that will be transferred into our future and might even take us back to our past.

Text by Neuza Faria
Photographs by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi

Exhibition info
Title: The Mirror – Hold the Mirror up to Nature
Date: Oct 16 – Nov 16 2014
Place: 4-3-6, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Website: http://the-mirror-ginza.com/

“Ojo Shashu – Photography for the after life” is a joint exhibition held in three different museums. Compared with the two exhibitions subtitled “Faces, Skyscapes, Roads” (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, April-June 2014) and “Love Journey” (Niigata City Art Museum, Aug-Oct 2014) that focused on the theme of death and looking back at his past works, the third exhibition “Eastern Sky, Paradise” is about overcoming the mortality and embracing the idea of rebirth. We would like to report on his third exhibition to understand his quote “Moving back and forth between life and death, I’m photographing like writing a diary.”

*The letter “P” in the title “Paradise” is reverted.?

Death as the beginning of another journey

When entering the space one comes across is not a photograph but Nobuyoshi Araki’s 3 calligraphy pieces saying: “Higashi no Sora” (Eastern Sky), “Paradise”, and the other “Ojo Shashu” (Photography for afterlife). Ojo is a buddhist word for death as the end of a journey after fully living one’s life. Araki created the word “O?jo? Shashu?” based on the title of an influential Heian-era religious text, “O?jo? Yo?shu?” (Teachings Essential for Salvation, written in 985 by a Buddhist monk Genshin). In Araki’s personal life, there were several events that strongly remind him of mortality. He diagnosed prostate cancer in 2009, lost his loved cat after living together for more than a decade before and after his wife’s death and lost the sight of his right eye. He incorporated all his personal stories into his work.

Eastern Sky, the rising sun

At the top of Shiseido Gallery’s tall walls a row of 13 photographs are displayed. These are a part of the series “Eastern Sky 2014″. These images were taken from the top of the photographer’s house. Since March 2011, after the earthquake that devastated the Tohoku (north east) area, Araki wakes up every morning at 7 am to shoot the same Eastern Sky. The East here has a double connotation, the rising sun (symbol of Japan as a nation) and the north east of Japan.

Araki uses this series as a ritual of hope and faith, and intends to continue to do so until this area is rebuilt. The photographs are displayed as if you are seeing the sky from a window. The original walls of the gallery were covered with plaster to create square frames around the photographs that resemble windows facing the East.

Summer in Ginza with a sense of intemporality

Below the “Eastern Sky 2014″ is another series of 13 photographs “Ginza 2014″ that Araki took during this summer in Ginza. He contextualized this exhibition with surroundings of the gallery’s location. With these images, the artist pinpoints the contrasts between the current state of the To?hoku area and one of the most prominent districts of the country’s capital. Both series are in black and white, which gives a sense of intemporality as if “when” photos were taken is not a matter here. What’s important is the place where the events are taking place.

The sensuality of decaying flowers

The exhibition continues with “Paradise 2014″, which consists of 55 photographs that from afar seem to depict colourful flower arrangements in a strong black background, but on a second glance the viewer starts noticing the details. First, these flowers are dying, secondly they are alongside old dolls and toys. Araki staged these photographs at his own house with his weekly delivered flowers. He picked the ones about to die as he finds them more appealing. And the dolls were brought by the artist, some from antique toy shops. His paradise is not a usual sunny and happy paradise. He expresses it with humor and sarcastic intensity. So the letter “P” of title “Paradise” is inverted. This might be his ideal heaven.

This show is in a deeply philosophical tone with his thoughts on the afterlife. Even in both personal and global turmoils, Araki never turns down but surrenders them to integrate anything into his expression. Each person must have their own idea of afterlife and here he showed his own.

text by Neuza Faria
photos by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi

Exhibition info
Title: O?jo? Shashu? – Photography for the afterlife – Eastern Sky, Paradise
*The letter “P” in the title “Paradise” is reverted.?
Date: Oct 22 – Dec 25, 2014
Place: Shiseido gallery, Tokyo
Website: http://www.shiseidogroup.com/gallery/index.html

What could be more welcoming than a roomful of smiling faces gathered around freshly-baked bread and delicious-looking sandwiches? Perhaps an art gallery in Tokyo on a cold winter day displaying drawings of various bread and people eating them. Tokyo artist Shintaro Miyake’s exhibition “Sitting on a Chair, Eating Bread” at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery offered such winter respite.

To live is to eat, and to eat is to live

Standing in the middle of 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, which showcased a giant cardboard sandwich and drawings of people baking and eating a bread, one would not guess that “death” was the inspiration behind this exhibition. At an artist talk held at the gallery on December 18th, 2013, Miyake explained (sounding not unlike Woody Allen) that he had feared death – or more specifically, his own existence disappearing after death – since he was a child.

It was his existential fear, along with other personal experiences, that inspired the drawings at this exhibition. He first pondered on the act of eating bread when he was in the depths of an artist’s slump. One day, he ate a piece of bread in his studio, which was unusual for him; he usually favors other snacks, such as onigiri (rice balls). While eating this piece of bread and thinking about how life is full of misery, he realized that people eat even when things are really bad. He had also recently witnessed his own mother being nurtured through an IV when she was no longer able to feed herself a couple of years ago. This impressed Miyake and made him think about the connection between eating and living. It may seem obvious, but people eat as long as they are living; it’s when people stop eating that they’ve given up on living. These thoughts led him to the title of this exhibition, which the artist admits is perhaps too long and literal.

Considering the context, and creating a distinct space

Whatever the exhibition theme, Miyake’s drawings are always cute, featuring his trademark character, “Sweet-san (Miss Sweet),” who also appeared in his live drawing creation for this exhibition (images below). He has explained that drawing cute subjects comes easy to him because he understands cuteness. Along with the cute characters that appear in his drawings, such as “Sweet-san (Miss Sweet)”, a trademark character from his earlier works, he is also known for dressing up for performances according to the theme of his exhibition.

Miyake’s film “A Beaver’s Life” (2006) is a mockumentary that follows the artist in a beaver costume, building a home on a lake in Barre, Massachusetts. The film is a record of the artist’s project in Massachusetts – creating a “beaver’s dam” in an actual lake. There was also an accompanying exhibition held at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. When he decided to hold a show in Boston, he had been wanting to do something aquatic. He found out that there were beavers living in Massachusetts, and ran with the idea.

As he dressed up for his beaver project, Miyake often dresses up for his live drawing performances. He considers the setting of the exhibition and tries to offer a performance that meets the public’s image and expectation regarding the exhibition’s theme. This is perhaps similar to Tadanori Yokoo’s performance at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in 2010, in which the artist dressed up as a construction worker and physically entered the scene of one of his “Y-Junction” pieces while he performed a live painting in the museum. By becoming part of the scene that he was creating, Yokoo brought together the artist’s realm and the audience’s world to create what is essentially his art. While Miyake’s performances are more fantastical and far from adding reality to his drawings, there is a similar sentiment in his actions in which he attempts to create a special space for his art and his audience.

Drawing freely and knowing when to stop

The overlaps of Miyake’s pencil lines revealing arms beneath tables, and chairs behind faces give the impression that the artist draws somewhat haphazardly. This may not be a fair assumption to make, but Miyake does have somewhat unorthodox ways of gathering inspiration and working out the composition of his work.

After he completed several bread drawings for this exhibition, he asked his Twitter followers what other kinds of bread he should draw. In response to his tweet, someone asked him to draw sandwiches. This idea appealed to Miyake. He looked up sandwich fillings, weights and prices, and created some seriously large sandwiches. During his artist talk, he proudly shared that he became quite good at drawing onion slices in the process of drawing these sandwiches.

Miyake also claims that drawing with a vision in mind produces a boring drawing that is too balanced and formulaic. He simply starts drawing, and stops when he thinks he has filled up the right amount of space, ignoring any rules of perspectives or ratios.

The artist’s quixotic nature is apparent in the work “Happiness Might be Falling”. Miyake began with the idea of drawing a horizontal baguette. He then wanted to draw people on top of the baguette, but ran out of space while drawing the bread-riders’ hats. Next, he decided to have the three bakers on top of the bread also cutting the bread, with slices falling towards the bottom of the drawing. He then set out to fill the space below the baguette with people eating the falling slices. After creating five such bread-eaters, however, he decided they were enough. It was not exactly carefully planned, but the drawing ended up looking just right.

While Miyake takes care to incorporate his own condition and geographical context into his work, there is no doubt that he has an imaginative approach to creating art, unfettered by reality and rules. Therefore, it was a little surprising to hear that there’s an actual model for one of his paintings in this exhibition. The man with the cowboy hat in “Diner” was modeled after professional poker player Chris Ferguson. Miyake hopes to use this painting to connect this series to his next series on playing cards and the game of poker.

The artist revealed that, driven by his fear of death, he’s been working on drawings of hell as well. These drawings have not been unveiled, but apparently, his drawings of hell are still cute.

Text by Makiko Arima

Exhibition Info
Date: December 18, 2013 – January 13, 2014
Place: 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Shibuya Tokyo
Web: http://www.hikarie8.com/artgallery/2013/11/ShintaroMiyake.shtml

Takahiro Iwasaki is an artist who creates urban landscapes out of everyday objects like the bristles of toothbrushes, bath towels, and duct tape. For an exhibition organized by Kawasaki City Museum and the Open Museum Project, the Hiroshima-based artist created new works as part of his “Out of Disorder” series. At an artist talk held at the same museum, Iwasaki revealed his thoughts on Japanese industries and cities that went into his Kawasaki series.

Kawasaki City – a manifestation of post-war Japan

When asked to create works for this exhibition, Iwasaki traveled up to Kawasaki in search of buildings on which he would base his work. He held an impression of Kawasaki as the industrial backbone of Japan that supported the country in its years of economic growth and manufacturing boom. Driving along the port of Kawasaki (part of Tokyo Bay), Iwasaki searched for the city’s famous industrial landscapes. However, many of the famed factories and refineries were hidden behind “No Trespassing” signs. Disappointed, the artist returned to Hiroshima (where he lives and works) without a clear image of the factories. But once he went online and searched for satellite images on Google Earth, he realized that the true facade of the factories that epitomize Kawasaki faces outwards towards the ocean. On the Internet, Iwasaki found exactly what he had hoped to find, and his ideas for the series became more concrete.

Iwasaki’s Kawasaki City Museum exhibition featured nine pieces of miniature oil refineries and power generation plants with intricate pipings and delicate cranes. Asked how he decided on these nine structures, he explained that the uniqueness of Kawasaki’s factories lies in their location and the different perspectives from which one can observe them: from land via the adjacent highways, on boats from the sea-side of the factories, from the sky on planes that take off from nearby Haneda Airport, and from further above through satellite images on Google Earth. He took in all these perspectives, especially relying on the high definition images that could be found on Google Earth, to make the pieces in this series.

Looking back at his past works like “Reflection Model (Perfect Bliss)” (2010-2012) in which Iwasaki replicated the Buddhist temple Byodo-in in Kyoto, and “Out of Disorder (Cosmo World)” (2011), it is clear that Iwasaki has a penchant for creating complex, realistic constructions. However, his creations are not simply glitzy edifices chosen for their fame, beauty or size. He created “Out of Disorder (Cosmo World)”, for example, because the large Ferris wheel standing empty and silently, when Japan was conserving electricity after the disasters of 3.11 in 2011, made a strong impression on him.

The artist’s “Out of Disorder” series uses cloth fibers, human hair, and at times even dust to meticulously recreate miniatures of actual buildings. Just as he put much thought into finding the right landmarks for this series, Iwasaki also considered carefully the fabric he would use to build these Kawasaki “Out of Disorder” pieces. In order to construct buildings that evoke Japan’s industrial rise from its state of defeat in the 1940s, Iwasaki soaked towels in ink, and turned them into rags. These dirtied fabrics, which resembled urban land leveled by an air raid, formed the base of the Kawasaki series.

Noticing what is often unnoticed

So why does Iwasaki create steel electrical towers, ferris wheels and construction cranes? In an artist talk held at the Kawasaki City Museum, Iwasaki cited manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo (of Akira fame) as an influence on his work. Compared to popular protagonists in other mangas, Otomo’s somewhat plain characters didn’t particularly appeal to Iwasaki when he first read Akira. However, he was drawn to the inanimate objects, background imagery and cityscapes in Otomo’s work. Similar to the way in which Otomo depicts sceneries in his mangas with such detail, Iwasaki sheds due light onto familiar, insignificant buildings that are too often taken for granted.

Iwasaki’s partiality for the inconspicuous can also be seen in the way he displays his work. At past exhibitions, like at the 2011 Yokohama Triennale, he has set up his work in obscure corners where they could only be observed through a telescope from the other side of the room. He places great attention on how his work is exhibited, sometimes making them easy to miss!

Being creative with limited resources

Just as a child uses his imagination to play make-believe or build a fort, the artist uses limited resources to craft very accurate models of reality. There is a well-known tale about the prominent 15th century Japanese ink painter Sesshu, in which the artist as a young boy draws a mouse using his own tears. Iwasaki has expressed admiration towards Sesshu, and he interprets this mouse anecdote as an adage that commends frugality and resourcefulness.

When Iwasaki himself was a young boy, his parents ran a bakery and couldn’t always afford to buy him toys. But his mother would get him thick paper used in the clothing store across the street from their shop, so that he could use the paper to make his own transforming robot toys. Like a proper prototype of his later artworks, Iwasaki worked on these paper models by scrutinizing robot toys at stores to make them resemble the commercial versions. These handmade toys were no doubt formative in making Iwasaki the inventive artist he is today.

The past and future of Kawasaki

Iwasaki’s use of everyday objects and his impressive dexterity inevitably leads to comparisons with other Japanese artists like Yuken Teruya and the sister duo Akiko and Masako Takada. However, Iwasaki’s works seem to capture a larger landscape with a somewhat melancholy story – scenes frozen in time, snapshots of a bygone era.

Imagining the historical growth of Kawasaki, the artist pictured Japan’s industrial growth sprouting and multiplying “like fungi.” Factories and plants like the ones in this series invoke a nostalgic image of an older Japan for the artist. These landscapes exude post-war determination. Iwasaki also admitted that he was conscious of the iconic Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama’s works when creating these gritty pieces. Moriyama’s grainy, black and white shots of urban Japan portray a similar era as the one to which these smoky chimneys and metallic towers, representing a sweaty, manual, and industrial Japan belong.

During his artist talk at Kawasaki City Museum, Iwasaki also likened some of the scenic representations in this series, such as the Higashi-Ohgishima LNG terminal and thermal power plant, to extraterrestrial human settlements in science fiction stories, or surviving colonies in a post-apocalyptic world. Looking at the nine pieces in this exhibition, they do resemble an empty city abandoned by human activity. Just like Japan’s industrial boom is a phenomenon of the past, Iwasaki fretted that these landscapes will soon disappear. Making these Kawasaki plants and refineries was perhaps Iwasaki’s attempt to preserve a Japan that is quickly fading.

Text and photos by Makiko Arima

Exhibition Info
Title: “Out of Disorder” Date: February 15, 2014 – March 30, 2014
Place: Kawasaki City Museum
Web: www.kawasaki-museum.jp/exhibition/岩崎貴宏　out-of-disorder/

Shiro Takatani is a media artist who uses photographs and videos to offer deep insights into the natural environment and diverse physical phenomena. In the exhibition “Camera Lucida”, he shows the elements of optics in many different ways using modified cameras and screens. Through his work, we can understand that human eyes are just one way of recognizing the world.

Takatani was influenced by a discourse on photography titled “Camera Lucida (La Chambre Claire, 1980)” written by the philosopher Roland Barthes. Barthes explained the essential part of photography as “that which was (celui qui a existe).” Photography captures “the scene itself, the literal reality,” which means that the object actually existed in this world. Therefore, it evokes our memories.

A “Camera Lucida” is an optical tool used in the 19th Century. Artists used this tool to sketch scenery. The prism lens on this tool reflects the scenery on paper so that it can be traced as it is.

Barthes thought that the “camera lucida” should be the origin of camera instead of the “camera obscura” (the camera obscura is a dark room with a tiny hole that projects the outside scenery inside the box. It was used for drawing). This has widely been regarded as the prototype of camera. It was important for him that the system of photography is open and explicit since photography is a media that captures the reality honestly and openly.

Takatani also thought that art can explore possibilities by showing everything out in the open instead of being mysterious. So he made a performance art piece titled “Camera Lucida” (2008, played in Germany) by following Barthes’ thoughts.

In “Camera Lucida f50mm” (above), Takataki created the structure of single-lens reflex camera by simply placing one focus lens and one glass screen in line with each other. In a camera, they are hidden in a black box so that the captured image won’t get fogged by halation. The image on a photo book appears on the screen upside down – however, since the book is placed upside down, the boy’s face is straight. Takatani wanted to show the moment of when an image is born, when an object transforms into an image.

In “After-the-Fact and Silence” (above), Takatani simply put fiber optic plates, which are usually used for Polaroid cameras, on a book. There are no other tricks but the optic plates transfer the pictures printed on one page of book “Camera Lucida (After-the-Fact and Silence)”, to their surface. In this way, a printed picture is changed into an artwork image.

See the world from technological perspectives

“Chrono” (above) is a video work created by taking digital photos of a sky for every 5 seconds, from sunrise to sunset with a 360° fish eye lens. It took 12 hours to capture 20,000 photos which were edited into a 4-minute video. It is mesmerizing to see the sky changing its expression so rapidly. In addition to that, the viewers may feel as if they are seeing the sky from an insect’s perspective.

In his “Toposcan” series, he put a camera at 5 locations such as in a forest or at a waterside in Ireland, and took videos of 360 degrees of each spot. 8 lined screens showed each scenery exchanging it digitally little by little into border lines as if digital eyes capturing the world. Or in other sceneries, the border lines changed into the original sceneries that our physical eyes are familiar with. Physical eyes and digital eyes are compared and erode each other at the same time. Needless to say, they were both beautiful.

In “Topograph” series, Takatanai took photos of the furniture used in his performance “Camera Lucida” but in a very unique way. Can you notice that the space and depth is a little weird? The near side seems to be taken from above while the back side taken from the front.

This work was created by using a large line-scan camera. Just like a copy machine scanning a paper, a modified line-scan camera took 30 minutes to capture the objects in 7000 x 30,000 pixel images. So this works is showing how a scan camera captures the world. Machines can capture what we can’t and they show another way of seeing.

In “frost frames” series (above), the photographs were originally taken in Europe, 1987. He printed those photos by using a technique called Giclee print which expresses 12 different tones in black and white. What is unique about this work is that prints are mounted in frosted acrylic frames to make the images vague. Just like the work that he put a fiber optic plates on a book (“After-the-Fact and Silence” 2013), we are seeing the image through a frosted frames. Thus, the photograph is transformed into a different expression of artwork.

Recognizing the ability of Seeing as physical experience

“Mirror type k2″ is made of a large prism cut into an isosceles right-angled triangle. When you stand in front of it, your figure will be reflected, but not like a mirror. When you raise up your right hand, the left part of your reflection will correspond. The reflected figure is inverted. It means you see yourself as others do.

Have you felt shy when you heard your recorded voice? Same thing might have happened when you saw yourself in a photograph which is not an inverted figure of you. It is interesting that people feel uncomfortable to see or hear the real self.

A big 2.7m screen was placed in a dark room. 100,000 photo images are randomly projected on the both sides of the screen switching 30 images per second which is the same speed used in videos. Surprisingly, we can recognize some images and remember them even in this high speed.

Since this screen is made of frosted glass which is half transparent, one side of the image can be seen from the other side. And once in a while, a pair of negative-positive image was projected at the same time to create a one complete image.

This work lets us experience the feature of our eyes which we usually use unconsciously. Our unused senses get alerted to perceive what is happening in his work.

We all know that nature creates beauty but for Takatani, technology can create beauty as well. He has proven it through this exhibition by digitally converting or optically transferring images fully, thereby showing their aesthetic quality.

Text by Rasa Tsuda.

Exhibition info
Title: Shiro Takatani “Camera Lucida”
Date: Dec 10 – Jan 26, 2014
Place: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Website: http://syabi.com/e/contents/exhibition/index-2024.html
Artist: http://shiro.dumbtype.com/

Five Japanese photographers are taking photography back to the street in the twelfth annual ‘Contemporary Japanese Photography’ exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum.

Freed from the Weight of the World

The exhibition takes on a light tone from the very start with a huge banner in the foyer of a pair of feet hovering above the pavement. This is one of Natsumi Hayashi’s large-scale jumping self-portraits.

If you’re familiar with from her online and from her blog, you’re completely thrown off by the sheer scale of her photos, leaving no question as to the distinction between these and the jumping photos your friends post on Facebook. Hayashi has been making a name for herself internationally for her series “Today’s Levitation” in which she seems to be floating effortlessly and expressionlessly in the center of each meticulously composed photograph. People often wonder to which extent these photos have been manipulated, but this is a testament to her planning and preparation – not to mention her dedication to jump from 150 to 200 times for the one image she will eventually use.

“Today’s Levitation 06/01/2012″ is a massive 8-meter long photo which was taken at the Tama Center Station building in Tokyo – a relatively ordinary station, but one that offered Hayashi an opportunity to appear to be flying after cropping out the stairs beneath her feet. She researched the location thoroughly to set up the shoot so she could jump the 200 times not only the optimal the time of the day, but also the optimal time of the year. A large pillar usually casts a shadow over this location but Hayashi discovered that the morning of the autumnal equinox (in September) is the only time in the year that this image would be possible.

Hayashi also sometimes works backwards and accepted The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography’s invitation to make a work in the vicinity of the museum. “Today’s Levitation: Ebisu Minami 2 Park” was made at a small park nearby, and is formed of a triptych of jumping photos. To preserve the consistency of the shooting conditions, she completed sets of three jumps, and repeated this 200 times.

Hayashi’s works playfully question the reality that we perceive in photos, for these images are simultaneously completely authentic, time-specific and location-specific but they are also completely fabricated. This feeling of artifice is enhanced by her 3D works – pairs of the same photo taken at the same time but from a slightly different angle. By viewing them as one, the three-dimensionality only adds to our suspicion that this photo is in fact an unaltered slice of past-reality.

Despite Hayashi’s relaxed body and expressionless face, the photos radiate energy and a child-like joy, in seeing minute details at 1/500th of a second, and the elevation of a format of photography that we are all very familiar with.

Revealing the Invisible

The exhibition begins with Katsumi Omori’s seemingly innocuous series of 17 portrait photos of cherry blossoms. They are composed without artifice or pretense and the colors are washed-out to give the nostalgic appearance of photos like those falling out of your parent’s early photo albums. However, upon closer look, we begin to notice the emptiness and strangeness of each photo. Empty parks, cherry-blossom past its prime, people waiting at bus stops, aimless roads, rubble, and even an upturned boat. Cherry blossom viewing is an extremely popular and joyous spring pastime in Japan, and its depiction in art goes back hundreds of years, so the tone of these images are slightly troubling.

This series “Everything happens for a first time” was made in spring of 2011 as Omori’s reaction to the 3-11 earthquake and nuclear disaster. One month later he picked up his camera and followed the cherry blossoms from his house in Chiba, north to the affected areas in Fukushima to capture the scenes.

These photos are also puzzling for their strange pink circles in each frame. These shapes and effects were made by “clackers”, an American toy from the 70s made from two plastic acrylic balls joined by a string which were knocked together to create the ‘clacking’ noise. These toys have since been discontinued due to safety concerns, but remain a nostalgic item for many of the older generation. While in the States in 2010, Omori happened to find these pink clackers and began using it to play with the light and he enjoyed the new perspective it offered just as he used to do as a child. This takes on a more sinister meaning at Fukushima where the pink balls of light hint at the invisible but ominous threat of radiation. All the while, the cherry blossoms bloom on.

Fotomo: Overcoming the Second Dimension

Kimio Itozaki’s impressive “A Document of Impersonal Art by Fotomo (building collection)” creates an entire street scene out of hundreds of 2-dimensional photos which really needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. Fotomo is a technique Itozaki developed which stands for photo + model, and has a super-realist dollhouse feel to it, or that of a mid-00’s computer game. No detail is spared – he photographed and assembled not just the buildings and cars, but also the people, lampposts, pavement and rooftops.

Photographing every angle of the buildings was only possible because of the bursting of the economic bubble, which led to the destruction and removal of many buildings. Indeed, we see the empty lots with weeds starting to grow through.

The smaller Fotomo “Ebisubashi, Osaka” takes the concept to another level, utilizing dramatic illusion of depth and perspective, and using multiple vanishing points in a scene of the most iconic place in Osaka that almost everybody in Japan has been to at least once (often on school trips).

The theme of the exhibition of changing the world from the street is perhaps epitomized best by the 20 smaller fotomo originals on the walls, which are actual working fotomos that appeared in the Sampo no Tatsujin magazine from 1996-2004. The retro style and hand-drawn tabs and labels personalize the still-incomplete fotomo despite it being intended for mass-reprinting.

Besides these, Kimio Itozaki is represented at this exhibition by several other series, Hockney-esque photo-montages, and some series where he takes on the techniques and conventions of macro animal photography to photograph small 1/60th size figurines, insects, and even roadkill in the urban landscape. While the dead animals are morbid in their gaudy, high-focus, I can’t help but feel like they aren’t the real subject matter here. For Itozaki, the street is more than a stage for visual drama, but the subject itself.

Fragments and Signs of Civilization

Naoki Kajitani’s JPEG series began in around 2000 when he got his first digital camera and he has hardly changed his methods or approach since – he still uses a compact digital camera without the capability of high resolution images that we all enjoy today. The 110 images stacked four high cover two walls and show all the eye-catching things from the street he has seen over the years. Individually each image gives the sense of impulse when he took the photo, and together form a tapestry of faded bright colors, fluoro-lights, rusted and peeling signboards and bare female-skin from advertisements of seedy adult entertainment venues.

These are all things found all over Japan from the suburbs to the countryside towns, but we are conditioned to look away. Without identifying information as to the location or time, or the presence of actual people, these scenes could be almost anywhere. With JPEG Kajitani confronts us with this side of Japan that is not often acknowledged and the disposable nature of digital photography.

Restless Sleeper

The first thing you notice in Takashi Tsuda’s exhibition space are the glowing light boxes with crystal-clear photos of empty park benches, many at nighttime. This is the series True Sleeper (objects not for sleeping on), which addresses the issues that homeless people in Japan have in finding comfortable places to sleep.

The beautifully shot images with almost sculptural pieces of rubbish, fallen leaves and dramatic shadows slowly become quite cynical: none of the park benches look comfortable to lie on, as they are often designed with arm-rests that prevent you from lying down.

This is driven home by a set of three photos of the well-known area in Shinjuku where the council built trash can-sized yellow and green tube-like structures for the sole purpose of preventing homeless people from sleeping there. Tsuda photographed these odd shapes with the angled tops along with the construction cones and plastic chains that keep it roped-off at all times.

In the series “SITE”, Tsuda tackles a similar issue of finding places to sleep the night through all over Japan. First he set up rules for an 8-month cycling and camping trip around Japan starting in Hokkaido in the winter. At every place he arrived at, he would ask the locals the same question “Could you tell me where you think I might be able to pitch a tent?” and he would set up his tent, spend the night there and document it before moving on to the next place.

Each work is in every sense site-specific, and although we see his tent – the place he slept in for eight months – the images are somehow deeply impersonal. Sometimes his tent is next to the ocean or among huge piles of snow, but other times it is tucked under bridges, between concrete structures or simply on the street.

Tsuda – and the other four photographers – are each in their own way bringing not just photography back to the street, but trying to bring people back to the street – or rather, trying to make people notice the street again, often in surprisingly different ways. In a country where millions of people commute to and from work underground and live in high-rise buildings, taking a new look at the street might really be the best way to start changing the world.

 

Exhibition Info
Date: Dec 7, 2013 – Jan 26, 2014
Place: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Web: http://syabi.com/e/contents/exhibition/index-2018.html

 

Kyohei Sakaguchi is a young provocative artist proclaimed that he will be a president of a “new government” which he formed by himself. He explains it as a performance art based on his pure and fundamental questions such as “Why do human beings need money to live?” or “Why lands are owned by people?” You may have a practical answer but let’s rethink through Sakaguchi’s exhibition with blank slate of a mind.

Homeless people’s houses filled with wisdom

The exhibition is divided in three parts each on one floor. Each floor contains splendiferous practices of how life can take a turn and can be seen from another perspective.

As visitors enter the first part of the exhibition, they would be boomed with all kinds of wall texts, pictures, drawings and sketches of the homeless people’s houses which Sakaguchi was inspired by. He called them “0 yen house”, meaning that they were built without any expenses. He wrote;

“Architecture is based on the ownership of money and land although I was thinking of another way of housing. Then, I encountered this house when I was walking around.”

Sakaguchi was questioning whether there is a way to live without paying to land loaders or any high expenses since that is the most problematic issue for people to work as slavery. He learned from the homeless that people can actually live without owning money or a land.

In one house, car electric accumulator empowers the basic appliances and the rainwater provides water for garden, cooking and showering. In the middle of the first floor there is an actual 0￥ house Sakaguchi built that visitors can enter and explore. It is actually stylish and not like a usual homeless house.

Kyohei Sakaguchi’s thoughts are mindful of human life

The second section of the exhibition offers different types of drawings that are representing Sakaguchi’s ideas and inspirations. There were also a series of drawing titled “The dream journal” depicting what he dreamed at night. Another series were the sketches of homeless people with descriptions of how they are living.

The last, most important floor shows how all of his ideas are related in his brain. On the entire wall, he drew a “mind map” which is representing how his ideas are connected or how they were born.

One of the reasons why he started a “government” is that the real government could not move quickly to help the people who were living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant after the accident in 201. He felt like there is no government trying to save its citizens in this country. So he started form a government to find a place for them to move out by himself. Although he calls himself as a president, he is not trying to beat against the real government but there could be many governments run by their own perspectives to help people from their view.

In a video message, Sakaguchi tells his phone number (himself, he refers to it as a “hot line”) so that anyone who if depressed and has suicidal tendencies can call him at any given moment. His mission is to save people’s lives as it is written in the law that ensures a healthy and cultural life to all citizens.

Knowing how much you need for yourself

In one of the descriptions of 0 yen house, Sakaguchi wrote:

“10 bottles of 4 littler water. That is how much they use in a day. Total 40 littler. We don’t know “how much” water we acutually use.”

Knowing how much we use means knowing how much we need. Self-sufficiency is one of the great ideas of contemporary civilization and can actually help the society to turn its way of life around. Why? One of great problems of our generation is presented by the term “extra” or “too much” – too much paper, too much plastic, too much food, and too much water that we use and throw away every day. All of that produces redundant garbage that takes a lot of space. The careless treatment of our environment is starting to backfire and the ideas, by which you can achieve harmony, are more than welcome.

“The general population doesn`t know what is happening, and it doesn`t even know, that it doesn`t know.”

– Noam Chomsky

Nowadays, there aren’t a lot of people who understand the lack of knowledge in modern society. Furthermore, one of the important problems that are caused by ignorance is lack of concern for the environment. Nowadays, it seems that “having stuff” will make your life more rich – more important, or even worse, owning objects; capitalist system might make you think you are a better person. You are not. Nature created you. Nature gave you life and place to live. You should respect it and treat it kindly.

text by Katja Šifkovič

 

Exhibition Info
“Practice for a revolution”
date: Nov 17, 2012 – Feb 3, 2013
place: Watarium museum of Contemporary Art
address: 3-7-6, Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
website: http://www.watarium.co.jp/exhibition/1211sakaguchi/index.html