Japan meets Poland

at Location One first summer International Residency Program exhibition featuring works of Nicolas Grospierre (Poland) and Kaeko Mizukoshi (Japan).

Kaeko Mizukoshi, Hymn, 2009, video still

Kaeko Mizukoshi is at the forefront of videoart in Japan. The motifs of her videoworks are based on research on violence in contemporary society.In her video 'Hymn' Kaeko documents a nighttime scene at a Los Angeles bus stop that depicts a seemingly endless dialogue between a man, who rants indecipherably, and an awaiting passenger who responds with unrelated religious exclamations.

Nicolas Grospierre presents conceptual series of photographs depicting the interiors of New York City bank vaults. Grospierre’s project is particularly prescient in today’s economic crisis and daily bank bailouts.

Nicolas Grospierre, Bank, 2009

photo: www.location1.org

postmodern self-portrait

Chiharu Mizukawa precious stones currently shown at Beppu Contemporary Art festival are made of artist's own leftover bathtub water solidified with gelatin. Unlike real jewelry they dry up and disappear. Although some would like to see her pieces as the reflection of the liquid character of art they can also be seen as self portraits.

Chiharu Mizukawa, Jewelry, 2008

Chiharu Mizukawa precious stones currently shown at Beppu Contemporary Art festival are made of artist's own leftover bathtub water solidified with gelatin. Unlike real jewelry they dry up and disappear. Although some would like to see her pieces as the reflection of the liquid character of art they can also be seen as self portraits.

sold

Sold at Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art auction recently.

Taro Yamamato, Courtain or Flag? (pair of two-fold screens), 2007, japanese mineral pigment on paper with gold leaf











Yoshika Amano, Wait!, 2008, automobile paint on aluminium

Marefumi Komura, Midafternoon, 2006, oil on canvas





















all photos: www.sothebys.com

visible/invisible

Naito Rei, Matrix, 2007

Last issue of ARTiT (no.23) features interview with Naito Rei, artist who made a lot of stir at 47. Venice Biennale with her 'one at the time' viewing method. She is one of these artist who claims that creating isn't about making something anew but noticing or discovering something that already exists. And because she thinks her works are not meant to be analyzed closely I refrain to description of my favorite piece - matrix (2007) shown at Nizayama Forest Art Museum in Toyama in which water trickled from the ceiling to the deliberately polished floor. There was a rumor that artist left some message spelled on the floor letter by letter so that the word was hard to read. Supposedly, a child found it but since artist herself has never confirmed whether she wrote anything the rumor became part of the artwork itself. Otherwise it is so ethereal, so nonchalant, that it slips from normal consciousness.

project room: Teppei Kaneuji

Teppei Kaneuji, Teenage Fan Club#6, 2007

Yokohama Museum of Art shows first solo exhibition of a young artist Teppei Kaneuji. Since graduation from Kyoto City University of the Arts he has participating in many group exhibitions e.g. Unraveling and Revealing at MOT or All about laughter at Mori Art Museum. Kaneuji produces works by pasting together and assembling ready-made objects such as maps, musical instruments, toys and PET bottles. ' I don't feel you can state unequivocally that only stuff made from scratch is any good. There are so many interesting things around us, there have to be ways to use them. There's a certain pleasure from the process when different parts fit together' says the artist in the ARTiT interview.

The exhibition introduces some 120 works, including an over 10-meter-tall installation and the artist's first large scale video installation. To see artist at work on the exhibition check youtube.com

art math

On 2nd April MOT opened new exhibition ＋/−[the infinite between 0 and 1] showing Ryoji Ikeda works. The artist is a leading electronic composer and sound artist working in both visual and sonic media.

Ryoji Ikeda, data.tron [8k enhanced version], 2008, installation

The exhibition title comes from the artist's data experiments which he's been doing with Harvard mathematician Benedict Gross and it shows new commissions along with the previous works such as data.tron presented this January at Ars Electronica center in Linz, a floor-to-ceiling screens with a staggering numbers projected at high speed.

photo: Liz Hingley

.. talking mathematics it reminds me of yet another work ..

Masahiko Sato/Takahashi Kiriyama, Arithmetik Garden, 2007, installation
in which participants select a card with a number to hang on the neck becoming number themselves and go thru various gates indicating basic math operation to reach the total of 73 before exiting. Each card is embedded with chip and the computer tracks user’s steps. The work was part of last year group show at Mori Museum Roppongi Crossing which was introducing emerging talents from Japan juxtaposed with Japanese artists from 60s. and 70s.

photo: Kioku Keizo