japanese contemporary art

tida dome

2011-12-09T05:29:00.001-08:00

Mariko Mori, Tida Dome, installation, 2011
Journey to Seven Light Bay, a new, much anticipated exhibition by Mariko Mori opened Dec 6. at Adobe Museum of Digital Media. This digital project transports AMDM visitors to the tranquil Miyako Island in Okinawa, Japan, where Mori has installed the first part of her monumental earth work, Primal Rhythm, consisting of a sun pillar and a moonstone which are moved by the sun and ocean tide. Mori's artistic philosophy encourages greater awareness of the natural world. According to Mori, this work is designed to unite the celestial and the terrestrial. It will be a lasting testimony that pays respect to the natural beauty of our surroundings on earth. The real time installation of Primal Rhythm will open in Okinawa on the winter solstice, December 22, upon completion of Sun Pillar.

sokushinbutsu

2011-11-28T17:35:00.001-08:00

Chim ↑ Pom, Making of the Sokushinbutsu, 2009
Chim ↑ Pom out-spooked everyone at ArtGig event which took place in the abandoned hospital on Halloween. The place itself with its empty CT rooms, crematorium, broken windows and rotten tatami mats could be a location of a horror movie however the top of the bill was the rooms where Chim ↑ Pom installed a mummy sculpture of Motomu Inaoka. The inspiration for this piece came from the sect of Japanese Buddhism called Shingon whose monks mummified themselves. The whole process was called sokushinbutsu and started in 17c. in the times of horrible famine in Japan when one of the Shingon monk decided the best way to end the famine would to mummify himself alive. The other monks follow and upon many experiments they came up with the method which they thought would be best process of mummification.

Here is the Shingon-approved self-mummification process in a few easy steps.

For three years, eat nothing but nuts and berries.
For the next three years, only eat bark and roots
Drink a special tea. By drinking tea made out of urushi tree, a substance which
is poisonous and usually used to lacquer bowls. The latter supposedly made
the body bacteria proof.
Bury yourself alive.
Seal yourself in a giant stone tomb. The monks gave the mummy-to-be a bamboo pipe for air and a bell to rang it every day so the fellow monks know that he was alive. When they didn’t hear the bell ring, they knew that the monk had died.

It is not clear however if Inaoka followed any of these process but it was recorded that by the end of the performance during which he fasted for several days being on the display of the exhibition he lost as much as 18kg. The group claims that the artist was fine after the end of the whole ordeal.

post-311 art

2011-10-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

Chim↑Pom, Kiss, video still, 2011
The events of March 11 left Japan shaken in almost every way. Hundreds of thousands Japanese lost their families and homes. The country known as the one of most technologically advanced was facing shortages of fuel, electricity and food due to three fold tragedy - earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. Till then Japanese people often referred to their society as suffering from heiwa boke (lit. peace foolish) that long period of stability and prosperity made the country complacent.

The first to react was always trouble-stirring artist group Chim↑Pom who surreptitiously added a panel of burning Fukushima nuclear plant to Taro Okamoto mural 'The myth of tomorrow' which depicts atomic bombs exploding over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
They also sneaked in to the nuclear plant facility to make a video that later appeared on the youtube in which alleged worker points out an accusatory finger at plant operator's (TEPCO). One of the most recent works entitled, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, focus our attention on social issues related to Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis. The video depicts two light bulbs, decorated with cartoonish faces of a man and a woman cuddling and courting. An allegory uses light bulbs to express the anxiety and loneliness people are suffering from after the earthquake and unprecedented growth of marriages. But light bulbs are also clear reference to energy issues and encouragement to public discourse about nuclear power.

Artists responded to the post-tsunami situation in a various way from participation in charity actions to workshops with people from tsunami affected areas. I found particularly interesting those which were socially and politically involved since I do not have much chances to see these kind of art in Japan.

Shimabuku, Stop and Think, installation for Yokohama Triennale 2011

Shimabuku, for the Yokohama Triennale installed a billboard along the shinkansen rail line which read Stop and think . The message was addressed to the people crossing the country on a high speed bullet trains to stop and consider their life styles and where the world is heading to in the context of recent events.

Tsubasa Kato, 11.3 PROJECT: The Light Houses,
Another interesting project organized in tsunami hammered North was that of a young artist Tsubasa Kato who gathered around 300 locals to help him pull up a model of light house previously damaged the tsunami. Raised through a massive communal effort, the light house seemed to raise hopes for reconstruction.

photo: Kei Miyajima

utopian modernity

2011-10-08T06:05:00.001-07:00

Kisho Kurokawa Nakagin Capsule 1972
This fall is an architecture season in Tokyo with World Congress of Architects as a centerpiece and related exhibitions such as the one in Mori Art Museum which takes a look at the revolutionary architectural movement from 60s. The Metabolism movement was developed during the period of reconstruction in which war-torn Japan worked to move toward its period of rapid economic growth. Gathered around the iconic figure of Kenzo Tange the group of young architects including Masato Otaka, Fumihiko Maki, Kiyonori Kikutake, Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa engaged in heated debates over the ideal city, and planned a great deal of experimental architecture and cities based on ideas of lifestyles and communities for a new era. As their name suggests, the Metabolists responded to urgent problems like the sudden increase in population and expansion of cities by proposing large-scale architecture and urban planning that would continue to change in form organically as opposed to static urban conditions illustrated in Le Corbusier schemes. These ideas first surfaced in 1960 at the World Design Conference where the Metabolist group presented a manifesto entitled: Metabolism 1960: Proposals for a New Urbanism. It coincided directly with the Income Doubling Plan that the Hayato Ikeda cabinet implemented in 1960. This moment constituted, in the words of Rem Koolhaas — perhaps the most influential architect alive and an avid student of the Metabolists' ideas — a rare moment where government, bureaucrats and artistic architectural circles were connected in a single enterprise.

Kiyonori Kikutake Marine City 1963

Isozaki Arata Shibuya Project: City in the Air 1962
Assembling more than 500 items, the exhibition reveals visions of cities floating on water and spiraling into the air; towers bristling with plug-in capsules for dwelling, linked by huge tubes for services and movement; grand plans for cities and farms presented in models, sketches, plans, archive film footage and 3D animations.

photos: courtesy Mori Art Museum and Kikutake Kiyonori

new pantheon?

2011-09-13T12:26:00.001-07:00

Teshima Art Musuem is located on an island in Seto Inland Sea. It faces the ocean from a hillside covered with rice terraces. The museum is unlike most art museums– unlike most buildings– in that it doesn’t treat the outside as a source of contamination and is completely open, a brandmark of Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA. Nishizawa, both working alone and with his partner Kazuyo Sejima, has gradually revolutionized museum architecture in Japan. The building itself resembles drop of water and corresponds with Rei Naito work Matrix which it hosts inside. A thin concrete slab stretches as long as sixty meters creating a large organic interior. Low ceiling, four-and-a-half meter height with two apertures let the light, rain and the air penetrate the inside. This structure was possible only thanks to technology since there is no straight line in the entire design. Inside water that had been welled from underground slowly springs up from various spots flow freely morphing into the shapes, whirl and disappear again. It's a place of meditation over life where architecture, art and environment blends together.

photos: Noboru Morikawa

triennale

2011-08-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

The fourth edition of Yokohama Triennale, titled OUR MAGIC HOUR - How Much of the World Can We know? focuses on art that makes use of motives related to mysteries of the world, everyday life and magical powers as we read in the guidebook introduction.

How much magic is in this exhibition?

At the Yokohama Museum of Art, which is for the first time the primary triennale venue, visitors are greeted by the rainbow sculpture entitled our magic hour, which also serves as the exhibition title and by the group of sculpture monsters guarding the entrance (both by Ugo Rondinone).

photo: William Andrews

Inside, the first artwork beyond the museum lobby is Aurélien Froment video Théâtre de Poche in which magician conjures images into the air telling a cyclical tale. To either side of this gallery are minimal installations by James Lee Byars, Wilfredo Prieto and Motohiro Tomii. The two latter play with our notion of value arranging simple materials such as pins or zirconia so that they evoke viewers' astonishment. Following the route attentive viewer will spot easy-to-overlook work Still White, Corridor by Atsushi Saga, who polished the gallery wall to a subtle sheen.

Wilfredo Prieto, One, 2008

photo: Monika Rendzner

James Lee Byars, The Diamond Floor, 1995

photo: William Andrews

In other rooms contemporary art is integrated with works from museum's collection coming from different ages from ukiyo-e prints to Coptic textiles and mid-twentieth-century Surrealist paintings. The one which keeps me for longer is the Massimo Bartolini installation Organi, in which a scaffolding has been transformed into musical pipes with a small music box placed on the floor. Along with the Damien Hirst stain-glass shape multicoloured collages made of dried butterflies wings this high-ceiling room make me feel like in a chapel.

photo: Monika Rendzner

The other venue is three-level BankART Studio NYK which has different dynamics and which hosts mostly site-specific installations. Here the artistic director, Akiko Miki, seems to walk away from the theme of wonderment prevailing in the main venue. This exhibition is partly playful with Rivane Neuenschwander interactive installations that resembling the playground on the second floor and partly meditative. I am glued to Susan Norrie video Transit in which she juxtaposes the owe of nature and the technological development that is used to control it. Christian Marclay video The Clock which won Golden Lion in Venice this year is one of the last work in the exhibition and one where most flock.

Rivane Neuenschwander, Prosopopaea, 2010/Izumi Taro, Fishbone as slang, 2010

photo: Monika Rendzner

Whether the decision to include a greater number of local artists was intentional or resulted from shrunken budget it was good to see works by Yagi Lyota, Taro Izumi, Imamura Ryosuke, Yokoo Tadanori, Takahiro Iwasaki, Noguchi Rika and the Koichi Yumoto Collection of Japanese ghosts and monsters amongst others.

incomplete

2011-07-15T09:37:00.001-07:00

I'm now reading the catalogue of Tadanorii Yokoo show Incomplete - What's yours is mine. What's mine is mine, which was held in 2009 at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary art in Kanazawa. Tadanorri, a true pioneer in the realm of postwar Japanese visual and pop culture, at the age of 29 was catapulted into the upper echelons of the booming Japanese avant-gard art warld of mid 60s. thanks to his most remarkable graphic art posters.

His bright colour palette and pastiche-like images culled from pop culture proved incredibly popular and soon Yokoo became a much sought after designer, being commissioned to create not only posters for the theatre and art world but also ad campaignes. He also began to paint. His works from that time present bold images of women (pink girls) who brazenly expose themselves as they never would normally.

After producing 20 of these paintings over May-June of 1966, which gain him a label of art world bad boy, Yokoo distanced himself from painting until early 80s. when he decided to move away from graphic art and become full time painter. Yokooo's painting style varies greatly, from almost photorealistic depictions to highly impressionistic. I don't have any particulare style, he syas. The look of the painting changes to suit the subject matter or theme. Though, as with his graphics design works, Yokoo's paintings have their own set of recurring motifes. One of them is a series of Y-junction paintings that depict a deserted intersection in an anonymous Japanese town, with a narrow, dilapidated building, a bar or restaurant of some sort, wedged between the two forks in the road. The time of day, weather conditions, and identifying markers like shop and street signs vary with each painting, but the cumulative effect is one of devastating bleakness and isolation. The Y intersaction paintings are reminiscent of the works of Giorgio de Chirico (Italian Surrealist) best known for his depiction of large, empty plazas with looming buidings and monuments.

Yokoo is one of the star artist at this year's Yokohama Triennale, for which he painted 15 works representing a new development in the Y-junction series. This deeply coded and personal series can be perceived as a crossroad of now at which one is force to choose one of two options.
Interview with Yokoo Tadanori.

moment

2011-06-22T07:06:00.001-07:00

Yukihiro Taguchi Moment: Performative Hills is the commisioned work for the MAM Project, where white wood panels are stripped off the gallery walls and make their way out of Mori Museum. Away from the gallery walls they become involved in a number of performative installations, their activity is recorded as a stop-motion animation and then exhibited back within museum walls. Edan Corkil, staff writer of Japan Times, interviewing the artist wonders why Taguchi is not behind the bars yet for what seems in Japan "an obstruction of public thoroughfare".

Taguchi has an answer for this, he lives and works in Berlin. If I had stayed in Tokyo I would have ended up a very different artist he says. Things are done differently over there. There's an openness, a willingness to try things, and it invites experimentation.

He graduated from most prestigious of art schools in Japan, Tokyo University of the Arts. But since he was keen to avoid a trap of rental gallery system, where one spend a year doing part time jobs only to make enough money for a single show which lasts only for a week, he went to Berlin which changed his art thoroughly. Although he spent four years in oil-painting department he is influenced by Tadashi Kawamata who works in the midst of demolition and construction building new and unusual structures from scrap or reclaimed materials. You can read more of artist's confessions at: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20110630a1.html

a girl who almost swallowed a tapeworm

2011-05-30T23:50:00.001-07:00

I recently visited the world only Parasite Museum to find soon afterwards Kuronuma Mayumi, the artist who got inspired by the tapeworms displayed in the ultra-marine-colored background show cases.

Here's an excert of an interview with the artist published in WHO series.

Roger McDonald: The first artwork that caught my attention was the tapeworms. I heard that she would go to the parasite musuem to sketch, but what was interesting was that, she would not only draw from the skatches but also creat life-size knitted tapeworm. I asked Kuronuma san to exhibit her knitted tapeworms in the several projects [..] At Fukui Art Musuem it was displayed on the floor as one long line. Just like an actual tapeworm, the work keeps changing its form.
RM: Have you ever tried to put one inside you?Kuronuma Mayumi: It's said that they are probably now extinct so you cannot get larva abymore [..].

RM: Mayumi are there any artists that you particularly like?
KM: I like Kelly and Henry Darger.
RM: Kelly really makes interesting things. He is an artist fascinated by subculture, punkhorror and the occult. When we talk about Mike Kelly, the word 'abject' is often used.
I don't think you are an ousider like Darger, but you have this kind of haunting or obsessive quality [..].

figment

2011-04-02T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hiraki Sawa, Figment, video, 2011
"A boy closes his eyes for 25 minutes and wakes up with the world gone from behind his thoughts. His language slips and shifts, he tastes orange juice without knowing anymore to describe it as sour, he likes numbers but cannot put names to faces. His room is filled with a thousand records and many more. He sees the records, unable to listen. He can't see the floor, has never seen the floor beneath them, wouldn't recognise it if he met it in the street. He meets people in the street and his only option is to trust that they know him when they say they do. His records become opaque, circular slabs of the unknown and the unknowing. A fog of landscapes without contours, without borders, that can only be read by touching. To move forward he must step out, one foot then the other, and believe that he is indeed moving. His mind like an emptied lake, the sky welling upward and outward, unable to contain the depth of it all, the bottomless, fathomless wealth of the things he lost in his sleep"*.

A new work in which Sawa explores the phenomenon of amnesia and the devastation of severe memory loss through a series of abstract visual sequences.

*Text by Dale Berning

Singa planet

2011-04-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

On the ocassion of the Singapore Biennale Japan Creative Center presents Akira Yamaguchi new project Singa Planet along with few previous pieces. In the catalogue forward we read: The characteristic feature of Yamaguchi Akira's work is his way of incorporating various manners and events from different ages and cultures, as well as scenes of contemporary life into the formats of rakuchu rakugai zu (panoramic scenes of urban life during the Edo period). This time however Singa planet was inspired by the contemporary life of Singapore and its publicly governed and developed housing facilities populated by over 85% of society.

Department store: New Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, 2004
From the previous works that attracted me a lot is the one above partly because it shows my neighborhood, party because it brings new dimention to the discussion about Meji-era Nihonbashi Bridge and the Metropolitan Expressway arching above it. The later was built in 60s. when Tokyo underwent major makeover before Tokyo Olimpics and is considered a symbol of landscape distruction since it was built over the old bridge. When the city competed for 2000 Olimpics there had been some plans to hide the expressway underground. But there are also voices that the present landscape is far more precious and Tokyoesque than Nihonbashi bridge which is after all just a mere copy of something one would find in Europe.
In his painting Yamaguchi adds another bridge to the landscape which is the orginal wooden bridge from Edo-era built over the expressway and a cinical comment to the whole discussion.

Yamaguchi witty painting style with sense of play and enterteinment makes his picture accounts for his popularity among the viewers and the rising prices for his works which I experianced personally buying recently one of his prints.

The Merlion Hotel

2011-03-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

I've been recently to Singapore which holds art biennale now in its 3rd edition. On this occasion, Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi created an installation around the 8.6-meter-tall Merlion turning it temporarily into a hotel where for the 80$ per night one can enjoy intimacy with the Singapore iconic landmark and a beautiful view over Marina Bay Sands. During the day people can visit the hotel, while each evening is for checked-in guests only. In this project public and private spheres overlap and bring citizens eye-to-eye with a monument that usually towers far overhead. Reservations for Merlion Hotel, which were available to the public for one month sold out within a day.

Merlion Hotel is part of the Berlin- and Tokyo-based artist's series of site-specific room installations that incorporate public landmarks. Merlion is the latest in the series which includes Villa Victoria (2002), a platial suite constructed around neoclassical marble and bronze monument dedicated to Queen Victoria in Liverpool, and Villa Kaihoutei (2005), an 85-squere-meter room encasing a gazebo in Yokohama Chinatown. Each work creates an alternative and more physically immediate perspective on the respective monument by juxtaposing public icons with the immediate setting of the bedroom.

ei arakawa

2011-02-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

Henning Bohl, Sergei Tcherepnin and Ei Arakawa, Reorienting Orientationalism,
New Directions (Haircolour) International Class, 2011

photo: Toshiya Suda, Courtesy of the artists and Tokyo Wonder Site, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo

On Friday I went to TSW Shibuya to watch performance which turned out to be my favorite thing I saw in Tokyo in a while. In their performance, Ei Arakawa in close collaboration with composer Sergei Tcherepnin and Berlin based artist Henning Bohl using simple props examine the interplay of music and visual art. They share the same interest with modern avant-garde and several postwar movements in creating artistic environment engaging visitors in an open game in which borders between participants, viewers, objects and processes become diffused.

contemporary horror

2011-01-25T05:50:00.001-08:00

Odhani Motohiko, New born, 'mouse', 2007
Just came back from the curatorial tour of 'Phantom-Limb', Odani Motohiko show at MAM and I have this lingering thought in my head that some of Odani works are echoing the visual language of Capuchins who were also sculpting from bones. But unlike the latter, Odani is using bones of animals reconstructed in plastic which makes it less of a horror and more of the beauty. Pity that not all the works on the exhibitions are of the quality. Japanese art world “golden boy” has already represented his country at Venice Biennale and has been the youngest artist so far having solo exhibition at MAM which is one of the biggest spaces artist can be asked to fill on his own and I would argue if Odani lived up to the challenge.

Capuchins Crypt, Rome and The Sedlec Ossuary, Kotna Hora

summery

2011-01-25T00:39:00.001-08:00

The 2010 saw some cross-media shows examining Japanese contemporary art in terms of its craft aesthetics - Noe-Orientalism from Japanese Contemporary art and its architectural aesthetics - Where is architecture? Seven Installations by Japanese architects. Among the galleries presenting contemporary art the most interesting shows were held in Taka Ishii Gallery of Naoya Hatakeyama who with a scientific zeal examines Tokyo cityscape, Hiromiyoshii which displayed maquettes by more than a dozen young architects, Mizuma Art Gallery which showed three-by-seven-meter painting of a mound of dead Japanese businessmen and office appliciencies by Aido Makoto and Edo-era inspired ink drawings by Akira Yamaguchi while at Misako&Rosen Yuki Okumura displayed videos of rakugo actor retelling a classical Japanese story.

Yuki Okumura, Anatomy Fiction, video, 2010
Privately run museums often stage city's best exhibitions and so the Mori Art Musuem held third of its triennial surveys of Japanese artist Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can there be art ?, Watari Musuem of Contemporary Art celebrated its 20th year with solo exhibition of multimedia artist Tam Ochiai and architect Sou Fujimoto while Hara Museum of Contemporary Art presented first solo show in Japan of Chinese artist Yang Fudong.

Outside Tokyo to the West, Hiroshima City Musuem of Contemporary Art presented More of an Activity: The Artist as Choreographer and to the North, 21st Centuary Musuem of Contemporary Art Kanazawa held a larg exhibition of multimedia artist Tadasu Takamine which then traveled to Yokohama.

Tadasu Takamine, Melody Cup, 2009

photo: Takezaki Hiroto

In addition to the proliferation of the architectural shows at home, it was a big year for Japanese architects abroad. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA were awarded the Pritzker, architectural Nobel. Sejima was also the first femal and Asian director of Venice Architectural Biennale, where Junya Ishigami received a Golden Lion.

The post is based on the Ashley Rawlings report for ArtAsiaPacific Almanac 2011

art wars

2010-10-16T14:28:00.001-07:00

"ANPO" Trailer from Scott Burgess on Vimeo.

Record of Japanese artists resistance to U.S. military presence in Japan. Starring Ishiuchi Miyako, Aida Makoto, Ikeda Tatsuo, and Nakamura Hiroshi, among others.

EAA

2010-09-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

The exhibition, Emerging Asian Artists at Art Gwangju 2010, highlights the top emerging Asian contemporary artists who have contributed to bringing Asia to the forefront of the international art world. Japan has been represented by Akira Mayanaga, Kei Takemura, Koizumi Meiro, Koki Tanaka and Soshi Matsunobe.

Soshi Matsunobe, Direction of materials, installation, 2010

photo: www.matsunobe.net

Hmm..very interesting choice.

Nam June Paik Award

2010-09-04T12:45:00.001-07:00

This year competing for the award are two Japanese - Daito Manabe who describes himself as an artist programmer, designer, DJ, VJ and composer and Ei Wada a.k.a. Crab Feet who is sound, music and media artist. The latter I happen to see performing at Japan Media Art Festival earlier this year.

Ei Wada, The Braun Tube Jazz Band, 2009

photo: Takeshi Horinouchi

I wouldn't like to jump into conclusion but doesn't this over representation mean something? Isn't it new nihonga?

ICZ

2010-08-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Pejantan Black Geyser. (Day 131, Western end, Madura Forest), 2009

The summer issue of Cabinet presents an artistic project by Japan-based Institute of Critical Zoologists - Pulau Pejantan.
ICZ, a brainchild of Renhui Zhao, photographer and former animal rights activist, is based on the concept of doubt and uncertainty. The stunning photographs taken by ICZ members may be truthful deception or artful fabrication but it hardly matters as it proves that our assumptions about reality must be continuously questioned if not fully abandoned sometimes.

Iriamondi Cat. (Day 60, 6km off Madura Forest), 2009 by Renhui Zhao

Here's the small excerpt of the interview with Renhui Zhao@TroikaEditions.

What is the worst commission you have ever had?

In 2006, I was given a commission to document animals that have yet to be discovered. I spent 3 months in the forests of Vietnam not really sure of what I really should be doing. There was suppose to be a large mammal but nobody has seen it before. The project was a total failure.

What is the best commission you have ever had?

I was awarded a grant by the Chelsea Arts Club in 2007. In a period of two months, I visited many zoos and circus in Europe. I thought I would really enjoy going to the zoos but I didn't. I realized I wasn't really interested in looking at animals in zoos but I was more interested in observing how humans behaved in front of animals.

What book are you reading at the moment?

Some we love, Some we hate, Some we eat, Why it's so hard to think straight about animals by Hal Herzog. I like the sub-chapters "Animal liberation as religion" and "The consequences of taking animals seriously".

What made you laugh recently?

People realized that flamingoes knew how they looked like and that this was a sign that God exists.

What really winds you up?

When the lies of others become history. Whale wars on the Discovery channel is an interesting example. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that not all species of whales are endangered. It is a bit like saying all birds are endangered. I don't really understand how some visual encyclopedias can start warning little children that all the whales in the ocean are going to die out real soon. That sounds really scary but it is not true.

What would your dream project be?

I would love to document all the remaining whaling communities in Japan before they become extinct.

Osama bin Laden

2010-07-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Aida Makoto's, I'm Osama bin Laden, 2005

I've seen it quite recently in Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, where I currently work, at drunkard film review which was screened for the launch of the bar.

The subject of Makoto Aida’s video is Osama Bin Laden, impersonated by the artist, who's hiding in Japan. He becomes a lazy, sake-drinking old man who, in a drunken stupor, videotapes a message that he has quit being a terrorist and that the U.S. can stop looking for him. Hilarious!

paper work

2010-05-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

Sachiko Abe, Cut papers, performance for Kunstnernes Hus, 2002

Liverpool Biennial has announced the artists participating in Touched, the International exhibition for the 6th Liverpool Biennial International Festival of Contemporary Art. Artists currently proposing new commissions for Touched include Sachiko Abe.

Sachiko, a performance artists started cutting paper when she was a mental hospital patient. It helped her to calm and deflected the need to cut herself. 'It takes 40 minutes to cut one whole paper,' she writes in her explanatory note. From small cuts in paper, over the duration of the exhibition, she constructs a strikingly beautiful, ephemeral cocoon around herself.

Talking paper here are two other artist/art collective dealing with this media.

Yuken Teruya, Notice-Forest, 2005, paper bag, glue

Yuken Teruya who conveys a powerful political and environmental message with his microscopically paper cut trees sitting inside discarded McDonald’s and Chanel bags and Plaplax (Chikamori Motoshi, Kunoh Kyoko, Kakehi Yasuaki) playing with paper cuts and shadow.

Plaplax, Para para site, 2009, interactive installation

OORUTAICHI

2010-05-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

OORUTAICHI performs his own progressive form of ‘drifting folklore music’ combining elements of dance, folk and pop. Singing with a palpable joy in his own invented language, while at the same time mashing and mixing driving base-lines with disco-kicks and synthesised freestyle beats.
OORUTAICHI hails from Osaka and has been recording and performing since 1999. He received critical acclaim both in Japan and abroad for his first album YORI, YOYO (2003) and has since toured the United Kingdom, Europe and United States.

He is making his debut in Australia for the opening of SuperDeluxe@Artspace at The Biennale of Sydney.

bow-wow

2010-04-29T07:16:00.001-07:00

On April 29th National Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT), Tokyo opened an exhibition on Japanese contemporary architecture. Atelier Bow Wow inspired by Barbara Hepworth sculptures completely redesigned the museum’s front lawn to function as a summer house (details here). Quite recently I had a chance to interview Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, one of the partners of Bow-Wow. Here is small part of it:

M.R.: Is context imporatant to architecture?
Y.T.: Building itself is tiny compared to the world. Without context architecture cannot perform. Lets take pet architecture. Before its creation there are always other interventions or transformations which produce tiny, strange leftover space in the city fabric. And because of scarce of the land and the desire to use it to maximum this leftover space produces such small buildings.

M.R.: Talking pet architecture. Have you ever been trying to look for it outside Japan and is your practice limited to Japan or is it universal?
Y.T.: Our work is not universal, is glocal [laugh]. It could be anywere but it is always local.

M.R.: Are you interested in architecure fashions?
Y.T.: No, any. I'm more interested in the history of architecture.

M.R.: Is there any architect that inspires you?
Y.T.: Enric Miralles, Rem Koolhaas but there are many interesting people and ongoing social intervention projects in Latin America where space becomes a very powerful tool to reform society.

M.R.: Your work is not to be compared to any other Japanese architect. Don't you feel like outsiders?
Y.T.: I think that in 10 yrs people will realize that it's the right way to think about architecture.

transformation

2010-04-12T19:26:00.001-07:00

Desire to change, to become someone else, to transform is not new to the world and artists fond of transformation can be found all over the world. In Japan, Cindy Sherman older brother is Yasumasa Morimura whose retrospective runs through April in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Yasumasa Morimura, To My Little Sister: for Cindy Sherman, 1998

For the exhibition Morimura deconstructs famous news images and portraits and reenacts them with himself disguised as the subject(s) bringing them yet again into the light.

Yasumasa Morimura, A Requiem: Vietnam war 1968 -91, 1991, gelatin silver print

Yasumasa Morimura, A requiem: Laugh at the Dictator, 2008, video

O Jun

2010-04-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

O Jun, 3m, 2006, gouache
I went to see Artist File 2010 in NACT lured by strangely seductive picture on the poster.
O Jun works are a nice break from what one of the non-Japanese curator based in Tokyo calls salarymen of art. He depicts everyday objects, people and landscapes simplified to nearly a graphic abstraction as opposed to overloaded, meticulously crafted or infantile works of others. O Jun says his motifs could be anything that jumps into his eyes or ears while walking down the streets, reading newspapers or watching TV which makes me think of my home country artist Sasnal whose thinking and feeling is pretty much the same and whose works have been recently presented at Rat Hole Gallery.

photo: Mizuma Gallery

art fair report

2010-04-11T08:24:00.001-07:00

Although its contemporary art market is considered small in relation to the country's overall economy, Japan has no shortage of commercial art fairs.

Art Fair Tokyo
The biggest art fair in Japan launched in 2005. This year in its 5th edition presented 138 exhibitors. Although the number of participating galleries decreased slightly from 143 in 2009 the crowd has been getting bigger from year to year and this time I had to queue to enter. There was the noticeable absence of galleries like Mizuma, Wako Works of Art and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE. Otherwise than that it was business as usual: hundreds of booths, featuring everything from antiques to contemporary art.
This year edition had a special section devoted to new galleries of contemporary art called 'Projects' presenting some new entries into the art world.

photo: William Andrews

G-Tokyo
Launched in the beginning of this year and held on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower. This 'boutique' art fair hosted only 15 galleries. The limited number of exhibitors and vast space with high ceilings made the viewing experience easier. All 15 participating galleries recorded sales by the end of the fair's run. Mizuma gallery representative said that they sold almost all of the works within the first 10 minutes of opening!

photo: William Andrews

Art Fair Free
An art fair that one could exchange artists' works for anything but money. The swap takes place if the artist finds the client offer interesting. The mechanism goes as follows: if you find work you want, you can send your proposal to artists through the email. Artist selects one of the proposals and then the trade is completed. There were 55 artists participating.

This year on the alternative art fair end there was 101Tokyo missing and Art@Agnes on the other end.

pachinko

2010-02-10T05:44:00.000-08:00

I cannot help to make this inappropriate comparison ..

and the piece that was shown at Japan Media Arts Festival and which is a musical instrument that automatically emulates a glockenspiel using steel ball bearings.
Both hypnotizing.

art of electric poles arragement

2010-01-30T07:40:00.000-08:00

Akira Yamaguchi, Independent Reserach (the Art of Electric Pole Arrangement) 2008

At recently held G-Tokyo exhibition-style art fair Akira Yamaguchi presented new series entitled Chukado (The Art of Electric Pole Arrangement). Chukado is an aesthetic approach to electric poles, often despised for ruining the landscape, by arranging them in the style of a Japanese ikebana. As well as in his previous works he combines the techniques of classical Japanese painting with the humor and draftsmanship of a manga cartoonist.

in short

2009-12-22T19:30:00.001-08:00

In 2009 Japan museums held several memorable exhibition. In Ueno Royal Museum 'Neoteny Japan - Takahashi Collection' brought together works owned by private collector Ryutaro Takahashi. Exhibition defined Japanese contemporary art in terms of neoteny - the retention of cute and juvenile characteristics in adult species. The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography presented vividly colored portraits by Venice Biennale representative Miwa Yanagi while Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, run by renowned curator Yuko Hasegawa, held '+/- [the infinite between 0 and 1]' of Ryoji Ikeda's acclaimed digital sound installation. Established by collector Tashio Hara, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art celebrated its 30th anniversary with 'Winter Garden: The Exploration of Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art', a group show curated by art critic Midori Matsui that brought together young Japanese artists whose work exhibits a postmodern pop aesthetics.

Lyota Yagi, vinyl, 2006, installation
At yet another privately run museum Watari Museum of Contemporary Art (Watari-um), multimedia artist Shimabuku presented recent works. Taka Ishii Gallery displayed illuminated installations by Yukinori Maeda while neighboring ShugoArts held solo exhibition of black-and-white portratits by photographer Kazuna Taguchi followed by exhibition of Tomoko Yoneda's photographs relating to Bangladesh's independence from West Pakistan in 1971. Hiromiyoshii held solo exhibition of video artist Hiroharu Mori and snapshot photographer Hiromix. Radi-um von Roentgenwerke, run by veteran dealer Tsutomu Ikeuchi, exhibited Hideyuki Sawayanagi's portraits made of perforated metal sheets. and Taro Nasu presented an installation of botanical-themed works by artist-architect Jun Aoki. Gallery Koyanagi exhibited new animated videos by Tabaimo and photograps of Hiroshi Sugimoto who won the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale award. Other notable spaces like Mizuma Art Gallery presented embroidery works by Satoru Aoyama. Ota Fine Arts held a solo show of guerilla multimedia artist Tsuyoshi Ozawa while blue-chip SCAI The Bathhouse presented new works by sci-fi conceptualist Mariko Mori.

Mariko Mori, Flat Stone, 2007, installation
At Arataniurano, Tatsu Nishi installed a slanting ceiling that forced viewers to the outer edge of the gallery's space. Another young up-and-coming gallery, Mujin-to Production featured the irreverent artist group Chim↑Pom. This year the group responded to cancellation of their show at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008 after they wrote the word pika (flash) in white smoke in the sky over the Hiroshima city publishing a compilation of essays by critics and curators addressing the controversy. Tokyo metropolitan government funded Tokyo Wonder Site (TWS) presented an eye-catching installation of incinerated trash pouring down from the upper floor by Shinjin Ohmaki, who won Best Young Artist Award at ShContemporary Art Fair.

In Tokyo's neighboring metropolis Yokohama, the Yokohama Museum of Art held major exhibition for Teppei Kaneuji's multicolored plastic sculptures. North of the capital, 21st Century useum of Contemporary art Kanazawa held solo show of veteran artist Tadanori Yokoo. In Hiroshima, the Daiwa Press Viewing Room, a large showroom run by collector Tatsumi Sato, displayed sculpturally arranged photographs by Yuki Kimura while on the island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, a public bathhouse designed by Shinro Othake opened to the public.

Cities outside Tokyo hosted an increasing number of regional biennales and festivals: Yokohama: 'CREAM - International Festival for Arts and Media', Kyushu: Kitakyushu Biennale titled 'Migrants, Immigrants, emigrants, refugees, Exiles, Expatriates and Others' and presenting new media works by artists from local alternative space Gallery SOAP, Fukuoka: Fukuoka Asian Triennale and Nigata: Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.

photos: Mujin-to Production, SCAI The Bathhouse
source: after Ashley Rawlings, ArtAsiaPacific, Almanac 2010

WHO

2009-11-19T22:54:00.001-08:00

It's very rare to find a book on Japanese contemporary art in English this is why when I learnt about WHO I was overjoyed. Especially that it features Hara Takafumi whom I always wanted to mention here.
WHO is the title of the art book series featuring contemporary Japanese artists. In easy-to-follow form of an interview it restrains from using art terms and besides the art works also presents artists' daily life as a part of their extraordinary perception of the world. The first issue is dedicated to Hara Pink Window Project which he has been running in various places including Japan, Germany, Singapore and Brazil. In each of them artist picks up a building and research on its history which servived in the memories of the locals to finally exhibit it in the windows of the building. Here is a small excerpt of the interview with Hara which was made by Roger McDonald, independent curator and founding member of Arts Initiative Tokyo.

RM: Why did you start the project?
HT: [...] I wanted to go out into real world. When I showed my works at gallery spaces, I could construct my world but only relate to people who came [to the gallery] and that's all. I had the need to relate myself with our society much closely and get out of the art world [...]

RM: Is that the first time for you to use windows as medium?
HT: No. I had an exhibition at a museum in Chiba in 1998. It was an installation work, and I had to cover all windows to darken the room. If I didn't do this exhibition, I might never done the projects using windows [...]

RM: What does it mean to combine other's words within your work?
HT: I think words are expression tools that everyone has [...]. Yet, words are in its nature in flux and disappear, so I have the feeling that I would like to keep them.

RM: There are always illustations with the words.
HT: [...] For me it looks like characters in fairy tale. [...] Like Aesopus Fables. They are so realistic in original version. [Althought] over the time, through editing, simplifying and replacing they have changed still when we read them, even if they're amusing, we are sure of some horror in them [...]. I like this effect and would like to get the similar feeling in my works.

all photos come from artist's web page

Restaurant Wild Cat House

2009-11-15T06:12:00.001-08:00

I spent the weekend in Echigo-Tsumari where I went to see what's been left from the Art Triennale. Was it for the gloomy weather or the fact that we got lost few times trying to find art works spanning multipy venuse in whole Nigata prefecture but it seemed like a big kid has scattered its toys around and forgot to pick them up. Upon returned I read Roger McDonald review of Triennale and found out about its director - Fram Kitagawa - curatorial approach which essentially welcomes all levels and types of creativity + not being so concerned with curating art exhibition and more concerned with activating the region and its people through the vehicle of the festival. Now when the festival is over at least I know that it wasn't just a gloomy day ..

Anyways, I found some art works that appealed to me despite the rain. Amongst them was Mio Shirai installation Restaurant Wild Cat House which was a set for his video which I saw at some other occasion. It is an adaptation of Restaurant of Many Orders written by Kenji Miyazawa in 1921. The story follows two Japanese men kin of Western fashion who stumble upon a strange restaurant serving Western food. And while blindly following instructions posted on doors they almost end up being eaten by the large Wild Cat.
In Shirai's context, it's easy to understand that Western food represents Western culture and art. And those blindly following it end up swallowed by it and never return to their oryginal selves.

CREAM

2009-11-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

One of the most memorable piece of Yokohama International Media Festival CREAM was that of Lieko Shiga who showed a ten minute carefully edited slide sequence of still photographs. The fast-paced, jerky editing and monotone noise soundtrack created a mood of a horror.

Leiko Shiga, from CANARY series, 2007, c-print.

photo: Leiko Shiga

Read more: Roger McDonald review Lieko Shiga here.

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

2009-11-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

Shuji Terayama has immense cultural standing in Japan. He was an acclaimed poet, playwright, film-maker, essayist and photographer, whose transgrassive themes gained him notoriety. Thomas Dylan Eaton reviews the history of Japanese artistic and political radicalism of the 70s through close study of Terayama’s film Emperor Tomato Ketchup, a violent satire of post-War complacency in Afterall magazine. Definitely worth reading.

MAM project 009

2009-10-27T07:04:00.001-07:00

Koizumi Meiro, My voice rich you, 2009, video installation

photo: MAM

Attending Ai Weiwei exhibiotion@MAM I happened to come across Koizumi Meiro video installation which is a part of MAM project 009. It consists of two-part video, photography and a letter. In the first part of the video we see a man on the street talking to his mother on the phone. And although we don't hear the voice of the person on the other side of the line we can easily fill in the gaps in the dialogue. In the second part we can hear both sides and it turns out that actually the man talks to some customer support service or info line operator as if the person was his mother. And what seemed to be so familair is now inconvenient and amusing in a way. The video is accompanied with the letter to his deceased mother written by the same man and the authentic photo which makes the work very personal and easy to identify with before we realize that in fact it is a play with social structures and our feelings.
Koizumi is now working on yet another interesting piece titled Kamikaze Dog based on monologues spoken by kamikaze pilot in WW2 movies.

on trash

2009-10-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Since 2007, Shinji Omaki has been developing Garbage Project trying to find out what exactly is garbage. Following his visits at the waste landfill repository in Tokyo and Omori Shell Mound he now shows new installation works in TWS. And once again he transforms oridinary space into exraordinary where one can experiance realms of his creations.

Shinjin Omaki, Silent Vaticination, 2009, installation

photo: Shigeo Muto

detour

2009-10-20T05:58:00.001-07:00

Showing@MOMA Design Shop, a traveling exhibition organized by Moleskine which just got to Tokyo. On display are some Moleskine notebooks designed and customized by artists working in different fields. Amongst them few Japanese Toyoo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Naomi Kawase, Naoto Fukasawa, Tadanori Yokoo, Kazunari Hattorii, Naoki Yoshimoto, Shintaro Miyake, Erina Matsuki and more. Visitors are welcomed to flip through displayed notebooks' pages.

ShContemporary09

2009-09-27T15:18:00.001-07:00

This year edition of ShContemporary09 hosted a special exhibition (curated by Mami Kataoka) to showcase works by some of the most significant artist who emerged from Asia during the past two decades as well as some of the most promising emerging artists. Among Japanese were: Aiko Miyanaga, Teppei Kaneuji, Takahiro Iwasaki and Yuichi Higashionna. The first two were already mentioned at different occasions so here are few words about latter both working with everyday objects.

Takahiro Iwasaki (b. 1975, Hiroshima) bookshelf, installation, 2008

Iwasaki lyrically transforms the every day objects into vessels of fantasy. What may seem at the first glance a clutter of strings and found objects become a Lilliputian world arranged with great precision.
Iwasaki studied at Hiroshima City University and Edinburgh Collage of Art. In 2005 selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries. He's been exhibiting is Japan (Roppongi Crossing 2007 Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art@ Mori Art Museum in Tokyo), Scotland, Germany and UK (Barbican). Currently his work Reflection model is on show at 10. Biennale de Lyon.

Yuichi Higashionna (b. 1951, Tokyo) untitled (chandelier IV), installation, 2004
Higashionna’s work is about exploring domestic kitsch. My work frequently incorporates common, everyday things. Many of these things are what we call fanshii in Japanese. Fanshii things are said to be odd, kitsch, girlish and tacky he says.
Higashionna graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo (1978). His works were exhibited in Japan, South Korea (Pusan Biennale), U.S., Canada, France and Germany. In 2008 awarded Bombay Sapphire Prize (the world's biggest award for artists, designers and architects working with glass).

photo: courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates

tofu sculpture

2009-09-27T15:17:00.001-07:00

Tatzu Nishi, The Aureole of Tofu Buddha and Soy Sauce - The Land of Perfect Bliss, 2009, c-print

Buddhist altar made from tofu blocks fitted with the pump sprinkling soy sauce and all these sitting in the fridge. This is artist response to budget cuts on monumental art work which he's been working on. Tatzu Nishi is know for redeploying outdoor sculptures in seemingly everyday settings altering scale and context of these objects. And so a bronze Christe appears in the bedroom, Chinese pavillion changes into the hotel room and the street lamp lands in the gallery office. The Aureole of Tofu Buddha and Soy Sauce - The Land of Perfect Bliss is part of his show in Arataniurano gallery.

photo: tokyoartbeat

Japan game

2009-09-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

Playing games has been an essential aspect of human cultural history since Antiquity. In Japan, the global leader in entertainment electronics, the merger of everyday life, hobbies and computer games has progresses with particular intensity.

From 8th September Ars Electronica hosts Japan Media Arts Festival, an annual event from Tokyo first time in Europe. It focus on entertainment aspect in Japanese media art and present award winning game works.

Every evening there will be some game tournaments.

big in Japan

2009-08-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

The Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (CAC) presents Big in Japan, an exhibition featuring Yayoi Kusama, Paramodel, Hiraki Sawa and Go Watanabe.
The curators produced the exhibition as a set of four solo-projects. Each of theme is thought as a distinctive artistic world and aspires to present contemporary Japanese culture and art.

Paramodel, Paramodelic – Graffiti 2009

photo: courtesy the artist and Mori Yu Gallery

Hiraki Sawa, Hako, 2007, video installation

photo: courtesy the artist and Ota Fine Arts

Watanabe Go, "face ("portrait") -8", 2006, digital print

photo: ARATANIURANO

between abstraction and figuration

2009-08-12T08:57:00.001-07:00

Tomoo Gokita, Escape into reality, pigment print on etching paper, 2008

Born in Tokyo in 1969. Gokita had his first exhibition at Tokyo's Parco Gallery in 2000, with releasing his remarkable book 'Lingerie Wrestling'. At that time he was mostly making drawings and experimenting with painting, which led to development of his freeform b&w images. In 2006, Gokita had a solo show at ATM gallery NY and in the following year at the Honor Fraser Gallery L.A. He also participated in group shows at Berlin’s Peres Projects, as well as New York’s Dietch Projects. His reviews appeared in the New York Times on two separate occasions which instantly acclaimed him international status. Additionally, Gokita’s works have been shown at the New York Armory Show, Miami’s Nada Art Fair and London’s Frieze Art Fair. In 2008, Gokita had another solo exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery.

photo: azito-art.com

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial

2009-08-01T10:00:00.001-07:00

Chiharu Shiota, Memory House, 2009

One of Japan's biggest contemporary art events held in the Echigo-Tsumari region. Organized by Fram Kitagawa from Tokyo's Art Front Gallery, and this year supported by Soichiro Fukutake from Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation. This year an extra 200 works will join the over 150 permanent pieces already on display throughout this mountainous rural region.

Mukaiyama Tomoko, Wasted, 2009

Artist is a pianist based in Netherlands. For the Triennial she prepared an installation using 10.000 pieces of silk clothing.

Hideaki Idetsuki, Connect with the forest, 2006

A ring 16 meters in diameter was placed at a height of five meters, supported by the trees in the Kikyouhara Forest. The artist attempts to find a relationship between nature and human beings.

Yukiki Kasahara, Haruna Miyamori, Rice Talk, 2003

The work is tatami mat made of optical fiber which transmits haiku using Morse code and thus combine old and modern way of communication.

photos: www.echigo-tsumari.jp

six-legged wolves 'n flying daggers

2009-07-20T11:47:00.001-07:00

On 18th July Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery opened a large-scale retrospective of Japan 'most exciting' painter - Tomoko Konoike. The exhibition shows Konoike's best-know works featuring her signature characters like six-legged wolves, ball-like creature called mimio, one-leg girls in red sneakers and flying daggers as well as recent installations.

Tomoko Konoike, Untitled, acrilic, pencil, conte on canvas, 2006

Tomoko Konoike, Knifer life, 2000-2001

Tomoko Konoike, The planet is covered by silvery sleep, 2006

photo: Atsushi Nakamichi (Nacasa&Partners) for Mizuma Gallery

Tomoko Konoike,, Mimio-Odyssey, 2009

neoteny

2009-07-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

photo: Ryuataro Takahashi with Hiroki Tashiro sculpture Entenka for Momentum magazine

Neoteny Japan: Contemporary Artists after 1990s from Takahashi Collection is a traveling exhibition showing 80 works from private collection of Ryutaro Takahashi, a psychiatrist who began acquiring the artworks in early 90s. and who managed to collect over 1,500 pieces of contemporary Japanese art up to date. For comparison Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo owns collection of 4,000 works which covers a period four times as long and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 5,000 pieces. But it is about comparison as Dr. Takahashi has major works by just about every recognized Japanese artist.

However the exhibition seems to concentrate on infantilisation of Japanese society and art as the title suggest* and present childlike sensibility, otaku motifs, introversion and excess with few exceptions like Makoto Aida's A Picture of an Air Raid on New York City (War Picture Returns), already a contemporary classic and few other. Read more

* the term neoteny refers to retention of juvenile physical characteristics well into maturity and well describes the recent infantilisation of Japanese society.

keitai girl

2009-07-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

Noriko Yamaguchi, Keitai Girl

Imaginary character created by Noriko Yamaguchi inspired by mobile phone phenomenon in Japan where cell phone serves as credit card, TV, MP3 player, GPS device, digital camera and PC. Keitai girl is a caricature of this non-personal way of communication. Her bodysuit covered with cell phones keypads suggests her craving for physical communication and sensation.

photo: www.mem-inc.jp/keitaigirl

alternative Japanese Pavillion in Poland

2009-07-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

Alternative Japanese Pavillion in Poland presents Kukiko Nobori whom I talk about Japanese contemporary art and alternative art spaces.

MR: There's been this debate going on in ARTiT magazine about what is Japanese contemporary art.I would like to ask you the same question - what is Japanese contemporary art and how is it different? Is there anything like japanese-ness in art?

KN: As I have read articles and interviews, or talked with artists in Japan, it seems that some of them are rather conscious about the japanese-ness in their works, but some of them really do not care if they are from Japan and even reject to be categolize as such.
I think now it seems uncomfortable to claim the nationality in contemporary art.

MR: Coming to Japan one have an impression that there are top-notch Contemporary Art Centers/Museum at 'every corner' but not much alternative spaces. I was wondering why is it so, couldn't I just find them as they are so underground or there is no antiestablishment attitude whatsoever?
KN: The structure of so-called Japanese contemporary art world is different from that in the West, so it is difficult to define what the 'alternatives' are.
However I think there are many activities organized by artists outside of 'establishments' and museums. The visibility of those activities are less than those in the major contemporary art centres or museums, but once you get involved, it's easy to follow, I think.

MR: It is said that exhibitions become media that reflect condition of contemporary society. What do the exhibitions made in Japan tell us about Japanese society?
KN: It was an interesting phenomenon last year that an exhibition of Buddhist statues ('The National Treasure ASHURA and Masterpieces from Kohfukuji') in Tokyo got high attentions from wider audiences and it recorded 946,173 visitors. Some analyzes its big hit according to the way they showed ASHURA as a 'character'.

MR: Who's hot in Japan right now? Who's hot in Japan right now?
KN: Tetsuya Umeda, Ilcommons (i'm not sure if he wants to be called an artist though), Yodogawa Technicque

MR: 7 sins of Japanese contemporary art
KN: Complex attitude and feeling towards 'West', failure to communicate with general public, lack of criticism, lack of structural assistance ...

hologram effect

2009-06-14T04:32:00.000-07:00

Kazuna Taguchi, Look how long I've grown waiting for you , 2007, gelatine silver print

photo: ShugoArts

Tokyo 4-3-4-506

2009-06-14T03:53:00.001-07:00

Self-portraits that merely depict the artist. Born in Japan Chino Otsuka works and lives in London. The core of her photographic research is based on autobiographical experience. She uses self-portrait to explore themes of belonging, identity and memory. In her works she traces back and recreates the past. Tokyo 4-3-4-506 series takes place in an abandoned flat in a Tokyo housing estate.

photos: Tokyo 4-3-4-506 © Chino Otsuka

Japan at 40. Art Basel

2009-06-13T11:49:00.001-07:00

This is briefly how Japanese contemporary art looked like at Art Basel. Beneath the best of art dealers choice which this year were Tomio Koyama, Taka Ishii, SCAI the Bathhouse, Gallery Koyanagi and ShugoArts.

Ei Arakawa, c/o Grand Openings, Grand Openingsat Bumbershoot, 2008, performance
Shintaro Miyake, A torture of forest, 2009, acrylic, color pencil, pencil on paper

Daido Moriyama, Hokkaido, 1978/2009, black and white print
Tatsuo Miyajima, C.F.Lifestructurism - no.13, 2009, LED, IC, electric wire

Daisuke Ohba, UROBOROS(woods), 2008, acrylic on cotton

Noriko Ambe, Cutting Book Series with ED Ruscha "Artists who make pieces, Artists who do books", 2008,
Cuts on a book of "ED Ruscha"

Kohei Nawa, PixCell-Model-Leopard, 2008, mixed media

if I were ..

2009-06-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Japanese Pavilion commissioner I would consider showing ..

Takashi Kuribayashi, Sumpf land, 2008, installation
One of the most creative young artists who using animal motif explores concept of boundries and draws the viewer into different worlds. In his works he uses his experience as a diver. He participated in Singapore Biennale (2006).

photo: own archive and Towada Art Center

worst in show

2009-06-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Japanese Pavilion at Venice Biennale was awarded by Jerry Saltz Worst in Show. Here's the verdict: 'In the Japanese Pavilion, Miwa Yanagi exhibits a series of huge, god-awful photographs of grotesque naked women. In an accompanying text, a writer raves that these crappy pictures will bring great joy not only to the Japanese Pavilion but to the Venice Biennale as a whole...'

Daisuke Ohba

2009-06-09T03:04:00.000-07:00

photo: daisukeohba.blogspot.com

Flipping thru Flashart I found Daisuke Ohba solo show review at Scai The Bathhouse written by Satoru Nagoya which goes like this: 'you are beyond Japanese' means praise in the Japanese vernacular. Such a self-disparaging expression is still indispensable when we discribe unrivaled talent on the Japanese art scene. And that's the case of painter Daisuke Ohba (b.1981). While many young Japanese painters cling to trival private episodes as subjects and often reveal childish imperfection in technique, Ohba has adopted an approach with grandeur and maturity, hight above the Japanese standards.
Well, I don't quite uderstand why Ohba stands out among Japanese contemporaries so much as he reveals another well adoptes attidute by many Japanese called coping, here apparently an old masters in new technique called acrylic. So in this sense he is indeed beyond Japanese, which in my opinion, is a vital problem of contemporary Japanese art nowadays.

Art Safari: Murakami

2009-05-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't had enough of Murakami here is more..

in Ben Lewis TV series Art Safari in which he meets some of the most discussed contemporary artists and challenge their work with provoking questions.

In the episode dedicated to Takashi Murakami - Toying with Art, Lewis keeps asking critics, curators and collectors what are their theories about Murakami. Is it as superficial as it looks? He doesn't seem much convinced by their savant answers.

portraits macabre

2009-05-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

He calls himself modern reincarnation of Hokusai. Daikichi Amano is the director, photographer, columnist and pornographer. He produces weird films and photos of mostly women entangled in octopus and other sea creatures all of which he eats afterwards to avoid wasteful animal cruelty. Supposedly the most exciting new visual artists working in Japan today. Itadakimasu!

photo: www.daikichiamano.com

WRO'09

2009-05-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Yoshihito Mizuuchi, a, performance, 2008

The 13th Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw (Poland) features only one Japanese contemporary artist - Yoshihito Mizuuchi. His art originates from experiments with tape recorders which he was doing back in elementary school mixing various sounds from different sources to create highly original & personal tapes. This approach applies also to his recent works in which he creates new qualities and significance of everyday objects.

parody of a Murakami image

2009-05-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

by Olaf Breuning at Kodama Gallery in Tokyo

photo: rogermc.blogs.com

Japan meets Poland

2009-04-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

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, bath water, getaline, bath salt

photo: Beppu Contemporary Art festival

contemporary Asian art in Sotheby's

2009-04-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-15T03:39:00.000-07:00

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 favourite 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 rumour 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 rumour became part of the artwork itself. Otherwise it is so ethereal, so nonchalant, that it slips from normal consciousness.

Naito Rei, matrix, 2007

photo: Hatakeyama Naoya, courtesy Gallery Koyanagi

bricollage a japonais

2009-04-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

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

Teppei Kaneuji, Teenage Fan Club #6, 2007, plastic figures, hot melt adhesive

photo: www.teppeikaneuji.com

art math

2009-04-04T14:38:00.001-07:00

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

GEISAI#12

2009-03-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

Speaking of Murakami he founded Geisai which is now in its 12 edition, a biaannual one-day fair to promote younger artists. One doesn't have to be Murakami fan to give him a credit for a chance he gave hundreds of artists without dealers/galleries to present themselves and offer works directly to collectors and the public. For winner of 12. edition check www.us.geisai.net/g12
His yet another enterprise is production company Kaikai Kiki which employs more than 100 people/artists in NY and Tokyo. Some of them shine with their own light already.

Masakatsu Iwamoto aka Mr., V, 2005, acrylic on canvas

photo: courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin. For his NYC exhibition check: www.youtube.com

Aya Takano, Noshi & Meg, on Earth, year 2036, 2002, acrylic on canvas

photo: courtesy NADiff

Chiho Aoshima, Japanese Apricot 2, 2000, digital print

photo: courtesy Blum & Poe/Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

©Murakami

2009-03-13T03:46:00.000-07:00

Jerry Saltz, New York art critic comments on Takashi Murakami retrospective at Brooklyn Museum. Since Murakami never shows in Japan it's worth watching the video to see few highlights of the exhibition which was originally curated for MOCA. A 90-piece multimedia show of whole Murakami brand. The Economist claims that even Andy Warhol did not go so far to build the shop in the center of the exhibition, where visitors can buy LV handbag, an essential accesory of each Japanese chic, with Murakami playful design. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art Andy Warhol once said. Isn't Murakami deliberately called Japanese Warhol?

fresh paint

2009-03-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Each year art institutions in Japan takes pulse of Japanese contemporary art. Here a limited selection of fresh talents presented recently even though on most of the 'canvas' the 'paint' dried long time ago..

Artist File 2009
at The National Art Center is the annual showcase of what is new and interesting in contemporary art. This year NACT curators selected 9 artist (8 of them of Japanese origines): Ishikawa Naoki (photography), Hirakawa Shigeko (installation), Miyanaga Aiko (installation), Ohira Minoru (sculpture), Murai Shingo (sculpture), Kaneda Mio (painting), Saito Meo (painting), Tsugami Miyuki (painting).

Tsugami Miyuki, View 020403, 2002

Born 1973 in Osaka, MA at Kyoto University of Art and Design. Winner of VOCA prize in 2003, art resident of Ohara Museum of Art in 2005.

Hirakawa Shigeko, Tree of photosythesis, 2009
Environmental artist born 1953 in Kurume (Fukuoka). Graduate of Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

Tree of Photosynthesis has been produced from plastic discs containing photochromic pigments which work like artificial leaves and stimulate photosynthesis through changing color: they are violet by day light and translucent milky white by night.

photo: http://www.shigeko-hirakawa.com/

VOCA (The Vision of Contemporary Art) 2009
at Ueno Royal Museum is a showcase of 35 artist selected by curators, journalists and researchers from all over Japan. Choices are very conservative and concentrate mainly on one medium - paitings. This year VOCA Grand prize winner is Mise Natsunosuke, one of the young hopes of Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) while VOCA Encouragement went to Tomoko Kashiki and Kei Takemura.

Mise Natsunosuke, no English title provided by the exhibitor, 2008

Tomoko Kashiki, flower, 2006

Born 1982 in Kyoto working towards her PhD at the Graduate School of Art at Kyoto City University of Arts. Currently her exhibition runs at Ota Fine Arts. Her flat, smooth texture and flowing lines have a strong resemblance to Japanese paintings at the first sight. However all of her paintings are painted in acrylic, and managed to achieve smooth surface and layers of colours through her original process of painting on canvas and sanding.

photo: courtesy Ota Fine Arts

Kei Takemura, detail of A.N.'s living room in Tokyo, premonition of earthquake, 2005
Born 1975 in Tokyo, lives and works in Berlin. Graduate of Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music and Berlin Art Academy. After observing friends' daily activities Takemura reenacts their living using media like embroidery, drawing and performance. It evokes a sense that the fragments of intimate feelings and memories toward certain spaces and people are layered one after another. His works were shown at NACT last year as part of Artist File 2008.

Kohei Nawa, PixCell - Elk, 2008, mixed media

Among the artworks shown at VOCA 2009 exhibition is Kohei Nawa new glue-drawing work while his beads work has been recently added to the collection of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Another Ph.D. of Kyoto City University.

photo: http://www.kohei-nawa.net/index.html

Shimabuku

2009-03-04T05:32:00.001-08:00

It is symptomatic that international artist of Japanese origins rarely show in Japan. Shimabuku ever since he moved to Berlin has not been seen much on the islands. That's why his retrospectvive in WATARI-UM is a good news.

Michihiro Shimabuku, Born as a Box, cardboard box, radio casette player, CD, 2001
Shimabuku's works begin with simple, often surreal ideas.
A sound sclupture which features talking cardboard box meditating
on it own box-ness is no exception.

Michihiro Shimabuku, Fish&chips, film still, 2006
For Liverpool Biennial artist made a film which documents the fictional encounter between the popular British dish (fish&chips) constituents - fish and potato. This seemingly absurd encounter ultimately encourages a questioning of the mundane elements of daily life.

images from www.shugoarts.com and www.tate.org.uk/liverpool

another Japanese artist at Venice Biennale

2009-03-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Countries continues to release details of their plans for 53. Venice Biennale. Australia in addition to main pavillon will show a group exhibition featuring the themes of displacement, indigenous and environmental issues. Among the artists is Austaria-based Japanese-national artist Yonetani Ken.

The image comes from the artist homepage and was taken during the exhibition 'fumie-tiles' in 2003. Over 2 thousand fragile tiles fired at low temperature to ensure fragility and featuring Australian endangered butterflies covered gallery floor at CSIRO Discovery in Cranberra and were broken by the attendants already at the opening recepeption. The artist wanted to make the audiance feel and think about fragile environment through their own action, that is by stepping and smashing his artwork.

curiosity

2009-03-03T04:59:00.001-08:00

Katarzyna Sagatowska, Polish sumo, photography

japanese artist like animals

2009-02-26T13:57:00.001-08:00

What Yoshimoto Nara, Nagi Noda, Noboru Tsubaki and Hiroshi Kobayashi have in common? They all take animals as the subject of their works. And there wouldn't be anything unusual about it since one of the first visual image was that of animal but in Japan the list of artist depicting animals is very long ...

Yoshimoto Nara, Aomori-ken dog
Born 1959 in Hirosaki, Nara is one of the most influential artists of Japan's Pop art movement. His work is influenced by manga (Japanese comic books) but unlike typically cute manga images Nara infuses his works with horror-like imagery.

photo: Tomomi Sasaki

Nagi Noda, Vivre, poster, 2004
Born 1973 in Tokyo, artist, designer and commercial director whose works include popular character Hanpanda, a half-panda-and-half-something-else, animal hair hats and be@rbrick.

see also: www.youtube.com

Noboru Tsubaki, Tetsuo, 2003
Born 1953 in Tokyo, Tsubaki once a minimalist artist after witnessing a devastating earthquake in Japan in 1996 has been using his artwork to propose solutions to the world's problems.His works like a large five-legged robotic vehicle designed to clear land mines takes a childish approach to deal with serious issues.

photo: courtesy of artist and MIT

Hiroshi Kobayashi, Challenging spirit, acrylic on canvas, 2002-2003

Born 1967 in Fukushima, artist developed his own unique style inspired by Ukiyo-e. Kobayashi takes a digital photographs of stuffed animals, manipulates them in Photoshop and then paints the images by pouring glossy fluid acrylic paints onto canvas. His recognition outside Japan is steadily growing.

photo: Christie's

post-glass artist

2009-02-23T07:56:00.001-08:00

A dicovery of today's web research, a multi-media artist who explores transparent materials, such as glass, water and light. Below the recoring of her performance based on dialogues with her father and with the seismografic data as a 'music score'. More at www.yukaotani.com

Yuka Otani, An attempt to interpret an earthquake that my father experianced in his childhood, 2007

unweaving

2009-02-20T01:43:00.000-08:00

Going through my archives I came across an interesting artist whose works I saw once in Yokohoam Museum of Art. Hirano Kaoru untie thread by thread clothing that she gets from people and make a new form from them but the memory of one's life is still worn in those threads and make us wonder about fleeting nature of existence and tenaciousness of memories.

Hirano Kaoru, Mother and baby, 2008, installation

photo: author's own archive

highlights of 2008

2009-02-04T04:39:00.000-08:00

artist
Tabaimo is an artist who received a lot of attention last year. Her works were on display in Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, in Yokohama Museum of Art but aslo as a part of Chanel Mobile Gallery. Till mid Feb Koyanagi Gallery hosted an exhibition titled Tabaimo House. Tabaimo produces video installations using animation. But what is even more distinctive about her works is the way she sets them up. In Hara Museum the viewers were looking at her mesmerizing projections through letter box -like holes, in Yokohama they had to sit on the floor under a spherical screen, in Mobile Gallery they were looking down into the well- like space. The artist says that she is setting up space to encourage viewers to be proactive in how they look at work. Her works become a participatory experience.

Tabaimo, Ginyo-ru (guignoller), 2005, video installation

photo: Ufer! Art Documentary

exhibition

Since the term curator has been coined the world has learnt that exhibition is not only about hanging the artworks on the gallery wall. Tadashi Kawamata exhibition Walkway at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (MoT) curated by Sumimoto Fumihiko was one of the rare examples of non- conventional museum display where visitors walked through wooden corridors leading to temporary workshops and documentary photographs with artist's projects. An excellent example that archives can be displayed in an interesting and dynamic environment rather than closing them in the glass cases and most ambitious manipulation of gallery space at the same time!

photo: author's private archives

venue

TSW (Tokyo Wander Site) on the Tokyo art space map is the only one, which realize modern concept of conemporary art center which is not only a gallery but also a place of importatnt art talks and art-in-residency program. Coming here has never been a disappointment which I have already express on several other occasions.

event

Yokohama Triennale, Japan's most important international exhibition with the representation of 72 artists from 25 countries. Although criticized for the theme, architecture, catalogue and few other things it was the most commented event and the one which got high scores amongst Asia-Pacific shows in 2008 (ARTiT). For me it was a chance to see some top notch artworks outside Europe so I felt like at home till I learnt that the guides are only in Japanese!

haptic

2009-01-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Wonder Site (TWS) proves every time and again that it shows good selection of emerging art. This time at TWS Hongo as part of Haptic exhibition which ends on 12. this month I discovered two interesting Japanese artists working in rather unusual materials.

Miki Kubota, Deshadowed: Nailing, 2007
Miki Kubota creates sculptures from furniture which are then either attached to the wall or placed carelessly on the floor. This transformation though has nothing to do with Alessandro Mendini and his followers interventions but rather with deconstructivism. The 'interior' of the furniture, usually inaccessible is here reassamblled in an abstract form.

Akiko Miyanaga, Nagi notod oku asa, 2008

Akiko Miyanaga creats her works from less tangible material which which is naphthalene. She casts it into the shape of everyday items which slowly disintegrate within the time leaving memories of what they previously had been for those who saw it in different stages. From Jan 9th she will take part in the exhibition at Shiseido Gallery. For details check www.shiseido.co.jp/e/gallery/html/index.htm.

pikapika

2008-12-11T17:03:00.000-08:00

an amazing example of lightwriting which was part of the art festival in Kanazawa

http://tochka.jp/pikapika/

salon des refusés

2008-12-04T22:12:00.000-08:00

Some decided to brush off old art history practice and created salon des refusés at www.public-image.org which presents emerging artists from Japan who obviously did not make it to Yokohama Triennale. I won't argue whether they should be there or not but one thing I agree on though - certainly Hiraki Sawa work Hako would fit Triennale's theme Time Crevasse better than most of the works presented. Hako is a six channel video installation which combains images and subtle digital animation. The title means 'box' and refers to the box garden therapies used by psychologists. In this form of treatment a doctor gives a patient an empty box and a set of miniature objects of which each one has a symbolic meaning. The patient is then asked to furnish the box with these elements, to create personal garden, which the doctor then analyses.

Hiraki Sawa, Hako, 2007, six channel video installation
(from top to bottom) 'talking to the wall', 'for a moment', 'fragments'

Similarly, Sawa builds such a garden himself - a blend of fantasy and reality with its own time frame set by the toy wall clock and then allows the viewers to experiance it as we would be experiancing someone's other memory or subconsiousness.
It's really a pitty that this year Triennale curators overlooked this work which was displayed in NACT as part of Artist File 2008 exhibition only this spring and the artist has already built up his reputation being part of few international shows such as EastInternational or Lyon Biennale.

To see Sawa previous works go to: www.softkipper.com

crisis

2008-11-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

The word crisis has made an international career and allegedly ended Chinese contemporary art boom. On Nov sales at Christie's HK only 52% of Chinese and 40% Korean were sold compared to 66% of the works by Japanese artists. Is it time for Japanese contemporary art now or just a temporary turn of collectors' attention in the times when the economy is low?

Tetsuya Ishida, Untitled, oil on canvas, 2001

The strongest performing Japanese artist was Tetsuya Ishida, a painter (died at 31 in 2005 in the train accident) depecting Japanese youths and their conditions of life in response to society and technology's expectation upon them.

photo: Christie's

Hiroyuki Matsuura, Kingyo-hime, acrilic on canvas, 2008

Another artist who was selling well was Hiroyuki Matsuura who depictes a fantastical universe in which Japanese often immerse when the real world is too disappointing. The digital realm and its characters provide solace and companionship. Here the Princess Goldfish inspired by Takashima Kazusa anime where a goldfish turns into a woman for one night to thank a boy for saving her.

photo: Christie's

onnanoko shashinka

2008-11-24T23:41:00.001-08:00

Acclaimed as one of the most popular photographer in Japan (her photobooks are bestsellers), promoted by Tomio Koyama gallery which brought on international art scene such artists as Murakami or Nara, director whose film Sakurana made it to Berlin Film Festival has now her retrospective show at TOCAG.

Mika Ninagawa is often descibed as second generation onnanoko shasinka (girlie photographers)* but her style has not much to do with it as her photographs are carefully composed, technically advanced and most of them lack of snapshot aesthetic. I like the comparison Gary McLeod made in his review saying that walking through this exhibition feels like flipping through the pages of a glossy magazine.

Mika Ninagawa, Smart girls vol.7, Hoshiko, C-print

since her photos are well secured from free cirulation as befits an advertising professional for further reference check her official web at http://www.ninamika.com/en/index.html

* dozen of Japanese female photographers whose work was largely characterized by low-tech, out-of-focused snap shoots of their daily lives. To find their place in male dominated society of photographers most of the pictures were bra-and-panties type but ever since their success in early 90s their style has evolved.

some humour in Japanese art

2008-11-13T17:00:00.001-08:00

Iichiro Tanaka is an upcoming Japanese artist who employes humor into his ceation. Cunning, a bit peculiar and achived with very simple means. Here two of his works as examples.

Iichiro Tanaka, Drop-eyed Daruma, 2002, mixed media

First one presents Daruma, a wish doll which has a face with a mustache and beard but without eyes. One eye is painted on while making a wish, the other when the has come true fills in a single circular eye while thinking of a wish.

Iichiro Tanaka, classical music karaoke, 2006, DVD 11.5min.

The other explores fenomena of karaoke in which the greatest classical music masterpieces has been converted into 'hummable' nonsense momoslyllabes allowing visitors to sing along.

photos from www.yukasasaharagallery.com/artists/tanaka.html

Japan at 53. Venice Biennale

2008-11-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Miwa Yanagi will represent Japan at 53. Venice Biennale next year. The working title of her piece is Strolling Party: The Old Young Women Theatre Company. Japan Pavilion has been designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka (photos below after Japan Foundation)

Speaking of Venice Biennale this is how the last decade looked like:

47.	1997	Rei Naito
48.	1999	Tatsuo Miyajima, "Revive Time" Kaki Tree Project Executive Committee
49.	2001	Naoya Hatakeyama, Masato Nakamura, Yukio Fujimoto
50.	2003	Yutaka Sone, Motohiko Odani
51.	2005	Miyako Ishiuchi
52.	2007	Masao Okabe

Japanese artists at Yokohama Triennale

2008-11-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

The recent edition of Yokohama Triennale unusually features less Japanese artists than previous ones. On top of that out of 10 or so Japanese artist some are better known abroad (Yoko Ono, Ei Ararakawa who got New Museum award this year, Aki Sasamoto or Naito Rei who asked the viewers on 47. Venice Biennale to queue to see her artwork). Some other as Teshigawara Saburo and Tanaka Min come outside the artworld. The rest have been already shining brightly on the Japanese art sky. Here are some photos of the exhibited artworks.

Chelfitsh, Free time, 2008 performance at Cafe DeLuxe 18.03.08

A para-theatrical group established in 1997 by Okada Toshiki who uses in his performances what he calls super-real Japanese which are dialogues composed from modern language of young people.

Nakaya Fujiko, Fog sculture, 2008

Ohmaki Shinji, Memorial Rebith, performance 2008
If anyone entering the art gallery have ever thought about destroying an artwork he should definately experiance Ohmaki art as it often allows that. The recent work for triennali is not that spectacular in this sense as one of the previous - Echoes (2005) - when he let the viewers trodded upon floral patterns on the gallery floor making them more blur and blur until they disappaered.

Naito Rei, untitled (matrix), 2008
At Yokohama Triennale she displayed in the traditional japanese tea house one of her ethereal installation where the wire attached to the ceiling dances being heated.

scan of Naoya Hatakeyama photo

some contemporary history

2008-10-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

In the early 90s Ozawa Tsuyoshi along with Murakami Takashi, Nakamura Masato and Aida Makoto revolutionized the Japanese art scene. His most well known project is Nasubi Gallery, which is a satirical comment on the rental gallery system in Japan.

Ozawa Tsuyoshi, Nasubi gallery 1993-2003

In 1993 in front of the "Nabisu Gallery" in Ginza, Toyko, Ozawa opened a miniature portable gallery made of converted milk delivery boxes which housed other artists exhibition without the fees that rental galleries such as Nabisu charged. Because of its size, Ozawa Nasubi Gallery popped up in the streets of Tokyo, bookshops, cinemas, libraries and international art exhibitions. Many artists had shown their work there including Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami. Ozawa belonged to what is now called in art history lingo Tokyo Pop. Amongst his other works are The Museum of Soy Sauce Art with paintings made in soy sauce and Vegetable Weapons - photographs of girls from different countries holding "guns" made from vegetables.

Chim↑Pom

2008-10-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

Chim↑Pom is a name of six-person artist group formed in 2005 which is a reference to a childish word for penis in Japanese. The group godfather is Aida Makoto, an enfant terrible of Japanese contemporary art.

Recently Chim↑Pom made it to the media while preparing work for Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art show. On the cloudless Hiroshima blue sky they wrote with the aeroplane smoke the word pika which Japanese use in manga to discribe explosion or blast. This triggered a crushing ctiticism of the atomic bomb victims which resulted in exhibition cancellation and public apology of the curator. Even the usually carefree group leader went on explaining that work was to draw young generation attantion to atomic bombing not to hurt anyone's feeling but all his efforts were in vain.
(for more read Edan Corkill artical at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20081030ec.html)

However this is not the first time when they are subject of controversy as in group DNA is to provoke and shake the society. One of other quite recent Chim↑Pom work made in Bali is Saya mau perigi ke TPA (Take me to the garbage disposal plant) an installation incuding video showing Ellie, the only female member as a cashed-up Japanese tourist dumping rubbish from helicopter onto a garbage pile where locals look for scavenges. Yet another shows Louis Vuitton bags (ones that each Japanese girl got to have) been blown in Cambodia with the unexpolded landmines .

Chim↑Pom, Saya mau perigi ke TPA, 2008, installation,
Courtesy of Mujin-to Production

I hope that Hiroshima scandal did not squeez their balls too much and soon they will be back with another subversive work.

Chim↑Pom, part of installation in NADiff, 2008

jungle phone

2008-10-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Jungle phone is Dai Fujiwara and Issey Miyake Creative Room installation currently on display in MOT as a part of Color hunting in Brasil exhibition. It is based on Keiji Koga discovery in which plants are transmitting sounds. The soundtrack for the occasion was produced by Sacha Gottiano who did a wonderful job to make us feel as though plants were talking!
Pitty that I couldn't take any photo nor get one from the organizers as the contract with the artist does not provision such option. Well ..

Mai Ueda poetry

2008-10-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

Mai Ueda is a New York based digital and performance artist. Her works explores digital pop culture, sexuality and porn. Here is some of her poetry - songs, like the ones everybody sings in the shower. She sings only one line and people imagine the rest.

performance in Athens at Bios, July 16, 2008

Mai has already participated in many major art events such as the Tirana Biennale, Biennial of Lyon, WhitneyBiennale.com and recently in Chanel Mobile Art . She believes that websites are new art objects and collects different .coms such as romanticus.com, hellomypet.com hoping that in near future she will sell them with profit.
See more at maiueda.com

Japan at Paris Photo

2008-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Photography in Japan seems to be the media which does not have much of Western influeunce and brings up new quality to the field. That's why it is not surprising that it already gained world recognition and is on the spotlight during this year Paris Photo. Below just a random selecion of artist who are shown during the exhibition and fair.

Ueda Yoshihiko, Bones and stoneware, recent

The series Bones and stoneware is the recent project of this leading contemporary photographers with the advertising background in which he collaborated with University of Tokyo photographing the collections of the university museum.
www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.ja/2008/07/bones_and_stonewares

Ikeda Akiko, Their sight/your sight (since 2000)

and recent (2007) exhibion of her works in Osaka in what used to be pool

http://www15.plala.or.jp/rouko73/

Yoneda Tomoko, Lovers from After the thaw series, 2004

www.shugoarts.com/en/yonedaafterthethaw

Seemingly oridinary photo which turns out to be battle fields which changed the course of history or places after the great disasters. And then suddenly our perception changes - the photographs are no lonegr so oridinary.

paramodel

2008-10-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

I've just come back from Tokyo Wonder Site where I saw an awesome installation by Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano, an artist duo from Osaka prefecture currently based in Kyoto. What they do as PARAMODEL is covering white gallery walls with plastic toy train rail tracks which wind endlessly covering everything from the floor to the ceiling. They look like graffiti from the distance and like a rail road map from a close up where respective elements of the urban landscape are recognaizable. All has a stunning visual effect!

Paramodel, Paramodelic graffiti, 2005, Kyoto art Center

photo: Seiji Toyonaga

When I google them it turns out that they cover in their graffiti not only gallery walls (see below).

Paramodel, Paramodelic graffiti on the roof garden of the Sawada Mansion

photo: paramodel

Paramodel, Plarail, 2007, Okazaki Mindscape Museum

photo: paramodel

fusion

2008-10-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Kyoto-based artist Hiroe Saeki drawings have been allegedly so popular among collectors that they are bought as soon as they are finished. She draws with mechanical pencil 0.5mm on Kent paper. The lines are barely visible and juxtaposed with the broad whitness of the paper. The blank spaces, bird-and-floral motifs and the merging of few paper sheets in what looks like screen are said to br reminiscent of traditional japanese paintings. Thought upon closer examination one might notice some interwoven women accessories like ribbons, mirrors, high-heels or pins which definately belong to the modern world. Apparently this original fusion won the artist popularity. But even thought Saeki has been producing her meticulous drawings since 2003 only this year she has been recognized in her home country by receiving VOCA Encouragement Prize. She also participated in the group exhibition at NACT as one of the emerging Japanese artist. Saeki’s works are already part of MOMA, UBS and Deutsche Bank collections.

Hiroe Saeki, untitle 2007, pencil and ink on paper

www.takaishiigallery.com/exhibition/2007/12_Hiroe_Saeki/

leading artists of Japanese contemporary art

2008-08-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

Miwa Yanagi, Yuka, 2000, chromogenic print on plexiglass

This photo cames from the series titled My Grandmothers. The artist asked Japanese women in their 20s how would they imagine themselves in a 50 years. After hearing all stries she recreated them in a series of photograps. Here red hair Yuka speeds on the motorbike across the Golden bridge with her young lover. I saw this photo in the private collection of Mr. Obayashi. Anazing how bright Japanese women see they future.

Miwa Yanagi, Fortunetelling, 2005, video installation

www.syabi.com

Recently in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography I saw Miwa video installation in which she experiment with slow motion. Somehow this work miss the impact of the photographs from similar series Fairy tales.

gallery Q

2008-08-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

Another nihon-ga artist whom I came across at Gallery Q. Very decorative paintings inspired by Jakuchu and Flemish painters which touch on one of social problems that troubles modern Japan - suicides of young people.

Ai Shinohara, Make children take to feeding, oil on cotton, 2008

West meets East

2008-08-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

Ken Hamaguchi, Black, Sutra and the Rest
Western pin-ups girls juxtapose with Japanese kinbaku and Buddhist sutra by 'the' upcoming artist Ken Hamaguchi. It's been arguable though what's behind all these pictures. Condemnation, sexual desire, disguise pornograhy or maybe all?

photo: Natsu Tanimoto

kimo kawaii

2008-08-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Sako Kojiama, I can be alone, silicon, 2005
Sako Kojima is a performer, sculptor and painter. She is a Japanese Oleg Kulik. The latter performed in the gallery as a dog chained next to a sign which read ‘dangerous’ biting those who ignored it. Kojima is a hamster. To learn how convincing she is see her performance ' Why I Became a Hamster' in the gallery in Lille at: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=RcZcphHEg88
As a sculptor and painter she creates 'cute animals' which are scary at the same time.

Sako Kojiama, Present for my ear, silicon, 2005

www.sakokojima.com

debut

2008-08-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

The first post I decided to dedicated to four Japanese contemporary artists who do not try to copy European or American art but base their creative ideas on Japanese traditions and culture (in this case pop culture). These are all femal artists who in they own way criticize the image of women which prevails in japanese world of comics, advertising and toys. In western culture such attitude in art would be called feminism. Are these japanese feminists? never hear this term in Japan though.

Mika Kato, Gossamer, 2005, oil on canvas
http://www.whitecube.com/artists/kato/

Japan has been using dolls for relegious and ceremonial purposes ever since Edo era (a. 1000 A.D.). Kato chose to paint them and their fantastic worlds. Her work process is very laborious as she atfirst sculpture the doll out of clay, dress it and only then paint it. This sophisticated way of work has something of the doll lover which is still a strong community in Japan. 'Buying a doll is like a marriage' says one of the doll lovers. They often treat their dolls as wives or childeren playing and talking to them.

Mahomi Kumikata, Crayon, 2004, acrylic on canvas

Takeshi Murakami art production factory - Kaikai Kiki artist. Her works are very personal and pshycological in which she explores such themes as abandonment, masochism, and depression. Her works are strongly influenced by manga and otaku culture.

http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/artworks/list/C9

Ryoko Suzuki, Anikora-Seifuku 03 and 04, 2007, chromogenic color print

Anikora is know in Japan as photo collaging in which faces of female celebrities are attached to the bodies of the nudes. In Ryoko series of the same title artist uses her own face collaging it onto the manga figurines bodies. And while manga and anime images are appealing to a lot of people in Japan and in many other countries a person with anime-like appearance look rather grotesque.

http://www.ryokobo.com/contents/gallery.html

Ai Yamaguchi, Aokumo, 2003, lithograph

Ai Yamaguchi in her works creates a fantastic world of 9 and 10 year old girls who serve in the fictional courtesans house called Tage-no-ochaya (Teahouse-of-the-mountain pass).
Her style combines manga and the sensibility of ukiyo-e prints.

tuesdaysculptureclass.blogspot.com/