October 12, 2006
simple is best
Good food, cooked on the table in front of you and eaten with friends.
Even the stuff that’s not cooked in front of you is quite impressive….
end of phase 1
After 4 weeks based at Joshibi, I have now left my rented room in Sagamiono with its views of the mountains and the vegetables on one side…
…and the crazy firemen on the other.
This week I will stay at a friend’s house in the North of Tokyo and then on Friday I will start my travels: Kyoto, Kobe, Hyogo and Kumamoto.
All the everything is always punctuated by lots of food with friends, but this week I have also had a chance to start thinking about my own work as well as continuing to see some interesting exhibitions.
Let’s see what happens in phase 2…
Volume 23
Last week I entered the strange, strange world of Megumi Ishibashi.
This is a world where large, contorted, fibre-glass figures leave flight trails that arch across the sky or
struggle to escape from the arse-holes of technicoloured fish.
We built a new language and then we talked about studio spaces, art outside the gallery and residencies.
It was fun; I gave her a sketchbook.
I hope she likes it…
Kanagawa Prefecture Exhibition of Fine Art
Last weekend I was invited to the awards ceremony for the 42nd Kanagawa Prefecture Exhibition of Fine Art.
A lot of people, a lot of art and a lot of speeches…
Congratulations to those who received awards.
[short interval]
Normal service will be resumed once the birthday celebrations have finished and I’ve stopped needing to use the laptop for editing ultrasound footage.
photoroundup ii
A taxi farm:
General state of things at Ono Garou:
Just liked it as an abstract collection of lines and colours:
A moderate obsession with the stairs at Ono Garou:
The cast of Tonari no Totoro, shrinkwrapped:
Small cars:
Making onigiri with exchange students past and present:
Okonimiyaki and slippers:
Tower block by night:
Fun with shiny things:
Pedestrians in Ginza reclaim the road on a national holiday:
Empty billboard:
Shrine to stillborn children by night:
Volume 7
On September 23rd I visited Ono Garou for the first time.
It was in the basement of this dilapidated apartment block in Ginza that we came across Junichi Saito and a masterfully executed presentation of a single piece of sculpture in an awkward corner under the stairs. Pure theatre, excellent!
And so Volume 7 has been left in the (white cotton-gloved) hands of Saito-san, ready to begin its journey…
Ono Garou
As a follow-up to the contemporary art galleries in the industrial unit, yesterday Ami took me to several art galleries in Ginza.
My favourite was Ono Garou. One of the artists told us this is the oldest building in Ginza – an area associated with expensive shopping – and I can well believe it.
Formerly an apartment building, it is fairly crumbly inside and now inhabited by artists. Most of the rooms (typically about 2.5m square) are individual gallery spaces, even the old bath room!
We spent most time in the two basement spaces.
TYPE-TRACE, part of divvydual teased out ideas about language, authorship and production: three sets of laptops, chairs and projectors where visitors were invited to type their thoughts whilst having the process of their typing logged. The document was then played back in real time with letterforms having differing sizing depending on how long it took before the corresponding key had been pressed.
http://spinn-aker.co.jp/kobo/t-guide.htm
www.inexhale.net
www.phonethica.net
www.tokyoartbeat.com
Next to the room bathed in the cold light from the monitors and projectors was the work of Saito Juichi. Dressed formally in suit, tie and white cotton gloves, the artist welcomed visitors at an equally formally dressed table outside his space. With soft voice and great solemnity we were then shown into what is essentially the cupboard under the stairs.
Only being able to stand upright immediately inside the door, we then had to stoop and shuffle over the rabbit pelts to view the sculpture at the far end that also provided the only lighting in the space.
Marvellous.
Once outside and back at the table again, we were ushered through the process of signing our names (with a fountain pen, naturally) on visitors cards that were then put away in a lidded box.
Shortly afterwards we returned and, with Ami’s help with translation, Saito-san became the first person in Japan invited to participate in the Peer-to-Peer Sketchbooks project.