Friday round-up

A quick round-up of what I’ve done this week because I seem to have been too busy to either take many photos or add posts to this blog…

Saturday:
Arrive, go to Yokosuka, rest of day spent crashed out on sofa with the Polish cold I caught on the plane.

Sunday:
More crashing and then racing against the incoming typhoon with a quick dash to the shops to sort out telephones. Dashing back home for my passport, dashing back to the shops, dashing back to crash.

Monday:
2 hour commute to Joshibi University to help Toshino prepare some works for an up-coming exhibition submission deadline. My inept felt-making skills became a part of the open campus skills as they tried to explain what a gaijin who didn’t really speak Japanese was doing working there.

Tuesday:
Now based near Hashimoto, a day at Meg’s studio.

Wednesday:
Journey into around Tokyo for a gallery marathon

Thursday:
Back to Joshibi to catch up with the people who weren’t in before for Open Campus. Over to the 100yen shop to stock up on materials for Invigilator etc.

Friday:
Over to the fairly local (1 hour walk) Tama Art Uni to have a look at the student/graduate run gallery-on-a-roof Yaribi. A good mooch around the rest of the uni too because it was open campus. Hopefully more to follow on this soon if I get the chance…

13 galleries

18/07/2007

Takashima, Sato, Yamamoto Gendai, Kodama, SCAI the Bath House, Muramatsu, Nantenshi, Yamaguchi, INAX, Humanite, Koyanagi, Natsuka, Grafica.

My feet hurt.

arrival and getting started

I arrived in Japan shortly before a typhoon and a large earthquake although fortunately did not feel the effects of either (though by the time we saw a patch of blue sky on Monday morning it was notable enough to take a photo of it!)

Having sorted out communications I’m now in the slow process of sussing out how what I want to do fits in and around what everyone else here is doing. The schedule’s having to be quite flexible, but that’s fine ‘cos there’s always something interesting to do.

Yesterday I went to Megumi’s studio where she’s helping Linda produce a large fibre-glass sculpture made from mouldings of a classin Celica car they negotiated access to.

Needless to say I wasn’t really prepared for a day grinding glass fibres so me and my t-shirt and shorts were entrusted with documentation duties. I also had a chance to start making some props for a planned invigilation I’m hoping to do.

So, Meg and Linda were all togged-up with safety gear and trying not to inhale or wear too many nasty substances and all I had to do was figure out how the hand saw worked…

私は覗きますYO!

わたしはmad-glassから覗くYO
いつでもどこでも　
覗けない物は何も無い
心の中だってお見通し
Be carefuuuuuuuuuuuul!

Twenty Jaffa Cakes

A 6 stanza themed renga form collaboratively written with Paul Conneally.

Form devised by poet Gary Gay.

Twenty Jaffa Cakes

a rengay

twenty jaffa cakes
a mistake to try and take
in her hand luggage

a slow and silent pat down
from the woman on gate one

stilettoes x-rayed
but her carbon footprint is
not for scrutiny

a hugely fat man
asks for the front port aisle seat
to rest his bad leg

smile and permanent jetlag
slept in uniform again

deep into morning
i finish my book somewhere
over africa

paul conneally and nikki pugh
July 12th 2007

My plane leaves at 8.30 tomorrow morning. I arrive at Narita on Saturday morning and from there I have to negotiate my way to Yokosuka. After a week or so in various locations around Kanagawa-ken I dive into Tokyo for about a fortnight.