Exhibition of Kaita Murayama

A quick share of a post from Spoon &  Tamago, mainly for my own reference and perhaps your own interest, about a new exhibition of works by the artist and poet Kaita Murayama, which marks the centenary of his passing. Featuring previously unseen works.

Link here.

Kanai-kun - Matsumoto Taiyo/Tanikawa Shuntaro

  

Recently stumbled upon this collaboration between Tanikawa Shuntaro and Matsumoto Taiyo published back in January by Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun, needless to say I'd very much like a copy.

 

More information at the publisher. (includes a video walk through of the exhibition with Matsumoto). and more. 

 

the book at Amazon

 

only a few days left to catch the exhibition, if you happen to be in the area, via TAB

Tiny Tokyo - The Big City Made Mini

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A book I'm keen to flick through is Australian artist Ben Thomas's Tiny Tokyo - The Big City Made Mini, 18 months in the making, this looks like an intriguing way to get to know the city.

 

flick through some of the images over at Ben Thomas's blog

 

at Chronicle Books  

Carl Randall - Japan Portraits

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carl Randall was awarded the NPG Travel Award in 2012 for following the Tokaido Highway in the footsteps of Ando Hiroshige, (1797-1858), and recording what he saw. The works form a part of the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London until September 15th, next year the exhibition travels to Japan to the Ando Hiroshige Tokaido Museum in Shizouka, although if you can't make it to either of the exhibitions the above book, recently published, is available. The book comes with a forward by Desmond Morris and an introduction from Donald Richie.

Japan Portraits at NPG shop

Japan Portraits at Amazon

gallery at Carl Randall's web pages

Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum of Art

documentary 

Blinking and Flapping

An intriguing title that I'll be keeping an eye out for when funds allow is Blinking and Flapping from Yasuhiro Suzuki,

From Seigensha -

Focusing attention on small discoveries in everyday life and natural phenomena , Yasuhiro Suzuki makes works that are sensuous, using familiar materials and technology. Getting alot of attention both inside and outside Japan, this book introduces the thinking process of this talented artist. Photos, drawing, bilingual texts, (by himself and 4 contributors), included.

"Yasuhiro Suzuki's sketches resemble the mathematical formulas a mathematician scribbles all over the blackboard" - Kenya Hara, (Graphic Designer).

Blinking and Flapping at Seigensha Art Publishing

more at Spoon and Tamago.

Tetsuya Ishida

I remember looking through this book in Kinokuniya, putting it down then moving on to looking through the magazine section, after getting home though I couldn't get the images I'd seen out of my head, and found myself rushing back to the store hoping that they hadn't sold the only copy that they had out on display. It's a book I've been meaning to post on ever since, Tetsuya Ishida Posthumous Works published by Kyuryudo includes 100 of 180 works by Ishida who died in 2005 at the age of just 31, there is some speculation about whether his death was accidental or if he had intended to commit suicide, he died at a level crossing, after his death many of his paintings were discovered in his apartment. The book comes with an appendix and brief biography which is in Japanese, but also comes with a brief  biography in English text, I remember watching the NHK Sunday morning art show special on Ishida some months after buying the book. Kyuryudo have gone on to publish a complete  edition of his paintings - Tetsuya Ishida Complete, Ishida's art involves an imaginative use of surrealism, most of his paintings involve an almost expressionless  young salaryman, which some have interpreted as being based or perhaps representing Ishida himself.

 

One of the most striking aspects of Ishida's paintings is the juxtaposition of the young man in relationship to the situations Ishida places him in, his blank expression conveys a look that could be seen by the viewer as being both compliant and also at the same time  disguising a subtle forbearance, the expression could also be interpreted as expressing a resigned submissiveness. The images are sometimes graphic but on a first viewing the viewer's thoughts are primarily occupied with putting the images into some kind of order, to work out what is occurring in them, the graphic element of them seems to linger on afterwards, giving the images an added power. All of these paintings include something that make them stand out, but an underlying theme in Ishida's art is that it conveys a bereft spirituality in a world where almost every physical object around it has a price tag stuck on it, many carry a message on the shallow world of commercialisation, a row of ATMs being used as toilets by a group of the identical blank salaryman, is this use of this same man a comment on the demise of individuality in the commercial world?. Some are set in supermarkets, where the expressionless salaryman is seen in a number of different situations, another aspect is that the salaryman often mutates and co-joins with solid objects, in one he is crouched on all fours, his back acting as a sink, another is a scene where roadworks are being carried out, underneath segments of torn up tarmac the salaryman's face stares out in duplication, this blankness seems to be something that is in the ground beneath our feet covered and hidden by layers of concrete.

 

This physical relationship between the salaryman and his external world, (sometimes he mutates with whole buildings), offers up striking and thought provoking images, where the inanimate objects are imbued with and take on a living existence, and by turns the salaryman appears to have traded a living element of his being, forming an ambivalent balance between the two. As far as I'm aware there hasn't been a book published on Ishida outside of Japan as of yet, hopefully it'll only be a matter of time, but in the mean time most of his paintings are available to view via his webpage, click on the galleries page, select one of the eleven albums and click through the paintings.

http://www.tetsuyaishida.jp/gallery/

Kyuryudo Art Publishing Co Ltd

Tokyo Autumn

Araki Nobuyoshi is a Japanese photographer largely known for his erotic photography, although he has produced many books of photo-journalism. His book Tokyo Autumn, or Tokyo Fall, published in 1992 by Chikuma Shobo is a collection of observations and images he and his wife took as they wandered through Tokyo's suburbs. Many of the pictures are of places not usually seen in photographs of Tokyo, here you see demolition sites, garages, shop fronts of stores closed long ago, deserted streets and alleys, street corners. The photographs give a feeling of the passing of time, as if these buildings are intruding from an age alien to us, and they act as a reminder of the collapse of history, things not lasting forever, the photographs included in this book were taken originally in 1972, but recompiled for this book. When I see an old building that has been restored I usually get no impression of it's age, it's surface belies it's real identity, it's become in a way a manicured replica of the original. This book reminds me that time, once passed, is irretrievable. Also there are a few shots of people, a paint sprayer sits after preparing a car to paint, in another, a body builder holds a pose for the camera, and next to a crowd eating under the cherry blossom, a man asleep, corpse like, is lying under some blankets.

 

Just as the passing of time slips our control, there's a shot here of a tree's roots breaking through a wall and over-spilling onto the pavement, reminding us that although the appearance of nature in cities is controlled, this picture gives a glimpse that nature is always not to faraway to take back what man has temporarily built upon. I'm not too sure as the availability of this book, but here's some links.

Tokyo Autumn

Chikuma shobo

Araki Nobuyoshi

 

Outsider Artists of Japan

Recently published by Kadokawa, this book profiles the work of seventeen outsider artists, and is edited by the NO-MA Borderless Art Museum , in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, the book is a dual language edition with translations by John Junkerman. The Borderless Art Museum is operated by Shiga Prefectural Social Welfare Organisation, which exhibits the art of people with disabilities alongside those without disabilities, attempting to cross boundaries on a number of levels. The book is divided into six chapters, the largest profiles the art and artists, there's a dialogue between Seizo Tashima, (award winning children's author and artist) and Yoshiko Hata,(the art director of Borderless Art Museum, also an author), they discuss Tashima's involvement with outsider artists and the things he finds inspiration in for his own art. Hata gives a little introduction about outsider art and artists in Japan, citing the art of Kiyoshi Yamashita as perhaps being seen as the first outsider artist in Japan, and Hata also talks about Jean Dubuffet who first used the term Art Brut, (raw art), which was later translated as the term Outsider Art in English. Another chapter of the book is an around the table discussion with Yoshitomo Nara, Kenjiro Hosaka and Tadasu Takamine, in which they talk about their relationships and experiences with outsider art and artists, exploring their own interpretations of outsider art, they also discuss some of the dilemmas facing outsider art and artists.

I first came across outsider art in my middle teens through the artwork of Nick Blinko, although at the time I hadn't really heard of the term outsider art, some years later when I looked at his art again I came across the term of outsider art being used to describe his art, I've not known a great deal about it, this book is richly informative and fascinating to look through. The art and artists in this book is unique, and in the around table discussion they touch upon the purity in the art. The art included here ranges from works in sculpture,that of Shinichi Sawada, inks, represented by works by Takeshi Yoshizawa, Moriya Kishaba, Takanori Herai and Yuji Tsuji, paintings by Akane Kimura, Takashi Shuji, Marie Suzuki and also living/performance art from Eijiro Miyama. Yoshiko Hata mentions the importance of respecting the copyrights, so I won't attempt to take photographs of the art here, but instead urge you to track down a copy and see for yourself.

Outsider Artists of Japan

Outsider Artists of Japan at Kadokawa  (in Japanese)

Hyperart:Thomasson

Walking back from a lunch break, Genpei Akasegawa and two friends had walked passed what has now come to be known as 'The Yotsuya Staircase', unconsciously walking up one side, walking along the small platform and then walking down the opposite side. A small flight of stairs, seven in all on each side, with a wooden banister, much the same as many other stairs, although when looking at it, something was amiss, usually the platform would lead to a door, but here there was no door, looking at them, they seemed to be a completely useless flight of stairs. Perhaps at some distant point in time there had been a door at the top but now that it was no longer there, it had rendered the stair's use obsolete. On closer inspection they came to see that a section of rail from the banister had come off and been replaced by a new piece of wood, they surmised that not only it being a staircase that actually led to nowhere, it was also being preserved and maintained as such. So begins Akasegawa Genpei's book, that had appeared originally as columns in photography magazines from the mid-eighties, it was published in Japan by Chikuma Shobo Publishing back in 1987.

Realizing that he was moving on from l'art pour l'art, to le stairs pour le stairs maybe, Akasegawa termed this art 'Hyperart', and debating it over with his students they decided they needed a more precise name for their discoveries, and they came up with the name: Thomasson. Gary Thomasson a baseball player who had then recently been signed by the Yomiuri Giants encapsulated everything that the art signified, since starting his career with the Giants he had failed to contact bat with ball, although being paid a mint he served no great purpose. So the momentum for the hunt of Thomassons begins and they discover the 'defunct ticket window of Ekoda' (sealed with plywood), 'the pointless gate at Ochanomizu', (looks like a gate but completely sealed with concrete), mysterious eaves that jut out of walls protecting vanished mail boxes removed long ago. Many examples prove to be puzzling to solve, a floating doorway appearing high in a wall that belongs to the basement of a house?, and the photograph used as the book's cover from a report sent in from a reader in Urawa, noticing a wall of a dry cleaners that appeared to have a blip in the middle, closer inspection revealed that it was in actual fact a doorknob for a door that was sealed over, 'what's more, the doorknob actually turned' the report concludes. Soon with numerous reports of sitings and photographs being sent in by the magazines readers, some from Paris and China, it becomes clear that Thomassons are not only a Japanese phenomenon, Thomassons can be found wherever humans create buildings. Collecting together paintings, models and photographs, Akasegawa hosted the worlds first exhibition of Thomasson artefacts which he called 'A Neighbourhood in Agony', and the interest garnered bus tours to visit the locations of sitings. Told in compere like prose, the book explores the unconscious nature of architecture, which in turn has created some truly unintentionally inspiring objects which questions what we have come to think of what constitutes as art, or architecture.

Translated by Matt Fargo, who provides a summary of his thoughts about translating the book, Reiko Tomii also provides an in depth essay on Akasegawa Genpei, who has also won the Akutagawa Prize in 1981, under the pen name Katsuhiko Otsuji, and is also a key figure within the Japanese art world since the early sixties, involved with groups like Hi-Red Center and Neo-Dada, in 1963 he was at the centre of the 1000 Yen Note incident. Published by Kaya Press the book is full of photographs of Thomasson's and also has trailer which you can see here, (at 2.02 check out the picture Iimura Akihiko took of himself standing at the top of a chimney, no guide ropes!), and if you have seen a Thomasson take a photograph and fill in a report and mail it here.

Kaya Press

Art, Anti-Art, Non Art

March 2007 saw the Getty Center hold an exhibition called Art Anti-Art Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Post War Japan 1950-1970, this exhibition looked at artists and art groups that had begun to flourish during the recovery years after the war. As the title hints the exhibition looked at works in the public sphere;music, performance art, it looks briefly at architecture, the book accompanied the exhibition, edited by Charles Merewether with Rika Iezumi Hiro, it features two in depth essays by Charles Merewether and Reiko Tomii that look at the formation of art groups such as Tokyo Fluxus, Hi-Red Center, Bikyoto, Group Ongaku, Gutai Art Association among others, and also profiled individual artists, photographers,and musicians. The essays are illustrated and the book also contains a great selection of plates of images and pieces featured in the exhibition, many from the collections of the Getty Research Institute.

Electric Dress - Tanaka Atsuko,1957

Focusing on art in the public sphere the book looks at many events that are now perhaps considered defining moments in post war performing art in Japan, Hijikata Tatsumi's performance of Mishima's, Kinjiki, (Forbidden Colours) in May 1959, the piece which saw the start of his Ankoku Butoh Group (School of Utter Darkness). The photographer Eikoh Hosoe was inspired by this performance and would photograph Hijikata for two later exhibitions. Other photographers that feature in the book include Moriyama Daido, Domon Ken, Shohei Tomatsu, and their work in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Document,1961 features, a work that looked at the effects the bomb had on the citizens of those cities, the work also included reproductions of paintings by Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi known as The Hiroshima Panels which are on display at the Maruki Gallery. Japanese artists who found affinity with George Maciunas's Fluxus Manifesto,1963, are also examined.

Hijikata Tatsumi Holding an Infant and Running Across a Rice Field, by Hosoe Eikoh, 1965

Images reproduced with permission

For more - The J. Paul Getty Museum