News, Reviews, Reports
JUNE ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Exhibition Reviews
• “Neoteny Japan” and Yayoi Kusama at Ueno Royal Museum and Takahashi Collection Hibiya [TAB]
• “Winter Garden: The Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art” at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [TAB]
• Chim↑Pom at NADiff [TAB]
• Keizo Kitajima at Rat Hole Gallery [TAB]
• “The Kaleidoscopic Eye” at Mori Art Museum [TAB]
• Kosuke Ichikawa at PLSMIS [ART iT]
• Venice Biennale report [ART iT]
• “Hundred Stories about Love” at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa [ART iT]
• “Vision of Contemporary Art 2009” at Ueno Royal Museum
[ART iT]
• Tadasu Takamine at Sendai Mediatheque [ART iT]
More Exhibition Reviews...
• Hitoshi Nomura at National Art Center, Tokyo [Japan Times]
• Venice Biennale report [Japan Times]
• ArtBasel report [Japan Times]
• “Tadao Ando Exhibition 2009: The City of Water/Osaka vs. Venice” at Suntory Museum Tempozan [Japan Times]
• Aloise Corbaz at Watari Museum of Contemporary Art [Japan Times]
• Hitomi Watanabe at Phillia Museum [Artscape]
• “Neoteny Japan” at the Ueno Royal Museum [Artscape]
• Ryoji Ikeda at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo [White Rabbit]
• Tatzu Nishi at Arataniurano [Artforum]
• “Neoteny Japan” and “Winter Garden” at Ueno Royal Museum and Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Metropolis]
Interviews
• Nishi Tatzu at Arataniurano (Part 1) [TAB]
• Nishi Tatzu at Arataniurano (Part 2) [TAB]
• TABuzz #03: Satoru Aoyama [TAB]
• TABuzz #04: Yosuke Kurita
• Miwa Yanagi at the Venice Biennale [Japan Times]
• Tadao Ando and Hiroshi Sugimoto in conversation [ART iT]
• Miwa Yanagi at the Venice Biennale [ART iT]
• Interview with Satoru Aoyama [ART iT]
• Interview with Teppei Kaneuji [ART iT]
Features
• Ryutaro Takahashi and “Neoteny Japan” [Artscape]
• Architectural Institute of Japan [Artscape]
... And your Murakami Moment of the month
Half a Century of Nuclear Explosions
Recently I came across this video artwork by Isao Hashimoto,
1945–1998.
It is a haunting visualization of the 2053 atomic explosions that occurred on this planet, from the “Trinity” test at Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1945, to the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests of 1998.
Using different sounds and colors to denote explosions—by the United States, the USSR, Britain, China, France, India and Pakistan—over 53 years, it is a haunting piece of minimal music that also visualizes the half-century of the nuclear arms race.
It is well worth watching the entire 14 minutes. As it says on the host site, it sounds eerily like a conversation.
Another video by Hashimoto, Overkilled, shows a hand dropping a single ball bearing to represent the Hiroshima bombing, which killed more than 140,000 people. A second ball bearing represents the death of 70,000 people from the Nagasaki bombing.
The remaining minute of the video shows a cascade of 20,590 ball bearings, representing total global nuclear weapons stockpiles (in June 2004).
ART iT Relaunches Online
Back in April, Japan’s bilingual quarterly art magazine ART iT announced that it was suspending its print publication to move entirely online, and with a revamped website.
The new site isn’t yet complete, but it has launched with reports on the Venice Biennale. In addition to magazine-style coverage it has section of blogs by numerous artists and art figures in Japan, and a Facebook/Mixi-style social networking service.
One thing to note is that the URL has changed from www.art-it.jp to www.art-it.asia and unfortunately it seems the former site’s archives of exhibition reviews, interviews and features have not been transferred to the new site. Whatever happens, I hope all this material doesn’t get lost.
Setouchi International Art Festival – Call For Submissions
Since the early 1990s, a cluster of islands in the Seto Inland Sea have been developing into one of Japan’s major sites of contemporary art. Naoshima was the first, starting with its world-class, iconic museums Bennesse House and Chichu Art Museum, both designed by Tadao Ando.
The Art House Project has renovated old houses into site-specific installations by renowned artists including Rei Naito, James Turrell, Tatsuo Miyajima and Hiroshi Sugimoto. In recent years, nearby islands of Inushima and Teshima have become homes to a variety of art installations.
In 2010, the region will host the inaugural Seto International Art Festival, taking place from July 19 to October 31. The festival’s organizers are currently calling submissions, open until August 31.
Details are available on their homepage.
MAY ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Exhibition Reviews
• Ryoji Ikeda at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo [TAB]
• Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller at Le Forum, Maison Hermès [TAB]
• “Waiting for Video: Works from the 1960s to Today”
at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo [TAB]
• Yishay Garbasz at Wako Works of Art [TAB]
• Aiko Miyanaga at Mizuma Art Gallery [TAB]
• Hiroshi Yoshida at Waitingroom [TAB]
• Natsuyuki Nakanishi at SCAI the Bathhouse [TAB]
• More Exhibition Reviews...
• Yishay Garbasz at Wako Works of Art [Japan Times]
• “U-Tsu-Wa” at 21_21 Design Sight [Japan Times]
• “The Kaleidoscopic Eye: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection” at Mori Art Museum [Japan Times]
• Tetsuya Umeda at Ota Fine Arts [Japan Times]
• Mark Rothko at Kawamura Memorial Museum [Japan Times]
• “20: Klein Dytham Architecture” at Gallery Ma [Japan Times]
Yet More Exhibition Reviews...
• Tadasu Takamine at the Sendai Mediatheque [ART iT]
• Yishay Garbasz at Wako Works of Art [Artforum]
• “Waiting for Video: Works from the 1960s to Today”
at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo [Artscape]
• “20: Klein Dytham Architecture” at Gallery Ma [Artscape]
• Osamu Tezuka at Edo-Tokyo Museum [Metropolis]
• “Matisse and His Circles – France Wild, France Refined” at Bridgestone Museum [Metropolis]
And Some Interviews and Features...
• The first in the TABuzz series of interviews: curator Haruka Ito [TAB]
• The second in the TABuzz series of interviews: artist Teppei Kaneuji [TAB]
• A video interview with artist Shantell Martin [TAB]
• An interview with David Pollard and Tomonari Waku, of organic architecture collective Natural House Project [TAB]
• A profile of one of Japan’s leading collectors of contemporary art, Ryutaro Takahashi [Japan Times]
• A profile of artists Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, who are on an artist-in-residence program at Tokyo Wonder Site [Japan Times]
• Tetsuya Ozaki on Aiko Miyanaga at Mizuma Art Gallery [RealTokyo]
APRIL ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Exhibition Reviews
• Roppongi Art Night in and around Roppongi Hills [TAB]
• Miwa Yanagi at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography [TAB]
• Teppei Kaneuji at Yokohama Museum of Art [TAB]
• Akiyoshi Mishima and Motohiko Odani at Nanzuka Underground and Yamamoto Gendai [TAB]
• “20: Klein Dytham Architecture” at Gallery Ma [TAB]
• “20: Klein Dytham Architecture” at Gallery Ma [Japan Times]
• Ryoji Ikeda at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo [Japan Times]
• Sophy Rickett at Nichido Contemporary Art [Japan Times]
• Miwa Yanagi at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography [Artscape]
• Norio Hosaka at Coexist Gallery [Artscape]
• “Artists’ File” at National Art Center Tokyo [Metropolis]
Features
• Taro Okamoto’s mural “Myth of Tomorrow” at Shibuya Station
Interviews
• Hiroshi Eguchi of publishing house UTRECHT [TAB]
MARCH ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Exhibition Reviews
• Shimabuku at Watari Museum of Contemporary Art [TAB]
• Jim Lambie at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [TAB]
• Tse Su-Mei at Art Tower Mito [TAB]
• “GA Houses Project” at GA Gallery [TAB]
Interviews
• Paule Saviano at Gallery éf [TAB]
• Tekko Itoh on the Kawaguchi i-mono iron cookware brand [TAB]
• Koo Fu jewelry [TAB]
• Hiroyuki Saito on Ikazaki Shachu washi paper [TAB]
• Satoshi Yamashita on Hokubo blade-producing [TAB]
• Naoki Ishibashi on Soejima igusa grass for tatami mats [TAB]
• Shutaro Nomura on Nomura Orimono textiles [TAB]
• Toshihisa Yoshizawa on Nigara Uchihamono Tanzono bladesmithing [TAB]
• Tsuneo Goto on Naruko lacquerware [TAB]
• Japan Knit Brand [TAB]
• Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec on visiting sites of craft production in rural Japan [TAB]
Features
On Realtokyo, Tetsuya Ozaki discusses Kiyoshi Awazu’s retrospective at the Kawasaki City Museum and announces that ART iT and RealTokyo will be downscaling their activities.
FEBRUARY ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Exhibition Reviews
• “Chalo! India — A New Era in Indian Contemporary Art” at Mori Art Museum [TAB]
• Diener & Diener at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery [TAB]
• “Light Insight” at NTT ICC [TAB]
• Vik Muniz at Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya [TAB]
• Toshio Matsumoto at Theatre Image Forum [TAB]
• Yutaka Takanashi at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo [TAB]
• “57th Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works” at Tokyo University of the Arts [TAB]
• Regional Code Asia + Richard Streitmatter-Tran at Project Space Kandada [TAB]
• Aram Dikiciyan at Clear Gallery [Japan Times]
• Aiko Miyanaga at Shiseido Gallery [Japan Times]
• Jim Lambie at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Japan Times]
• Mark Ryden at Tomio Koyama Gallery [Japan Times]
• Peter McDonald at Gallery Side 2 [Artscape]
Interviews
• Yoshinobu Watanabe of Kikuyu on Mizuhiki knot tying [TAB]
• Nissin Furniture Crafters [TAB]
• Motoyuki Tamagawa of Gyokusendo on tsuikidoki coppersmith techniques in Niigata prefecture [TAB]
• Tsutomu Deshimaru talks about Satuma Kuro Kiriko glass from Kagoshima [TAB]
Features
• Tetsuya Ozaki discusses War and Art [RealTokyo]
About & Community
A place to keep abreast of Art Space Tokyo related news, reviews, events and updates.
Art Space Tokyo is a 272 page guide to the Tokyo art world published by Chin Music Press.
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