Vol.18 'own thirty'

Date 2012.12.5

Exhibition Title (period): own thirty (2012.11.30–12.9)
Exhibitor: Yukako Izawa, Kyoko Shindo, Emu Nagasaka, Natsuno Yoshikawa

Participants (titles omitted): Exhibiting artists,  Nicholas Bastin, Jaime Humphreys

Moderator: Utako Shindo

Documentation: Hiroko Murata

<Natsuno Yoshikawa>

Nicholas: (in relation to the floor piece) Was there an awareness of shrines in the work? The objects which are out of reach inside the structures appear to be some kind of offering.

Yoshikawa: That wasn’t something I was aiming for.

Nagasaka: When considering the materials, do you have some particular fondness for the materials you have used? Also, does the tapestry work (hung on the wall) have a different value for you?

Yoshikawa: There are parts that I like, but as an entire work it is not something I really value. The main point is that the materials are cheap and easy to get hold of, practical, and easy to make.

Izawa: Why have you used Western Shinjuku and the Yamanote line as your theme?

Yoshikawa: I lived in Kanazawa when I was a university student. In experiencing a very different environment from Tokyo, I thought about reconsidering the scenery of Tokyo.

Nagasawa/Izawa: In reviewing the city, what new things have you realized?

Yoshikawa: I have come to consider why it is so crowded. I have come to see it from different viewpoints, and I feel I now have a greater awareness of the place.

Jaime: As an artist, is your standpoint neutral? Is it criticism of civilization, we cannot enter this city, and yet you have included the element of clouds. If it is Shinjuku, I can imagine there would be many places we cannot enter and are unknown to us… How do you want us to read your work?

Yoshikawa: I’m not focusing on the details or structure, but have built this work as a sketch based on things I felt.

<Yukako Izawa>

Nicholas: (in relation to the painting depicting people floating in water) What is happening? It leaves me with the impression that they are floating in amniotic fluid.

Izawa: I’m depicting people existing within amniotic fluid, a world they are seeing before they were born. I want to express the feeling they are soaking rather than drowning.

Nicholas: (in relation to the work next to it) It would perhaps be even more interesting if it were painted on a larger scale. It is beautiful yet like a bad dream. It also resembles veins.

Izawa: Forming the backdrop to this was my giving birth, something which cannot be expressed simply through a beautiful image. I have considered making a larger painting (it would work well with watercolours on a framed piece of paper, for example), but at present there would be technical problems in working with paper big enough to cover the entire visible area before me.

Nagasaka: They are convincing as paintings made before (painting discussed first) and after giving birth (the second painting discussed), leaving you with a very different feeling. In the image created before giving birth, we are faced with the kind of scenery we may have all seen somewhere, a figurative image constructed from what was actually seen in the everyday. The painting after giving birth clearly comes from actual experience which only Izawa can understand. And in the opposite way, its abstract quality is what is interesting and powerful about it.  

Izawa: (in relation to the first painting) In the painting finished while I was pregnant, I imagined the world inside my womb. After the actual experience of giving birth, I tried to depict in the second picture the violent change which occurs when we move from the world inside the womb to the world we are in now.

Utako: It is similar to the scenery which appears on the screen just before you move onto the next stage of a computer game.

Izawa: I don’t usually play video games, so that image doesn’t come to mind, but perhaps the images of trees and buildings seen, and the people I have met are present there in fragments.

Shindo: If there is a limit in the size of the paper, can you envisage painting directly onto the wall?

Izawa: I have tried before, but I realized that no matter how difficult it is, what I want to do is convey the sense of a world within one picture. But if there were a suitable space, it might be possible to paint directly on site.

<Kyoko Shindo>

Nicholas: Who are these characters and what are they doing? Without thinking, this question naturally occurs. The way you have painted them resembles the characters which appear in detailed picture scrolls.

Kyoko: I’m aware of images from the Edo period, materials from Japanese painting, natural pigments, and blurring techniques, and there are definitely these elements included in my work. What I am depicting here are the actions and movements of people I encountered while I was hospitalized for 30 days.

Jaime: The use of colour is interesting.

Shindo: I apply gradation by adjusting the amount of the paint used.

Jaime: I wonder if, in the same way that you have some kind of relationship with each of these characters through the work, there is also a better way of showing these pictures so that the viewer can also form a closer connection with each person. The current layout may result in people simply walking past without paying closer attention. Would it be possible to present them in a book format, for example?

Hiroko: I think it would be possible to try a different approach here after this critique session, or try out ideas gained here at Youkobo in a future exhibition.

Shindo: Perhaps if I made the characters smaller and presented them exactly like a scroll, I could draw people closer to the surface of the paintings.  

Nagasaka: Your previous work left me with the impression that they were symbolic of something, but after experiencing a serious injury and the resulting hospitalization, it seems as if the distance from actual society has shrunk a little. The bodies drawn in your work now feel as if they are concrete “characters”.

Nicholas: The characters appearing in the work have a strong narrative feel to them, as if part of a rich tapestry.

Izawa: Previously, you depicted characters without clothing, and the workings of your mind were more visible. In this work, you have started to depict other types of characters, while the pictorial form of expression is similar. Was your injury the cause of this?

Shindo: In experiencing something different from the everyday, my interest in previous work of expressing something universal lessened, and I started to look at life itself rather than distinct figures and objects. My life in the hospital involved having to be with patients I didn’t want to be near to, in the internal public space of the hospital.

＜Emu Nagasaka＞

Nagasaka: I come from a background in the industrial arts, so the materials I employ in my work are a very important element. I drew pictures in my junior high and high school days, but at university I had the experience of not being able to find my own expression.

In my work, there exist both the elements of drawing pictures and of working with materials. (the wall drawings are not pictures as such, but rather a kind of dialogue in relation to working with the steel wool). I’m not creating work but rather it might be better to say that I am investigating my relationship to the materials. 

Nicholas: The wall plates bear a resemblance to photos, as if they were depicting people close to you or natural scenes.

Nagasaka: In drawing and making, a sense of mystery is brought to the surface, causing a change within me. This is what is interesting for me.

Nicholas: They leave the impression that there are two or three layers within each picture, bringing out a delicate sense of the materials used.

Izawa: (plate) I think these plates are very much recognizable as your work.

Nagasaka: (in relation to the wall work) From when I was a student, I used the technique of wall installation within a space to convey what I wanted to express. Here there is a yearning for nature, a wish for peace in the everyday. In weaving the steel wool without the use of tools, here it might be said that I am entrusting myself to the everyday. Knitting or weaving as part of an everyday routine; it is this kind of familiar action and material that I employ here.

Shindo: But I also sense the anxiety or uncertainty latent within the everyday.

Nicholas: I didn’t realize that it was steel wool. It leaves the impression it is a very unforgiving material, and yet rich at the same time. Different from wool, it has a visual impact as a material which doesn’t leave you with a sense of the domestic.

Hiroko: This is something I have felt with other artists also, but it is often the case that when an artist persistently wishes to use a material or create a certain work, there appears to be a strong expression of searching. In addition, the material used here leaves a strong impression in knowing that it will become weak or break when it becomes rusty. I do feel that perhaps the finished work is of sufficient size in the space not to warrant showing the drawing studies (plates) next to it.

＜About the project＞

Shindo: It feels honest, genuine.

Nicholas: Even though all the artists are of the same generation in their thirties, the scenes are of very different individuals.

Nagasaka: While feeling there are few chances to show work in the way that you wish to after graduating from university, I feel it was a good experience to have a chance to organize and put on this exhibition. 

Editors comment

The reflection of “realizations” gathered from the everyday in the creative expressions of these artists is one of the characteristics of the work appearing in this exhibition, and the perfect match of this theme with the exhibition title is of particular note. The session was an opportunity for the artists to recognize, or refresh the various subjects of their work, which each have various biases toward materials, themes, or the act of production itself. With the appropriate raising of issues in relation to each work by participants who had no awareness of the exhibition and artists beforehand, it once again became an affirmation of the benefits of the critique session in providing a place to discuss the work shown at Youkobo in an objective manner.

Vol.16 'unforgettable landscapes#1(pigeon loft)'

Date 2012.9.1
Exhibition Title (period): unforgettable landscape#1 (pigeon loft) (2012.08.29 - 09.02)
Exhibitor: Natsumi Sakamoto
Participants (title omitted): 
Hiroko Murata, Satoshi Ikeda, Catalina Tuca, Jeremy Bakker, Sam Stocker, friends of the artist (approx.20 people) 
Moderator: Utako Shindo

Documentation: Yuri Kabata

<Explanation from the artist>
By developing subject matter gained through the use of “interview” techniques, I have painted the “memory” of my friend. For this exhibition, taking the story of a pigeon loft belonging to an uncle of a friend who had passed away, I have shown two types of work; the first are paintings which took shape in the imagination after the interview, and the second are paintings based on images found by searching the internet and other sources after reducing the story to the keyword of “pigeon loft”. The images which expanded directly after hearing the story are the large-sized paintings. By clearly dividing the work in terms of those derived from small objects and the size of the work, it is possible to differentiate between these two methods.

In my practice to date, I have used original landscapes derived from myself and inner memories as my subject. But in this exhibition, the “external” method of interview was used for the first time.        

Having undertaken video, performance, and mediums other than painting for the past few years, it has been some time since I last worked in the medium of painting. So I would like to hear your thoughts distinctly related to the paintings.

<Exchange of Opinions>

Sam: You talk of the memory of buildings (pigeon loft), but is it the memory of the building itself, or rather the memories which concern the building?

Sakamoto: The landscape which had stayed in the memory of the person who became my subject had taken the form of a building. (in the painting, I painted the memory I held of the “building” at the same time...)

In order to depict a place which I had never been to, I needed external information and materials. And so, I searched the internet, but I have drawn concretely from images I found of spy pigeons during wartime, and pigeon lofts located in Taiwan.

Utako: Why the translation “landscape” in the title?

Sakamoto: An interview is nothing more than the act of re-experiencing the memories of the interviewee. Memories are the lining of peoples’ experiences, and they include the sights or “landscapes” which we have presumably seen.   

In the past, I have made video performance works in which I followed someone, and what interested me was the pursuit of someone, an “other”.

Jeremy: Why did you only use painting here when in the past you have used other media?

Sakamoto: There were constraints in the preparation period, but on this occasion what I was seeking was to make a single motif (pigeon loft) exist from a plurality of perspectives, and so painting seemed to be the most appropriate.  

Katarina: I understand from your image that there is the duality of both that which is drawn from imagination, and that drawn directly from a source, but is this difference made any easier by altering the size in a physical way?

Utako: Or is it that perhaps you wanted to mix images which depict different worlds?

Sakamoto: I felt that I was making links between personal and internal memories and the memories of someone else. I have an interest in the awareness or image of the word “world”. The reason why people who have not paid visits to most of the landscapes of the world are still able to have an image of the “world” is through external information provided by others, which is thus magnified to create an internal “world” image.

Jeremy: In relation to a painting where dreams and reality are mixed, it seems a shame not to incorporate the process of sound? I feel there is a potential to use it in this work.

Sakamoto: I didn’t think about using it in this work, but in my experience I have felt there is a tendency in the genre of painting to exclude sound. However, I had precluded the use of sound from the start of this exhibition.

Utako: At present, sound is a secondary element?

Sakamoto: Yes, at present.

Friend of the artist: I even dramatize my own memory (when producing work), but is this different when dramatizing the memory of someone else?

Sakamoto: There is no difference on this point. In either case, I am making work with the premise that it will be shown to someone else and will become the experience of someone else, and so I try to exclude feelings at the time of production. The images and colours are different on a superficial level, but the same method of production applies in both.

Utako: Did you use the memory of the other in order to empathize with them?

Sakamoto: Yes.

Utako: What if the work was made because the creator actually did empathize with the speaker beforehand? Or perhaps, for the audience there is no difference between the internal memories of the creator and the memories of the other.

Actually, the interview was conducted with someone with whom I did empathize, but the direction I sought in the work was to gain anonymity which couldn’t otherwise be achieved if it had been created based on internal memories. I believe this anonymity which includes those with whom the creator cannot empathize will become prominent by conducting a countless number of interviews.

Speaker: I don’t know whether “empathy” can be seen to be reflected concretely in the interview I took part in, but the “discovery” that this work was based on that conversation is deeply moving.

Utako: Does it feel like the work hasn’t come from your own words?

Speaker: Yes, it does.

Editors Comment

Rather than investigating deeply into the exhibition and the ways it was produced, this critique session came to give an overview of the artist’s working practice. There were few comments about the paintings themselves which the artist had anticipated, but then from the outset there were few painters who joined the session. I feel there would have been a deeper discussion if the painters who did participate in the session had made more vital comments.        

Vol.15 'Surspace'

Date: 9.6.2012

Exhibition Title (period): 'Surspace' (2-10.6.2012)

Exhibitor: Naoki Miyasaka
Participants (titles omitted):

Hiroko & Tatsuhiko Murata, Leontine Lieffering & Bart Benschop (residence artists from the Netherlands, AIR 1) 
Moderator/ Interpreter: Utako Shindo

Documentation: Yuuri Kabata

<Exhibition summary by the artist> 
With the stance that exhibitions offer a place to present “research”, I am independently researching and presenting findings about relationships in “spaces” in its broadest meaning. What is meant by “space” here is the context of space within which the habitual experience and perception of space takes place, and what is meant by the title of the exhibition “surspace” (beyond space) is an experience of the space which does not rely on perceptual experience, or in other words an art which aims to secede from dependence on perception.  

In this exhibition, a large object forming the center and supplementary works around it – exhibition maquette, an elevated plan, a camera set to the ceiling and a real-time video – were developed in the small space of the gallery, making efforts to create an “explanatory” construction. A camera was set at the top of the concrete object which was based on the materials of the venue and the ratios of the building, but as it is arranged on a straight line at the edge of the object, the only image visible is the smooth surface of the top. As a reason for using the camera, rather than trying to capture something outside of the human perception mechanism, it is more because of its use as a tool to extend the human perception mechanism. Spotlights and other artificial light is eliminated, using a display with only natural light which emphasizes the light within the building interior, and the view from the passageway.

<Exchange of Opinions>

Hiroko: The way of capturing light through the medium of video camera, and the sculpture which is matched with the space is very intriguing. The artist Yabe Shiro did work with a similar viewpoint in 2003. Compared to Miyasaka’s method, Yabe made his work in the venue so fine adjustments were maybe easier to make.

Tatsuhiko: My opinion is that you enjoyed using the space as an experimental gallery. My impression is that you tried to present a “cavity”. It’s a very Japanese feeling, and it must have been difficult to translate the words “空間越え” (beyond space) into English. It was also interesting to see the way you played around with using the video camera. It’s as if nothing is being shown at all. (the premise is that the top of the pyramid is open → however it is closed).
Bart: You seem to have had an awareness of the perspective from the camera, but does the end result simply reveal that the top of the sculpture is flat? What about showing the ridgeline of the sculpture?
Leontine: I think this is an exhibition where the explanatory part and the main sculpture become one.  And I also feel that the static and kinetic elements in each part contribute to the richness of this exhibition. However, it seems that you planned for something different at first, and so what are your thoughts on that?
Miyasaka: This exhibition was not made for appreciation like a normal exhibition, but I think of it rather as a means to explain the venue. This is precisely why I use the term “research.” However, I sense that the end result was summarized in an “artistic” way.

Leontine: If you are seeking a venue to present the result of research, wouldn’t it be more favorable to present it outside, for example, rather than a gallery space which exists as a place for the appreciation of “artistic” things? 

Miyasaka: As the architectural space of the gallery is quite minimal, it was quite easy to think about this presentation. However, I honestly forgot the point that “a gallery is a place where you look at art”.
Bart: Is it not also possible to create a report about your research?
Kabata: If your stance is “presentation of research”, then it would be far more stoical to present the work to an academic society, for example. But the apparent deviation in an “artistic” direction ultimately occurs because it seems that you are composing it as an exhibition.
Miyasaka: It is important for me to present my “research” as a concrete thing, so it isn’t preferable to show it just in a presentation.
Shindo: Being able to see skepticism towards the form “research” takes as a global phenomenon and the conventional form of “exhibition” in the activities of a Japanese artist is interesting.
Tatsuhiko: I’m concerned about the effect a 200Kg work is having on the floor of the gallery…

Editor's comments:

The same degree of opinions and questions about the actual work were also asked in relation to the concept of “research”. This session was joined by a minimum number of participants which included the Youkobo staff and residence artists, but there was still a strong sense that a significant exchange of opinions had taken place. Rather, it was due to the positive involvement of Bart and Leontine, and the theoretical nature of the artists’ dialogue which contributed to the smooth progression of the discussion, making it difficult to make any definitive generalization about it.

Vol.14 '1994 and 2012'

Date: 12.5.2012

Exhibition Title (period):  '1994 and 2012' (3.5 – 13.5.2012)

Exhibitor: Utako Watanabe
Participants (titles omitted):

Hiroko Murata, Leontine Lieffering & Bart Benschop (residence artists from the Netherlands, AIR 1), Sam Stocker (artist from the UK), Tetuso Honma (student about to graduate), Kaoru Murakami (artist)

Moderator/ Interpreter: Utako Shindo

Documentation: Yuuri Kabata, Utako Shindo

While the work consists of numerous layers including text, pictures, video, chairs and desks, its presentation is simple yet impressive. The critique session began with an investigation of the artist’s intentions in the construction of this exhibition. Watanabe’s comment, “With the opportunity of holding a solo exhibition, I used a method of placing all work together in the space, and then deducting things. It would have been better to leave everything in more confusion. My intention was to mediate through the text, pictures, and video simultaneously.”

Watanabe’s Thoughts after the exhibition

In response to the comment from Watanabe “next I want to concentrate only on video to show them on a screen in a more ordinary manner”, many participants answered that this should be given careful consideration. “Wouldn’t you lose the interesting impression left by this (investigation) in showing it as a “finished work” (Bart); “through the mixture of many different media, the viewer is made to think and is drawn into the work, expanding the possibilities of the space. Even if it were to be shown on one display, a method should be used which leaves this sort of feeling” (Sam). Watanabe took careful note of the advice. 

In relation to the motif of the work, the question was made, “is “war” the theme you are using?” (Bart). In response to this and similar questions which followed, she answered; “The reaction of individuals when they meet with surges in history or significant historical events in their lifetimes is one of the themes on which I focus. One point is that within the speakers’ stories, there are those which are interesting yet sorrowful, those touched with sadness yet enjoyable.” In relation to the fact that many of the interviewees asked to tell their stories are over 60 years of age, Hiroko Murata made the insightful comment, “the thoughts of each individual become the theme of the work, and so rather than stories, it appears you are looking for people who have interesting things to talk about,” to which Watanabe was also in agreement. People were not interviewed in order to gather materials, rather the stories were gathered from natural conversations with people familiar to her, and so the production of the videos took a long time. For this reason Honma, a close friend of the artist, commented “the work has come to reflect your own character”. An additional insightful comment by Yuuri was that “the older the grand historical event talked about, the less degree of empathy there is in the viewer, and as such the setting of the work (young people telling the stories of elderly people as if they were their own) is what emerges as an interesting element” (more interesting, for example, than dealing with last year’s earthquake), to which the artist also agreed. The events talked about are evidently old, yet they are limited to the time axis within which the person speaking exists, and are different from an event in the Edo Period, for example.

In response to a comment made about the position of people speaking in the video, Those talking in the video have seen the pictures you drew to correspond with the stories. But might it not be simpler and easier to convey what you want to say by showing pictures drawn by those appearing on screen?” (Murakami), the artist replied that she would like to try this. There was also the view that “it is similar to the feeling of talking, without realizing it, about someone you know as if you were them. So actually, I don’t feel a sense of disparity in this work” (Utako). In answer to the question “should the viewer know that the stories and people appearing in the video were found through your own connections?” the artist responded “it isn’t necessary that the viewer knows this. It’s fine if it is only understood that young people are simply telling   the stories of elderly people from a different generation”.

At the end, the artist stated that the exhibited work was complete in its current form, but her plan was to continue in the same direction. In answer to the question “are you planning to have just one speaker?”(Hiroko), the artist spoke of aspirations to “find more people who have even more diverse backgrounds”. 


Editor's comment

As the majority of participants were artists, constructive and sharp feedback about the structure of the exhibition and the method of presentation was achieved. In addition, as the generation and cultural background of the participants differed, various interpretations, questions, and ideas about the contents and themes were proposed. Watanabe’s independent approach to her work became distinct through the session, and it seems that through the process of answering questions posed by the participants, future issues and directions of the work became clearer. After the session, the artist herself stated that it had been valuable, adding that opportunities like this to have a discussion about her own work were rare. Though the session was moderated and translated simultaneously by Utako, it ran without problem due to the eagerness of Watanabe and the participants to contribute. It would be ideal if sessions henceforth also involved the least level of moderation, the discussion developing naturally from the dialogue.

Vol.13 ‘T/here’

Date 2012.4.21(Sat) 4:00-4:45

Exhibition Title (Period): ‘T/here’

(2012. 4.5 - 4.29)
Exhibitors: Juka Araikawa, Xana Kudrjavc ev-DeMilner, Yvan Martinez and Joshua Trees, Krister Olsson
Participants （titles omitted）：

Juka Araikawa & Krister Olsson, Bart Benschop & Leontine Lieffering (Youkobo residence artists from the Netherlands, residence 1), Saran Youkongdee (Youkobo residence artist from Thailand, residence 2), Teruyo Horie & Yuri Takeda (Japan Foundation), Tatsuhiko & Hiroko Murata (Youkobo directors), Yuuri Kabata & Utako Shindo (staff), Masako Shindo (visitor)

Moderator: Utako Shindo

Documentation: Yuuri Kabata, Utako Shindo, Jaime Humphreys


<Explanation on the project by the organizers>

Since the start of the 2000s until now, a group of artists who had worked actively together in LA have dispersed to continue their practices in various locations around the world. Taking this condition as a starting point, they initiated the Hayama Project and later, taking the observation of location and time as theme, they initiated the project ‘T/here’. T/here aims to be an exhibition and a magazine publication, the positioning of the magazine not simply taking the form of an exhibition catalogue (explanation of the exhibition) but the creation of texts exploring related ideas to be distributed in places other than the location of the exhibition (including overseas). In Japan, when considering the difficulty in searching for non-commercial exhibition spaces that moreover, are not rental galleries, Youkobo was found to be the ideal place for this exhibition, the Youkobo mission and structure of the exhibition having a strong compatibility.

<Explanation of the work by the organizers followed by Q&A>

‘Flamingos Forever’ by Yvan Martinez and Joshua Trees

A non-linear stance can be said to be a particular trait of the literature of Yvan’s home country Venezeula and the basis for the work. The refined visual sense of Chicago born Joshua is an equally important component. The work takes characters from a never-filmed John Waters screenplay and places them in a new narrative written by Yvan. Using a technique of appropriation, characters and locations are illustrated using photos of criminals taken by the Miami Police Department available online and photos of generic hotels. Multiple stories interweave and split to form multiple possible realities, loosely following the principals of quantum theory. In this work images of surreal hotel hallways seemingly upside-down are constantly repeated; ‘possible futures’ are revealed while giving deep thought to the act of ‘choosing’.

From a contextual point of view, the work cannot be said to be easily understandable for a Japanese audience, but it can be appreciated as an object from a visual perspective. The old projector is suggestive of a camera used in a film shoot, and the projection onto a wooden board that blocks the window is also a symbolic gesture. 

‘Untitled’ by Xana Kudrjavcev-DeMilner

Xana makes portraits of moving objects in the form of collages and drawings. Through her emigration to L.A. from Berlin, dramatic changes occurred in her working environment. In contrast to Berlin, where it is possible to navigate the city using public amenities, in moving from one place to another by car on highways in L.A. you are reminded of your isolation. It may be that the repeated pattern and the layering of traces of wax-based pencil crayons reflect these conditions.

The work of Bart (session participant) in which selected landscapes are photographed from expressways is different in style, but in the same way reflects the speed and time processes of contemporary society where the buildings which are caught while moving appear to resemble one another.

The artist is known for her technique of collage, but in her drawings there are also structures which evoke movement both in-front and behind, a form of layering in which her fundamental concepts remain constant. 

‘Room 2 (After Dawn of the Dead)’ by Mike Chang

 ‘Dawn of the Dead’, a movie critical of consumer society, is the focus of this work. In the movie, a group of shoppers are trapped in a storage room inside a shopping mall after being chased by zombies. They begin to recreate the life they led outside the mall by stacking cardboard boxes to make furniture and household amenities, ironically creating an alternate version of consumer society. Mike draws parallels between the protagonists in the movie and contemporary artists. Can an artist who places himself in his studio, a space isolated from the real world-- living in an age where the pursuit of idealistic expression has finished--make work that is relevant to contemporary society? Taiwanese-born Mike moved to Singapore to continue his activities after completing his MFA at CalArts. This work was shot in his studio space, which exists like an island in the middle of the city. The unresolved nature of this work is suggested in the posture of the main character (the artist himself).

The artist may also appear to be a castaway. This trend of showing a sense of loss, of expressionlessness, is something shared by the images captured in this exhibition, and it may also be said to be an expression particular to the young artists of LA.

If we question the role and actions of ‘artist’ as a profession then it may be interesting to consider the work here in relation to Youkobo’s concept of providing a residence to artists where they may pursue creative production while carrying out their daily lives. 

'Pump' by Juka Araikawa

 Juka paints artificial environments, such as indoor beaches. For her, these landscapes are theatrical spaces or stages to explore the imaginations and expectations of people. The behaviors of humans in these spaces are like the movement of a non-turbulent wave, seemingly in eternal repetition.

There was a comment that the tones in these paintings resemble frescoes, but the colours in her palette appear more muted, like the colour of artificial skies or, depending on the viewer, the colour of dreams. With a scale close to actual size, the work produces a sense of presence.

This landscape exists on the border of reality and unreality and by employing painting as a medium the artist is also commenting on the artificial qualities of painting. For example, there are people who try to realize an imagined natural space by displaying a painting of the sky in their room. This work makes us consider the painting not just as image, but also the position of the painting itself in the real world.

'Easy Target' by Krister Olsson

  Moving from L.A. into a traditional old house in Yokohama, Krister took notice of the visible dust which built up within the house. As an act of meditating on the ownership of time, he decided to gather the dust of the house that built up over the period of a year. This dust was then placed in a specially made box that reflects the domestic space. In contrast to this box that stands tall, supported by long legs like a Shinto altar/shrine, domestic boxes imbued with a sense of nostalgia are placed on the ground. While being suggestive of the relationship between exterior and interior, top and bottom, the variations in the way of perceiving the work differ according to location and environmental conditions. The sculpture is a document of one year; the act of collecting dust and the time spent in creating the sculpture. The collecting of dust (produced without human awareness) and displaying it in a confined structure brings up the issue of control and questions to what extent environment affects work. Also, the work diminishes the gap between art and domestic space.

The method of making the box also speaks to the process of change that is constantly present. What started as a minimal box gradually became a more complex form, its transformation driven by practical considerations as well as chance.

Editor's comment

After the session, the theme “reflection of the real world” came to mind. That is, through physical observation, the speculation of narrative, the stage of an artificial space, studio space, and sculptural space, each respective artist seems to be investigating this theme through their own approach, which suggests a consideration of the position of each work itself in the real world and the meaning of its existence.

In addition, the act of “repetition” is explored by all works. Our gaze is directed from the ambiguous whole down to smaller details, exposing the reality of the living environments of the respective artists. This supports the definition of being an artist, of starting out from one’s own daily life as someone who observes and considers. When artists produce in this way, art is not the product of a make-believe world but contiguous to the real world.

Youkobo has a mission to support the activities of artists, but this exhibition can be understood to be an attempt to answer the question “what is it to be a sincere artist”.

Continuing on from this we must ask the question: to what extent can those from different cultural backgrounds share, appreciate and consider these works. And, if this is difficult, what sort of support (if any) is necessary. The magazine may serve to deepen our understanding of, these issues.