Friday 3 December 2010

Going Japanese, art stuff - part three

I started my Tokyo art project in the Kayama Tomio Gallery which was on the top two floors of this working distribution depot


Once I found it, I particularly liked travelling up in the industrial lift - although instructions for use were complicated, even in English.


The main exhibition was by Mika Ninagawa - her use of gaudy vibrant colours seemed to fit in well with the general feel of Tokyo itself.


I really enjoyed a video piece by Aiki Inomata - French lessons with a parakeeet - where a french tutor is filmed teaching the artist and her friend how to speak french, with a green parakeet in a cage looking on at proceedings - it was unclear who was learning the most from the lesson.
http://www.artinasia.com/galleryDetail.php?catID=0&galleryID=1521&view=7&eventID=6191

Then wandered over to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo - there were three pieces in the first exhibition called Transformation.

The first, a video piece by Jana Sterbak, was a dog's eye view of Venice at high water - she put a camera on a small dog's head and led it around the raised platforms in Venice that are put out at high water - here is a short clip


The second, was a totally immersive video room by Simon Birch, called Soghomon Tehlinian. Each wall had a full projection of images of a moving Bengal Tiger with an emotional operatic soundtrack (Gorecki Symphony No. 3 "Sorrowful Songs" - Lento e Largo ) - you had feelings of these animals trapped in zoos and circuses and of the sadness of the threat of extinction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY4EjxxhGLs

Third up was a piece by Sarah Sze, an American installation artist - I tried to photograph it but the museum police were on the case - why can you take pictures in galleries and not museums ? - anyway worth checking her website for other exhibition images -

This piece was called "Those that are Tame" and was squashed in between a mezzanine walkway's glass side and the vast windows looking out onto the museum courtyard - being hemmed in seemed apporpriate for its location in Tokyo - she makes site specific work and would have been influenced by how you feel in Japan.

The next exhibition was by four Dutch designers - the first Martin Engelbregt gave you a small brick as you entered the space and asked you to help him build this imaginary city.




You were encouraged to write and draw on the brick before cementing it into place - mine said Double Dutch ...

The other Dutch artist I enjoyed was Ted Noten - his pieces below encoraged visitors to swap rings with him.





I''ll leave you with the music from Simon Birch's piece

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