jogroglog: Going Japanese, art stuff

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

http://www.janasterbak.com/video.html

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 -

http://www.sarahsze.com/Exhibitions.html

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.