A kind of beggining

"De-installation is an opportunity to find hints and clues for the next work." This is the advice from the artist who had a temporal studio at youkobo 2 years ago when I had a studio residency there. I hesitated to be more playful in regards to presenting the relational dynamism of works by 4 artists. "Installation process could put artists pressure to complete exhibition, but de-installation could make artists relaxed." He told me when he made a visit to the project with my favorite summer fruits. I appreciate the encouraging supports and dialogues which Youkobo receives from art communities in Tokyo and beyond. During the de-install, I played to have more frank conversation with each component of works in the space.

      

Last Day to Open

On the last day, I had two pairs of visitors whose places I usually visit to. It was an interesting and honorable experience to be in the opposite position. In discussion of working in a gallery space where the staff members are expected to welcome visitors, it teaches me when I see how people in other businesses welcome visitors. And those people who I welcomed today has an excellent attitude to their visitors in different ways.

Gu-no-Ne is a shop near my parents, Sakurajousui which is the area where I grew up. The shop sells mostly hand-made or selected products with a working studio space at the back. They only open once or twice a week, but you can view what's inside from the front which is all glass window. It was really exciting to find such a creative and interesting space in the neighborhood where there are hardly any contemporary products or art you can find. The two young creators who run the shop seemed to very much valuing the joyful moment in a day, with the belief that creativity grows from the beauty of day-to-day living. Last year when I was living there I walked pass the street in rush all the time due to the business. I wished to have an opportunity to share my creativity with them. So it was very happy to welcome my project which was slowly constructed day by day.

Hirodi is a restaurant in Ginza, where I worked a couple of years ago to support my first studio residency at Youkobo. I used to rely on hospitality industry to support my income like many artists, of course tough but it gave me a chance to contact closely with culture and people of particular localities. With Hidori, it was like in the crossing of high-end Japanese modernity and contemporary western culture. Being near Imperial Hotel and offices of white-color people, I imagined that some of them might be the clients for commercial galleries in Ginza. Even now, I cannot count the number of zero properly on their price lists but I learned human needs to appreciate something special, different from what's in the everyday. Hidori sincerely offers people dreams to eat.

Coming back to the question of what youkobo gallery can offer, I start to think, each artist who use the space will decide, direct and enjoy the encounter with visitors. What is important is really to spend time with the place and its specificity as much as exploring their own works. Once artists decide to show their works, it is decision also to present works for communication. How to communicate with viewers are up-to artists but it is fun to be original about the regards, as people do offer so many insight to artists like how it was across the 5 weeks for the project.

Skype Artists Talk & Closing Party

Quite a few people gathered for the artist talks and the closing party. Firstly let me express my appreciation for those who made their way to the physical space, the gallery, which got very hot! due to the weather against the floor cooling system, and the energy which people brought into. The artists joined the talks through skype, Thea from 11am Berlin, Elizabeth from 8pm Melbourne and Gaku from 6am New York. Thank you for the artists to be part of the night, it was wonderful to have your presence finally in the space, almost! and Also thank Youkobo to let me hold this project and the opportunity to meet and connect people through the project. Here are summery of each artist's talk.

Thea: After leaving university and moving places to live, my continuing art practice became in doubt. But this project allowed me to practice being artist while living my everyday life of having to work for survival. Post card and video postcard were the format i chose for the project in order capture what I see in between time of my everyday routine. I did not too concern about the relationship between what I do with each postcard. It was more important to pay attentions to each association that I made with each motif and encounters.

Elizabeth: Seisho Nagon wrote a lot her visual observation of everyday, and paid attention to human relationships in her writings. What she wrote about ordinary things from everyday have been lasting for long time, over hundreds years, while political history might have faded. That is wonderful.Translation between different cultures, different disciplines are very important as people are less and less facing with others, due to the division and categorization. Artists, who make artworks to communicate, are great translator and communicators, so it is important that artists join a project like this.

Gaku: It was natural to join the project as I have been presenting my artwork on my website daily, while I concern about the format of exhibiting in gallery - the idea lasts since before the Internet era. I gave sculptural shape to the weekly art manga, to be downloaded,  printed cut and construct. I find this process most exciting  so I wanted to people to also experience it. No problem that the outcome will different by each person from how I do. Most important as an artist to me now is the moment when I am making artwork, facing with the making. It is my question now, what I can leave, through those actions. 

Utako: In my work, there are always the question of belonging-ness. After long years of not belonging anywhere firmly, I moved in the place with people that I feel belong to. I took views outside of my studio window repeatedly as if I make my belonging stronger. I also trace the shadow of things inside of room with repetitive drawing movements to register my being in the space by referring to the shadow which does not have an physical existence. Also to visualize and introduce my invisible connections with other artists across the world in the context of youkobo was very important to achieve at this moment.

Gazes and Voices 3

 

 

Sunday afternoon, people came on the bicycle, by car, by bus and by walk. Questions were asked about the project, title, status of exhibition, concept of the project and so on. Different artists, different art viewers interpreted the project in various ways and expressed their feelings and expectations.

Discussions arised mostly in relation to the meaning of the word, 'exhibition' and 'work in progress', and 'studio practice'. It was questions, how to convey the sense of progress in an exhibition format which implies somewhat finalized work of art? Then another thought came into my mind. Has the concept of this particular project actually never end to be 'completed' work of art? The basic idea of accumulating an everyday making and process should be carried over as long as you live your life everyday?

The graphic designer, who was visiting youkobo for another meeting, said that he also tends to keep working on and on. If there is no such thing called 'deadline', he would not stop. Deadline is like an architecture, structure which decide the duration of time you are inside. Maybe an exhibition is a deadline for artists, to structure their times to make and show works. In the case of the project, I think we might have not needed to have an exhibition, as the core concept, 'making works everyday' would not have an end. Or, the exhibition is not about showing finished artwork, but presenting the status of artwork being produced everyday. It is bit like a live performance piece. Audiences witness the moment of artwork being generated.

Akira Mori who did a project early this year at youkobo came in with his collaboration partner. He also makes a work in combination with concept, object and performance. I was thinking maybe the aspect of work-in-progress has a performative element to the whole project. Artworks moves across continents and across days&weeks. Visitors to the project also shift and change the project slightly, as often their observations and feed-backs give a new perspective to the project.

It was great to see Akira enjoying the various art languages in the gallery. Thea's postcard piece which resonates with her video postcard and Gaku's weekly Manga stays on-line to be downloaded. They point out clearly the relationship between physically being there and not. It was also Mori's project's 'All day 23 wards' theme where things happened outside of gallery and gallery became a container for the conceptual drawing and.

       

Outside and Inside of Artist

After my office work at youkobo, I print out, cut and construct Gaku's weekly Art Manga. The dialogue with her was recalled.

Gaku was a residency artist more than 10 years ago at Youkobo. She had moved to NY to have her life there. I felt so lucky to met with her early this year at youkobo when she was making her brief return to Japan. Once you are out of a community that you are used to and was welcomed, you become nothing again. You build from Zero. It is wonderful opportunity to re-evaluate your sense of value, what you think as normal. What is great about her is that her will and commitment in art are so strong that they stay clear in herself, and even get stronger when there are many questions.

Her question to the idea of putting an exhibition in a gallery as an 'normal' way to present artworks, led her to invent another way to communicate with the world through her work. She said, 'I want to focus on making works sincerely. That is most important at the moment. I become interested in the project as it focuses on artist's making works for the sake of making art, and it does value the process of making, not the purpose of making, such as towards an exhibition in the gallery. Utako is not galleryist nor curator. She is an artist, and to question about artists running space, such as Youkobo gallery, that  assist artist making, experiment. That makes valuable for me to be part of.

art in environment: Melbourne and Tokyo

Melbourne (left)
Elizabeth's practicing her Japanese writing in her office at CFI.
The window view from the former Drawing dep. studios.
Thea's work 2009 on outside wall of VCA Studios.

Tokyo (right)

Gallery Info in Japanese: Work in progress is Open to Public.

A street view, outside of Youkobo Studios and Gallery.

Thea's postcards and video-cards are on test display.

One of conceptual aspects of the project, Living Everyday by Art, is to connect everyday working

environments from different sites in the world. It is to propose the idea that whenever you are, artists make things and can put it on display, anywhere is possible really, if you wish for it to be happened. Artist can not only make art but also put it out in the world. Once it is put in the world, it can communicate with others beyond the makers intentions. That is simply wonderful. Attempting creating such an occasion. I am putting the project up in youkobo gallery, everyday, and opening the process every weekend to the public.