p.s.

I would like to express my appreciation to those who participated, supported, joined, dropped by and enjoyed the project.
I hope that the spirit of 'living everyday by art' will continue to last within each of us.

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.

      

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 5

There was an opening party up-stairs, for Austrian artists who returned to Youkobo after 10 years of their first residency. Youkobo residency's beauty is, I think, about being in residential neighborhood. The idea of living everyday partly came from its locational specificity and its philosophy of being a place for artist's residing. I very much enjoy when the local residence visit youkobo as if art is a part of their everyday. Tonight, the two frequent visitors (sometime voluntary work for us) came in with their friend. Their professions are design and cultural policy, and hearing their thinking and feeling towards art are inspiring. It seem that art is wanted by people more or less....

Critique Session

Today, there was a critique session held at Youkobo Artist Space. The idea of the session was introduced youkobo last year to create a situation where gallery artists and residency artists can have in depth critical dialogues about each others' works, with the support of Youkobo Staff member who can mediate, facilitate and translate the content. 

For this evening session, the current residency artists from Austria, Chile, Youkobo directors, staff members, also a special visitor from Melbourne gathered. After giving my brief explanation about the project and each artist's works, the critical discussion was focused on the relationship between myself and other artists.

The dialogue between artists without having my mediation did not grow as much I wished at the beginning of the project. Every participant was busy enough to produce works every week for the project. The importance was more for me to find the artistic commonality between artists and connect it through the presentation of works in progress in the art space and blog space. How I did it was in a way the representation of my concern.  The local silk screen printer helped me to visualize the relationship through composing a set of printmaking work (to be completed for the closing party this Saturday.) 

It was interesting to hear that the installation of works even start to look similar. This project was for me to set a platform where the act of working everyday can be explored more visually, as an artist, and also someone who work for the art organization. I felt that I need to re-think and re-evaluate the models of presenting artworks from artist studio to the outside world via mediation of gallery space, through the initiative of artist. In other word, I probably wanted to think about the uniqueness of artist's curation in relation to other types of project and exhibitions organized and curated by non-artists.

Lastly, one of participant, Christof, who has been witnessing the work in progress for the last 5 weeks noticed something that I did not know about my work. It was about my strong personal theme, the idea of home. This answers some of the questions, too. I might have been simply wanted to be a host to my familiar neighborhood, Youkobo Art Space, in my neighborhood. For the last 9 years, I could not have a sense of belonging to place or community deeply. but now I am understanding slowly how and where... The place where  likely I can grow greens without afraid of leaving this land next year.

The participants chatting after the session.

Gazes and Voices 4

Though it is Wednesday, in a middle of weekdays, a few people visited to the project. Interestingly everyone was a woman, then I first time paid attention to the fact that the exhibitors are also all woman. I did not intend to become so, and don't have motive to talk anything about being woman from feminism point of view and such. If I have some thought in my mind in relation to art, I sometime remember what the poet, Rilke wrote in his letter to a young woman. (here I quote in Japanese, till I find the good translation in English...)
。。。自然は完全なものとして、いつもひとりなのであり、一切であればこそ、ひとりなのです。そうしてその際にも、この状態の境界線に生きることなく、そのあたたかな、完全な中央の節辞す多の中に生きています。孤独に置かれた助成も、これと同じ隠れ家を持つ必要がーすなわち、自分自身の内に住み、彼女の内部に健やかに回帰する自己の本質の同心円の中に住む必要があるのではないでしょうかー？
If the text refers nature to describe about the ideal state for woman, I relate this text as an artist. The artistic activities of either making or looking at art gives a space and time to be in such a place for returning and being completed circle of being oneself.

Thank you for today's visitors: Afriend since my elementary school, now as a mother who continues to work for woman's cosmetic. A lady who lives in the area and likes going around galleries, spent time at the gallery and the lounge space. An artist whose artwork and perspectives resonate with me as probably she also belongs to some between space. Friends from art industry, who supported me to realize a large project last year, are very special as they can professionally help artists' making process so well.

　

Exhibition: Week 1

First night of the show, people at youkobo gathered in the gallery for a while before the dinner.
Youkobo directors, current residency artists at Youkobo, Catalina from Chile, Almut&Christof from Austria, and visiting artists Ross&Meredith from Melbourne.

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.

Walk in. Walk out.

The forth week of open work in progress, a couple walked into the space. She soon got the idea of work in progress. They walked in as if they popped into shop during having a date. Nishiogikubo is indeed a great spot for wondering and going for a walk to find something unique. 
As an artist and staff member of youkobo, I often feel that the location specificity of Youkobo art space can be considered more, in my opinion, by exhibitors and those who are part of the space. The door can be open wider to the potential visitors.
The artists who joined the exhibition this time all makes work in response to their everyday life. That was part of the intentions of the project to test how to make the youkobo art space gallery accessible for those who are in the moment of living their everyday life.