Showing posts with label sustainable art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainable art. Show all posts

Saturday, July 28, 2012

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.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Kind support, family and mentor

Before the idea for the project was shaped, I had shared a dialogue with Elizabeth. I was very much struggling, how to balance my life, job and making of art. She wrote, me how she tries to connect those, to reflect them onto each other.

I was very grateful to have my family and the mentor into the space for the work-in-progress. They kindly supported the last stage of building up the projects. It was literally the moment when life, job and art became one, procssed into living everyday.

Friday, June 8, 2012

First thoughts

It is time that we send something to Tokyo, for the beginning of the project on the 13th, and I have spent the morning deliberating on what would make a good first contribution. Actually, I have been thinking about this for a while, but have been unable to commit to a specific everyday project or action, perhaps because I don't want to add one more routine to a series of routines that already exist in daily life.

Lately I have been feeling both mired in the everyday and at the same time not aware of it at all. I think this happens when daily business, stresses and worries take over. It is so easy to lose touch with the feeling of just being alive. (I keep postcards on On Kawara's work on the walls to remind me of this)

Utako and I spoke a few weeks ago about the importance not only of an art practice being sustainable within our ordinary lives, but also that the art practice sustain us in some way. By that we mean that it can give us something to hold on to, something to enrich us, something to take us out of what might be mere 'survival mode'. I think this project will provide an impetus to become more aware of the everyday, to provide a pause, a breath, in which to stop and notice, to be observant. I am excited about the unknown possibilities of leaving things open. What encounters or experiences might this engender?

Utako's story about her neighbour is one of these beautiful moments. Maybe you don't need art for this?