Tag Archives: japan

Notes on the artist Zheng Yunhan

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Zheng’s work deals with the relationship between the Chinese people and their landscapes, it’s idealised nature as a site for forming, as man-perfected/adjusted material, a symbolic residue or site of potential for human activity.

His works stem from an investigation of his home town of Jixi, a mining town in NE China. Jixi Research Project, ongoing since 2004, is a documentary-like archive of visual and spoken records of the lives of the people living in this town dominated by mining and the consequences of this industry on their lives and landscape. This piece is presented as a 4-channel projection with interactivity, emphasising the audiences participation in the story telling process.

For Sunflower Project, Zheng commissioned his family and friends to plant a large field of sunflowers in the hills surrounding the town of Jixi. The resulting artwork is an ultra-high resolution composite photograph of this field. On the one side in the distance is Jixi and on the other a memorial marking a mass grave of locals killed by the Japanese Army during the occupation of China during the Second World War. The sunflowers act as physical link between the living and the dead, a route of remembrance, reflecting during their short lives the remains of life and death all around them.

Beautiful New World

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I’ve finally been able to post shots of the artists’ work from Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan, the show which my fiancée has been working on.The show was split over three venues in the 798 Art District in Beijing, Long March Space, Tokyo Gallery and Inter Gallery. Each venue presented works under a different theme within the Beautiful New World concept. Long March Space presented ‘Beautiful Real World,’ Inter Gallery ‘New Media World’ and Tokyo Gallery ‘End of the World and Future World.’

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Ujino Muneteru performance

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The Japanese artist Ujino Muneteru performing at the opening night of the Beautiful New World exhibition at Long March Space, Beijing.

His accumulation of practical, everyday-life objects all are representatives of the tangible in our life. However, he experiments with the double-dimensions of those materials by creating also an intangible effect, namely sounds.

Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan at The British Museum, London

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The Great Court at the British Museum After savouring the delights of the Terracotta Warriors in the Reading Room at The British Museum I saw that there was a smaller show of craft-work from Japan upstairs.

The show, “Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan,” concentrates on the productions of Japan’s craft artists, many of whom have been designated ‘Living National Treasures’ in recognition of their skills. I love the idea of this accolade, the place that Japanese society apparently gives to the activities the result of which were on display in this exhibition. The small brochure talks about ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible cultural properties’: ‘tangible’ being “historic architecture, sculpture, painting and calligraphy, and craft objects as well as significant sites, scenic places, and particular plants and animals.” ‘Intangible’ includes “performing skills in traditional theatre and music, and craft techniques.” Those quotes from the brochure are not really adequate to explain the differing concepts involved, but there seems to be a distinction between the object and the activity here. I believe UNESCO has a similar designation now, which perhaps stemmed from the Japanese system.

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The show has some gorgeous pieces. What comes across very strongly in the presentation is the attention to detail and evident, intense craft involved in the works. This gives the show an almost reverential feeling in its presentation of the various pieces. The value accorded to the pieces is not unique to this show, of course that is the function and result of placing anything in a museum, it will inevitably gain that ‘aura’ from being isolated for our attention. But this particular show taps into an existing tradition and appreciation of craft which massively adds to this aura.

At the same time these appreciations are not the same. Within a museum, the object loses it’s everyday use value, whereas I get the feeling that while the Japanese craftspeople value perfection and quality, in some ways a piece must be used to be completed. I’m generalising here, and working from limited knowledge, but this is the feeling I get from the show.

So, another wonderful show at The British Museum. As my fiancée keeps telling me, we are very privileged in London to have so many cultural institution on our doorstep.