I have been working with drawing and cut paper since almost ten years. It is the aim of my work to create small universes with paper, exploring fiction as a path for expressing the complex nuances of our daily situations. Using different elements for inspiration like plants, animals, and everyday objects, and mixing them into something new, using the infinite possibilities of drawing. At the beginning of my career I used just paper in all their multiplicity, but now I add to my work different objects like lightbulbs, wires and little doll hands. In every single piece I look forward to find a special conjunction of elements and characters.
For this one month art residency in Japan I would like to work with the third volume of the Hokusai manga “Fanciful, mythical and supernatural”, redrawing some of that characters of Japanese mythology and take pictures of them as if they where living in modern Kofu.
My artistic work often relates with the uncommon. It pursues a longing for going out of the daily routine in which we are immersed. Taking the uncommon as a base, early in my work, I explored the concepts of alienation and the anomalous in the human race, and the consequences and repercussions of being considered different within the society. Later I became interested in the ideas of calm and contemplation, both Buddhist concepts studied in the path of illumination. In my investigation I found the metaphor of the calm of the sea, this is the word the seaman use to refer to the complete stillness in the waters. Continuing with my research, always attracted to the uncommon, I landed in the notion of introspection and solitude, how the humans can feel alone even when they are in crowds and how can they with daydreaming create their own worlds or even meditate in odd situations.
I’m interested in how introspection can be used as a form of meditation. I have explored these themes in my last works but I want to continue to evolve the investigation bringing it to a Japanese context. I have been always drawn to Japanese culture; I want to explore the concept of introspection applied to the Japanese everyday life.
I find Kofu, Yamanashi, the perfect place to immerse myself into the everyday life and compare my Latin roots with this very different environment. The fact that Kofu is not a big cosmopolitan city makes this an even richer experience. The techniques I use more commonly in my work are photography and drawing, I plan to use both to capture the essence of the everyday life viewed through my foreigner eyes.
Many of my interests and
curiosities lean towards the quiet, the tactile, sensations and the internal
shifts that happen within us and around us.
I often wonder how these elements can create possibility, space and
bring us closer to ourselves, to others, truth and nature. I has been seen to performing in
unconventional venues utilizing sensory stimulant and/or deprivation techniques
and have been seen ripping open grapefruits, releasing ladybugs and inviting
audience members to walk with their eyes closed in gardens, busy city streets
or quiet corners.
Most
recently, I have found myself unpacking family history and investigating home,
identity, memory, travel, migration, immigration, displacement, belonging,
guilt, shame and what it means to be an Asian American woman…which ultimately
has meant, looking deeply at myself through the lens of my mother, my father
and animals. Through these
investigations I have weaved various mediums: performance, storytelling,
film/video, animation and installation to attempt to tell this story.
When I am in my city, I do my project,
“Peeling the City”. I make records of my rapidly changing city by rubbing of old
walls, signs, and streets. When I travel, I do another project, “Facebook”. I
bring my drawing book and record people I meet by drawing their faces.
Physical distance to what or who I record
is important to me. When I document cities, I choose rubbing to photo. I make
records of old things which soon be replaced by new things. Old apartments are
demolished and redeveloped due to economic reasons in my city. It is sad to
keep losing the places where I grew up and made memories. To record the wall of
old apartment in my town, I step forward to the wall and touch all over to make
rubbings. It’s a farewell to something that will disappear. I don’t feel enough
with photo which captures the lights that visited to the wall while I am away
from it.
When I draw people, I sit very close to
them to see well. When I sit as close as I can see even their eyelashes
clearly, I feel intimate but also intimidated. It feels awkward, but this
situation makes difference on my drawing. When one’s vivid presence is right in
front of me, I cannot draw the one on my own. Something (emotion or
personality) of the person affects my drawing. Their sensitivity, anxiety,
strongness or something that cannot be named in words make my hand move
differently. The person is reflected on my drawing in this way. This drawing
takes about ten minutes. Looking at someone very carefully for ten minutes is an
unusual event. Nobody can be left nobody to me after this. The drawing becomes
an intense meeting in nonverbal way.
Drawing of your face would be the easiest
picture to say you like it or not. I get reactions very quickly. My drawings
please some and annoy others. I pose for them to draw for a FAIR TRADE. I give
them a chance to pay me back (whether reward or revenge). It becomes a drawing
exchange or a drawing battle. Both are enjoyable. Drawing is a very basic
method of art. Picture of your face is easiest art to make and talk about.
While less and less people are interested in art, I am trying to share this
whole process of art (creating, critique, being a subject of art) with more
people in this simple and entertaining way.
I am so grateful to people who sat and
posed in front of me at AIRY last year and I’d like to record them in 1 year. Also
I’m looking forward to seeing new faces.
私はソウルにいる時は、プロジェクト「Peeling the City」を行います。古い壁、標識、通りを擦って、急速に変化する都市の記録を制作します。旅行中は、別のプロジェクト「Facebook」を実行します。スケッチブックを持ち、顔を描いて出会った人を記録します。私が記録する対象や人との物理的な距離は重要です。都市を作品化するとき、私は擦り出しの方法を選びます。すぐに新しいものに置き換えらてしまう古いものの記録を制作します。街の経済的理由により、古いアパートは取り壊され、再開発されました。私が育ち、思い出を作った場所を失い続けるのは悲しいです。ソウルの古いアパートの壁を記録するために、私は壁に向かって一歩踏み込んで、擦り出しをします。消えてしまう何かへの別れです。壁から離れて壁に当たる光を捉えた「写真」は十分ではありません。
My drawing book becomes the documentation of people in February 2020 in Kofu. I draw faces I met in travel to Kofu on my drawing book. Meeting people is important part of travel. Drawing person’s face I meet makes this meeting easier and deeper. Drawing faces make my travel more enjoyable and memorable. As Facebook on internet is for networking, my FaceBook is for networking in Kofu in much more direct way.
My whole life I thought that the lack capacity of making decisions I bare was a weak point, but recently I found out this out to be my strength; from this point on I decided to go deep into my multi focused personality and mix different things that share my interest into one.
I am a product of
the globalized western society, an adult with no real goal in a universe full
of options and a woman in a men’s world. Some of those themes are always
running through my work, be it is as an actress/interpreter or as anything.
Recently I have been studying Jungian archetypes and creating a parallel line between the Witch and the Japanese genre Mahō shōjo.
Every work from this series (be it a video, a collage, a performance etc) stars a Mahō shōjo immersed in everyday actions putting in check the pre-given notions of femininity exploring its pluralities in search of every woman’s individual essence.
Loves Comics and Animations of Japan. Every works from this
series stars a Mahō shōjo immersed in everyday actions putting in check the
pre-given notions of femininity exploring its pluralities in search of every
woman’s individual essence.
When we watch mahou shoujo anime, little girls are capable of solving problems by themselves via Magic. A transformation can empower this little girls so they can do anything. In this workshop we will discuss gender roles, anime, and how we perceive ourselves as humans whose transformation is not over. Let’s create mahou women, mahou men, and mahou shonen while exploring the strength of femininity. (All ages and genres are welcome)
Gaku Ogata is a prolific artist. He is prolific artist or always draws like breathing. I met him on last September the first time where the graffiti wall of artist MCZ was working.
He took out his sketchbook and started drawing.
I guess it was like drawing down MCZ’s work, or like a diary to drawing down
himself for the day. Anyway the handling of the drawing was quick and reliable,
and I was surprised to see the atmosphere of the place as I saw it. He told me
that while studying in Australia, he had honed his skills drawing people who is
walking on the street corners. The skills of artists in strange lands can also
be a weapon to seeing people.
Since then, he has grown into a presence as
AIRY’s seventh intern. He learned how to live and survive from the residency
artists and art space management from AIRY. Now, just before graduation he has
reached the starting point of his own artist life.
He first applies color to the canvas using acrylic paint and spray, looking like something but not concrete. The color and shape of the initials disappear as they overlap. When it looks like concrete and finally the abstract representation is powerfully covering the screen, it is almost completed. Color contrast, magical motifs, and synergistic effects of dripping spray. Feel the calm in chaos. In “EXHALE” the artist exhales and exudes the joy and possibilities of drawing/painting.
「この度、大方岳個展 [Exhale]のオープニングパーティーを企画させていただくことになりました。 初の個展に挑んだ作家、大方岳（山梨学院学国際リベラルアーツ学部今春卒業予定）の制作に対する思いや、AIRY(アー ティスト・イン・レジデンス山梨)を運営する坂本泉さんの多岐にわたる活動のお話等・・・ 作品鑑賞をしながらのトークもお楽しみください。現在AIRYに滞在中の韓国人とブラジル人のアーティストにもご参加 いただける予定です。ご参加いただいた皆様と共に非日常空間を創り、味わい、楽しい時間を過ごせれば幸いです。 Taste of arts ・・・作品からのインスピレーションによる Foods &Drink コーナーも設けます。 アートってよくわからない、AIRYってどんなところ？・・・な～んて思っている方もお気軽にいらしてくださいね！ 」
■ ２月２１日(金）18:00-19:30
■ AIRY 2F 山梨県甲府市丸の内２丁目３７-２
■ 参加費：学生無料、大人ドネイション（食材費をお気持ちお願いします）
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ワークショップ「らくがきのそのさき」the English description below 日時：2月22日（土）13時―16時（入退室自由） 所要時間：30分―60分 場所：AIRY[Art in Residence Yamanashi]甲府市丸の内2丁目37－2 参加費：500円（小学生以下無料） このワークショップでは直観や意識の流れを使って絵を描きます。何か描きたいものや対象があって絵を描くのとは対照的に、直観的に何も考えずに絵を描くという体験をこのワークショップは目的としています。らくがきするように頭の中にあることを吐き出し手を動かしたいように動かし描くことで新しい表現方法や自分の知らなかった自分を見つけられるかもしれません。 Workshop [Beyond the doodling] Date: February 22nd (Sat) 1-4pm Duration: 30-60min Location: AIRY[Art in Residence Yamanashi] 2-37-2, Marunouchi, Kofu, Yamanashi Fee: 500 yen This workshop focuses on intuition and flow of consciousness. In the workshop, we will draw without intention or theme. The purpose of this workshop is to experience the randomness of mind and find a new way to express oneself.
Larissa and Eliot will conduct research and experiment with new methods in their AIRY residency, bringing together their disciplines in paper installation, printmaking, sound and vibration. Larissa’s practice explores boundaries, containment and place; with works incorporating tea dyeing, sewing, and suspension of large washi paper arrangements. Eliot works with vibration speakers to generate resonance in building structures and objects, creating an audio and tactile experience from sound. In this research residency the artists will build the foundations for new work exploring the theme of water as a resource and cultural asset.
The artists plan to make a series of sound
recordings in Yamanashi, with an interest in the sounds of cleansing rituals at
temizuya, which Eliot will bring together with recordings he made of past
water-based paper making at Awagami factory, Shikoku. Together, the artists
will also experiment with ways of resonating paper forms, and creation of paper
objects as a vessel and sounding object. The research period will also offer
the opportunity to experiment with ways of representing the presence of
groundwater, with an interest in drawing on traditional, hand drawn
hydrogeological maps as a reference source for drawing and printing. The
different challenges around water abundance and use between Japan and Australia
provide a point of focus and dialogue.
Presented in the gallery are the beginnings of
experiments by artists exploring the concept of water, groundwater, and vessels
for containment of liquids. Vibration speakers are used, with specially
tuned compositions, to create resonance in the drinking bottles. The concept is
to reflect on the properties of hidden aquifers as a container for
valuable water resources, and deep storage of water and the importance of
this.
The artists are exploring how paper vessels
may be used to transmit vibration energy and sound. The forms and paper dying
and shaping process reflect on the ways in which paper can carve grooves and
shapes into the land and stone.In in addition, in the the studio space we have
set up initial compositions and field recordings taken from the Shosenkyo Gorge
and Zenkoji temple, including natural water and machinery.
Eliot Palmer & Larissa Linnell have stayed in AIRY as family residents from Melbourne, Australia. Eliot is a Sound artist, and Larissa is a Visual artist. They are both deeply interested in Japanese cultures, arts, and this is not the first time visiting Japan as Art residents. In the work that Eliot exhibited this time, he wanted to show the importance of water by using “water” and “vibrations”. Since Japan has a lot of water resources such as water from Mt.Fuji, water for Onsen, water of Purification trough (temizuya) at Temples and Shrines and it is familiar to people. At the same time it links to negative circumstances such as natural water disasters and water pollution, and people tend to be not seeing from the perspectives. Since Eliot and Larissa came to Yamanashi, Eliot recorded several sounds of water including both natural and machinery at some places such as Shyosenkyo Gorge and Zenkoji Temple to make his work. In a week or less, he got an idea of making his art work which consists of special vibration machine, water bottles, and paper vessels made by Larrisa. Paper vessels were used to transmit vibration energies and sounds. There is air in the paper, and this work shows how sounds are being delivered and vibrated through objects as well. I really enjoyed their work. By using paper vessels and actual water to be vibrated, the work let invisible sounds become visible and that function audience can even touch and feel the sounds. The term Sound art itself is sometimes not familiar to everyone, however this art work engaged audience to be interactive. I was happy to see the connections between water and vibrations, and this work made me think of the fact that every dot is connecting to the other and that makes people to have broader perspectives. （Kaho Tanaka, iCLA）
