People are in the center of my work. I study them and their expressions, and retell them in my own pictures and words. I think I’ve always been an observer, who watched and listened to people around me. And since I’ve also been a restless person with in a pen in my hand, it has become natural to draw down my observations.
Making stories is another thing that has been present for a long time for me, yet I still struggle with this. Producing single drawings, images and texts is most often more or less simple, but adding a narrative and a specific meaning is more difficult.
Maybe that resistance is one of the reasons to why I keep wanting to make stories. That, and the knowledge of a story’s secret powers. The fact that it keeps the viewers attention, and can lead its thinking on a trail that you’ve created. It’s like with a single image, but a story demands more time of the viewer, and is hacking it’s mind a little bit more, perhaps.
On AIRY I want to take walks, talk to people, look around and in other ways take in my new surroundings, and to make a lot of drawings. I also want to make small stories and to show them to people, and to hear about their interpretations, and to observe their reactions and thoughts. It’s all like a cycle.
It is part of my nature to seek solitude once in a while. If I am stuck in the city for too long of a stretch, I feel compelled to go roam the woods near my childhood home. Every time I go for a walk in the forest I often happen upon a funny thing or two; this could be an unusual mushroom, tree that grew in a strange shape or an unusual marking left behind by some unknown creature. Nature always offers up surprises that draw me back and keep me interested in spending time away from it all.
2016/8/17 [A balloon man]appeared suddenly on the balcony AIRY
moving to the school yard with kids
slowly walking around with wind—
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!!!NEW PERFORMANCE!!!
“A cloud for Kofu”
「晴れときどきくもり」
【時間】2016年8月26日(金)12:00~16:00の間
【ルート】AIRY→舞鶴公園→AIRY
【参加方法】大きな風船(雲)を操りながらいっしょに歩きましょう!
*天候により時間が変更になる場合があります。
Kofu is a city boxed in by high mountains. The mountains trap the clouds leaving the residents of Kofu with no shade from the high afternoon sun; no relief from the tropical heat. In every direction, above the distant mountains, clouds are forming but they never make it closer than the horizon.
This weekend Canadian artists in residence Darren Rigo and Winnie Truong will present their piece “Partly Cloudy”. A small man made, helium filled cloud that will tour Kofu providing shade to its overheated pedestrians.
In recent years I have developed a body of work that generates a dialogue between beauty, hair and the drawn line through large-scale colored pencil drawings on paper. Focusing on the subject of hair, I imagine new possibilities for it beyond ornament, accouterment and environment. While my work captures the tensions between hair, beauty and the grotesque, my work also expresses personal feelings of ambivalence towards femininity and the female body. At the core of my practice, I view drawings as an equal balance of visual and visceral experience; a final product on paper and an immersive physical activity that takes place in the artist’s studio during production.
MENU:
Welcome drink Yamanashi wine
*Somtam (Thai style spicy salad)
*Saiuwa(Chaing mai sausage)
*Nem(Thai style raw sausage)
*Nem Nuong(Nha Trang raw spring roll)
*Bánh xèo(Vietnam style pancake)
*Matsaman Curry (Southern Thai coconut curry
membership fee: 1500yen /per person, limit 10 people
<introduction>
MIO: Mio Negishi/ Saitama Japan (ln charge of cooking)
Japan south Alps Hirogawara hut staff.
Stay in Thailand, learning about food and Thai traditional massage.
Winnie: Winnie Truong / Canada Toronto, rough sketch and animation winnietruong.com (In charge of table setting and coordinate.
miniature garden & cut out performance)
My art speaks of language, words and their meaning.
Now more than ever language had the possibility of moving and exploring the world. The speed in which it’s moving leads us inevitably to shortening or creating new words. There are words that have existed for a moment, and didn’t had the possibility of being displayed in a column of a dictionary.
Thus words change, mutate in order to give a name to the ephemeral news of one day and this count for each language.My work consist in finding old words, those abandoned in the deep of memory and to do so I use the most effective of all languages: the one of images.
Once I’ve understood the meaning of a word, I translate it in image by using my personal interpretation, which originate from personal experiences, facts happening around me, news and history. An important role is played by words of books and tales that I transcribe in my illustrations.
The method I use to realize my work is engraving. It represents the old discovery that allowed a fastener spread of words and images. Using this old technique in these modern time is a provocation to the power of technology, is a return to craftsmanship. The choice of using this ancient method lies in its old fascination, and in its aesthetic beauty.
Even though it seems that nowadays life is dominate by an unlimited vortex of news and upgrades, my intent is to slow down and for once deepen the meaning of at least one single word.
Margherita will present 7 T-shirts in this exhibition @ Fusetsu Cafe & Gallery
August 13-21
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Margherita serves as a lecturer of “Stamp Workshop”@ Itokara
August 21
http://itokara.com/
@Itokara
@Itokara
@Itokara
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Margherita & Giulia Exhibition
★margherita Pailetti/マルゲリータ・パオレッティ(マギー)
My Japan’s point of view
This project is a very small point of view of Japan culture, it includes the experiences that I’ve done travelling around and here in Kofu. Day by day I’ve been collecting thoughts and feelings about this culture in order to transform them in visual language. The meaning of my illustrations is grounded in a satirical context, I took everyday aspects of Japan culture and I’ve changed their point of view in an almost surrealistic way.
My artistic work circulates around body experience, psychical boundaries and femininity. I am interested in private spaces, touch, emotions and senses. The driving force is the tension between disgust and beauty, fantasy and reality. I’m working with soft materials such as sugar, wax, perfume and cosmetics, finding ways of elaborating raw or refined materials into new compounds. The objects, installations are in between the finished and unfinished. They move between beauty and ugliness, clean and dirty and among categories. I want to push the material into different borders, not necessary the extremes.
【出張AIR】SANTAFE SHOES x AIRY
[Soft Sculptures for beds]
2016.08.13(sat)-14(sun) 15:00-20:00
Giulia Cairone / italia, sweden www.giulia.cairone.se
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“Soft sculptures for beds”
for humid nights and days
to collect salty sweat
to try the first kiss
for lonely phone days
to relax
for those times when I think of mars red
and I want to eat a peach in my bed
to sleep on and dream ocean dreams of
wet floating creatures and soft seaweed
During my staying at Airy I’ve been working on two projects inspired by overseas distances, the climate in the area of Yamanashi, the Japanese gift culture and futons. The first project Soft Sculptures for beds, involves the use of fabric and paint materials connected to beds and soft things in general. It’s an ongoing project that I previously showed in Santa Fe shoes. The long distance project was realized thanks to eight artists that responded my invitation. I asked the artists to make a thing for me according to specific instructions. Below you can see the invitation I sent to the artists.
This is an invitation and a wish to collaborate. A passionate admiration for your work. A reminiscence of the things you’ve done. I’m writing from Kofu in Japan. I have a small apartment here in Kofu, a working space and a rooftop that I sometimes climb. I will show your art piece here in the place where I stay. In response to your work, I will send you a gift.
Participating artist: Sara Elggren Sandra Leandersson Katarina Nord Sanna Laaban Ylva Frick Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir Malena Norlin Linnea Norén
2つのプロジェクトを発表します。
「Soft sculptures for beds」は山梨周辺の気候と布団に関するもので、 ベッド周りの柔らかいものに接続される布と塗料材料の使用を含みます。8月13,14日に甲府市内の靴店「サンタフェ」のウィンドで展示した制作が継続しています。
「The long distance project」は私の招待に応えた8名のアーティストのおかげで実現しました。私の具体的な指示に従い制作するようにお願いして、海外で遠距離に住む8名のアーティストがそれに応えました。以下がその招待状です。
dance / choreography / graphic design / videography / print making / performance and installation
residency July 2016
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シャーロット・ベーカー&ジョシュア・ヒュース・ゲームス
イギリス
ダンス・振り付け・グラフィックデザイン・ビデオ撮影・版画・パフォーマンスとインスタレーション
2016年7月滞在
Charlotte Baker
Joshua Hughes-Games
Charlotte and Joshua have been collaborating over the past year exploring the meeting point of contemporary dance, performance, mark making and expressive graphic design. During the crossover of our independent disciplines they have experimented in the realms of painting, film, dance, printmaking, language and sound. During their research they have repeatedly come back to the sensations surrounding arriving and departing and from this they have focused on the idea of ‘home’. Evaluating the situations, paraphernalia and landscapes that form people’s concept of their identity as well as the personal affects that shape their beings. From January 2016 they will be creating new work across a number of countries exploring the different versions of ‘home’ that they can find, looking for local collaboration and exploring their own notions of comfort and transience.
Charlotte is a dancer and choreographer who has toured with a number of highly renowned artists and companies including Ben Wright, Colin Poole, Frauke Requardt, Mystery Skin and Fleur Darkin Company. She has performed and taught dance internationally and is currently focusing on developing her own artistic endeavours and choreographies. Charlotte uses the articulation and physicality of the body as her inspiration and develops her work though intensive research and body-led movement.
Joshua is largely based around print and filmmaking with a focus on analogue techniques and labour intensive design practises including silk-screen printing, Lithogrpah and experimental filmmaking. He has worked in-depth with a wide range of artists with the fields of dance, theatre and music to create videos, installation pieces and printed matter. He tries to base his work at the meeting point of disciplines as he finds this to be the place he works most creatively and intuitively.
The main aim of their project would be to instigate collaboration and conversation regarding the concept of ‘Home’. The research objective would be to explore local nuances relevant to our surrounding including audio, movement and ephemera to then interpret these through a variety of creative approaches.
My work is inspired by the moment of awakening evoked by the experience of empathy or a sublime encounter.The set of routines and standards of everyday life in any society can prevent one from seeing past them.Such experiences have the ability to bring about an objective inquiry leading to the process of discovering, learning, and evolving.My art practice addresses this matter or attempts to induce this questioning by presenting artworks which can be interpreted as tools that, without taking an explicit position, offer an alternative perspective.While referring to the quotidian, these apparatuses have elements of mystery and phenomena.Often taking on aspects of interaction or intervention, I try to make my artworks accessible and authentic to bring about moments of self-awareness.
The nature of my origins and personal identity are the main subject of this work. Born from a Québécois mother and Japanese-born father in Canada, I was raised with a conflicting sense of cultural belonging. The artworks presented in this exhibition come from my desire to associate with an existant cultural group and the exploration of my current state as a half Japanese, half french Canadian person. The opportunity to work as a resident at AIRY in Kofu, Yamanashi allowed me to learn more about my Japanese heritage and the historical and socio-cultural aspects of being a Japanese individual.
The sculptures and drawings I have produced during my stay are metaphors and self-portraits I give new meaning to the objects that shape our everyday surroundings by using symbols that are references to Japanese culture (Shoji screens, Uchiwa fan, traditional geisha portraits) incorporating themes of time, appearance and identity (hourglass, mirrors). These conceptual works highlight the similarities and differences of both cultures while painting a portrait of my life and that of others finding themselves in a similar situation.
Rituals often involve repetitive movements, gestures, or phrases. Through ritual and repetition a connection is made between one world and another. In my artwork I use repetition to connect to the Green Bay Packers. The objects I create are meditations on these icons I create. By spending countless hours on obsessive detail, an artwork is transformed into importance by the time and dedication spent to make it. My artwork investigates the phenomenon of ritual to elevate a mundane action, be it religious, personal, or artistic, into something imbued with importance.
Craft is often something seen on the fringes of art. Something that is a hobby or that a grandmother does in her spare time. I am interested in the intersection between craft and fine art, but also fine art and sports. I am genuinely passionate about all those things, and often find myself in the middle of two worlds that seem like such opposites. In my work, I try to melt these opposites into one and consider the often times grey area these works occupy.
Growing up in Wisconsin, the Packers were a cultural institution that I pay close attention to the happenings of. Through my indoctrination as a Packers fan I instantly became part of a larger institution of other fans. It’s comforting to know that I belong to something larger than myself. I find it fascinating that people who may have seemingly nothing in common or may have never bothered to communicate to one another can form bonds over such simple things. My artwork, in part, examines the desire of most people to be part of a larger community.
My practice features performance, video, installation (light sculpture), and printmaking (mainlyengraving on rubber sheet). The subjects I work on are often related to “globalization affecting
everyday lives”. I use my personal experience as well as social observations to reflect on how globalization can influence a person’s identity and culture. Everyday we are bombarded with
cultural imagery like media, Internet, advertising. This has made me reflect on how our environment shapes us as much as we shape it.
My most recent work, which I made while studying in Edinburgh, is a reproduction of the room where the panda bear lives in Edinburgh Zoo. I am interested in discussing the context of man-built environments being relocated, as in the case of the zoo imitating an animal’s natural habitat. All the objects in the room I made were built with cardboard and exhibited with a loop video so that the audience could physically experience being inside the panda’s room. Simultaneously, the video creates an illusion between humans and animals. Through my work, I analyze how identity is not just about finding where we came from; it’s the process of discovering our position in the world and how we adapt to it.
Japanese culture has had great influence in Taiwan since the period of Japanese occupation. Even nowadays, Taiwan is a fusion of Japanese and Chinese culture. I am particularly interested in the subject matter of finding the visible and invisible connections between the two countries, from lifestyle and language to the core cultural values. As I often work on hand-made paper sculpture and
video, I hope to get the opportunity to immerse myself in local culture with AIRY residency and to further expand my artistic knowledge and skills.
The Reason Love Kofu – “ 1 to 1 Pop-up Drawing Workshop”
I have been painting Kofu city’s portrait since March, when I first began my artist residency at AIRY. Given my background as an artist born in Taiwan, I was drawn to Japan to reflect on my countries shared architectural history. I have focused on the link between the streets and shops in Taiwan and the nostomania shops and alleyways in Japan’s Showa Era, which still to this day are evident in Kofu’s streets. I am attracted to the pure and singular drive in Japanese buildings towards simplicity and how that echoes the countries culture.
I would like to invite people who live in Kofu city to join me and pick a place to draw alongside me, in Kofu. By engaging in this project, you will create an opportunity to share knowledge and expand my understanding of local culture and be able to represent what you regard as important and valuable in this city.
The place can be outdoor or indoor, daytime or nighttime, from landscape to street life. Ideally, the workshop should take no more than 1 hour, it can be flexible depending on the participant.
I will provide a 27x22 cm canvas board and pencil. If participants have any mediums they prefer to use, it is also welcome.
The drawings will be exhibited in Kofu City Hall on the last week of May. And a short personal introduction of the participants will be included.
Workshop Time : 20 April- 15 May (9:00 AM – 24:00 PM), free fee
Hannah Dinsdale Robson graduated from University of Brighton, UK in 2014 and lives and works in London. Since graduating she has been exhibiting in and around London and has recently finished the Organhaus International Artist Residency, Chongqing, China.
Through installation and wall-based work she uses textiles, painting, photography and objects to explore scenes of leisure, work and modern lifestyles. Interested particularly in forms and representations of objects, she explores ideas surrounding ‘taste’ and authenticity. Art works often incorporate gestures of decorative art and craft, exploring their origins and importance.