The exhibited works are not the only works, and I think that human beings have lives before they make art, and their daily lives are full of creativity. I am very interested in what kind of moment the artist will be inspired by the life. I’m interested in artist-in-residence because I find the process of creating work interesting. And it may not be enough from the length of stay this time what kind of place Kofu is, where the inspiration is studded, but I hope I can get to know even a little.
This project can be called as interactive mobile drawing project. Ideally, the canvas goes to many spaces in the city and people paint or draw on the canvas. There is no rule for putting color. Painting over Gaku Okata’s drawing is what this project wants. In this corona pandemic, we easily become anxious. If this project distract people’s mind from anxiety for a bit, it would be great.
The monster’s mind is full of anxiety and fear. Circle of negativity doesn’t stop. The wings of the monster is connected to its mind so it cannot fly. It decided to go on a journey to find something that can calm its mind. As it thought, the world was messed up. Many things happen simultaneously. Emotions of people and things are everywhere around. It is so hard to find out which emotion is whose, and who feels what. Candy is what the monster is looking for. It always makes it feels better. It found candy and put in the mouth. It was subtly sweet and distract the monster from chaos of its mind. The wings are recovered. The monster decided to fly a little.
無観客ライブペイント by Gaku Okata大方 岳 ５月２０日＠AIRY５月２１日＠AIRY５月２２日＠AIRY①５月２３日＠AIRY②５月２５日＠荒川河川敷
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.
