ZAIM, Yokohama, Japan

I remember seeing a sculpture of a voluptuous Korean woman with a potato in her hand called "Abundant Potatoes." It was at the Mori Art Center for a show called "Happiness" and the piece was made by the artist Kim Chul-Eok from the DPRK at the height of a famine1,2.

The topic was quite nebulous but it allowed visitors to see interpretations of happiness by different artists (some paid for by the government to speak on their behalf). The last piece was Yoko Ono's "Mend," which is a set of broken cups the visitors can glue, tape or tie back together. There are small joys and big joys and we cannot judge someone else's happiness or desires as false at face value.

So in this way an exhibition about peace will not stick to one person's definition of peace, and if it did then all the images would be bountiful harvests. A good show would venture into the questions raised by the critics of "peace", whether intellectually or more holistically. The difficulty of pinning it down verbally makes is a prime subject for visual art, too.

Maybe the show was a bit disjointed because it wasn't curated. Instead it was a project by artists. That's why ZAIM was perfect, the place looked like an artist's studio. It was like a giant collaboration between all kinds of creative people using photography as a medium. The danger of curating a show about peace is it could easily become someone's soapbox. And this surely wasn't - since everybody has a piece they think is off topic. In my mind this means it was successful.

２００８年7月29日ー8月8日
ART COURT GALLERY

I had the opportunity to show more photographs from The Metamorphosis of Spaces at Art Court this summer. Art Court is the largest privately run contemporary art gallery in Kansai.

Usually I'm shooting installation shots for Art Court, that's why I knew the angle of this installation image even before I framed the artwork.

２００８年６月４日ー６月３０日

All the photographs in this series were taken in or just around Takashima City in Shiga Prefecture. What sparked my interest originally were two ideas. One, that this was the city where my in-laws live and I was just beginning to discover it as a Westerner, completely new to the life here in Japan. I thought that if I went out and photographed it I'd learn more. Two, the city was recently formed from five small towns and one village; perhaps signalling an end to the quiet life here.


＜日本語訳＞
このシリーズにある作品の全ては滋賀県高島市周辺で撮影されたものである。
そもそもこのシリーズを始めたきっかけには二つの考えがあった。ひとつには義理の家族が住む場所で、欧米人として全く新しい日本の生活を発見し始めていた時であり、写真に撮ることによって、自分自身色々なことを学ぶことができると思ったからである。二つめとしてこの市が近年６町村が合併したということ。おそらくここにある平穏な生活シーンに変化が見られるかもしれないと感じたことである。

The Geopolitical Eveningwear series at PRINZ from January to February, 2008. The series has thirteen photographs in it right now but it will be added to as time goes on. Most of these images haven't been exhibited before. You can see all the images in detail in this posting's tags.