Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Glamour & snow

The opening of 2 big shows at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo showed us that some things are the same wherever in the world you are! Except the previews ended with the serving of Japanese whiskey (darker and sweeter than Scotch) and started with lengthy translated speeches of thanks. It was nice to meet the incredible array of expats at the preview - from collagen-enhanced Italian publishers, to an Aussie art journalist who told me that Tapies was a ' really interesting young spanish artist'.
As at home a large unruly crowd of us made our way to an Indian restaurant having drunk to much, and I sat next to a curator called Ong Keng Sen who was fresh from a project at the ICA in London. The naan was good but the rice - being traditional Japanese - was slightly odd.

http://www.mori.art.museum/html/eng/index.html

Yesterday was spent travelling to Sendai with our hosts Kate and Kata - including more delicious sushi and a visit to an inspiring futuristic 'mediatheque' incl. library and gallery - and then to iwate where they live. Driving snow greeted us!


travel

Saturday, March 26, 2005

International & intergalactic harmony

Since returning to Tokyo I have got rid of my jetlag and several hundred pounds – the latter in ‘Big Camera’, a massive strip-lit technology store that - despite its equally massive savings – came close to my idea of hell.
Yesterday was spent mainly at AIT (art initative tokyo) with a group of San Francisco CCA curatorial students who had been in the city a week with Kate Smith – a curator who used to work in the UK. They introduced a whole load of Californian artists and then the day broadened to include a very diverse group of ‘others’ and that included me. Each speaker had just 5 minutes – signalled by a crowing alarm clock – to present their work, so it was pretty dynamic! Of interest – in extreme brief - were:
ACC (Autonomous cultural centre) – Weimar / Germany
Peter Bellers – Uk artist based in Tokyo –& Command N project
Makimato Masato – Akhibara TV – use of all the front window TVs in stores in city’s electronics district
The Common Room, Indonesia

We also hooked up with expat Kate Fowler & her Japanese husband who will accompany us to Iwate for most of next week and are incredibly helpful networkers. Today too much time was spent at the Mori Centre (built by uncle of japanese uber artist Mariko Mori – not starving in a garret there then) where the big cahuna art centre is, director is from the UK – Peter Elliott. It appears to be within a Dubai-style shopping mall but the shops are dull and scattered throughout in a random way – the highlight was the garden where some fish that appear to be related to one that went into space (?!) on one of the shuttles – have been deposited into the pond as an act of intergalactic harmony (very important to the japanese).

The day ended at Haranjuku, which to align with Camden Market in London would be a little unfair but it is comparable in crowds and average age.
BUT instead of an overall goth-theme (though it appears) there’s a pink lolita theme and the streets include yet more megoliths of consumerism – our favourite (obviously) was called The Forest, where Adam happily had his photo taken with a glamourous transvestite.
Other highlights included:
The puppy shop – very sad very small dogs in striplit capsules – average price £600
A fancy dress shop for pets – in the window a bee costume for small dogs
Personal ashtrays which smokers use here - a kind of portable metal envelope for your ash
Some very lovely kimono wearers – I am a convert
tranny
puppies
kimono

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Mountain air that smells of eggs

I have been unable to exceed five hours of nocturnal sleep since arriving in Japan but have high hopes for tonight based on my recent consumption of a washing up bowl of soporific ramen noodles.

But I did want to blog before bed-time as so much has happened. Adam and I are just back from Hakone, 90 minutes on the ‘romance train’ (a species of bullet train) from Tokyo. It’s a place billed as ‘no must sees’ in the guidebooks and therefore a must-see for Adam and I, jaded from our years if living in ‘the most beautiful part of England.tm’. Hakone is famed for its hot springs, which I’ll cover later, and appears to be a rather charming ‘something for everyone’ kind of tourist resort – we’re talking a Begonia Museum - clinging onto various mountainous precipices and even in mid-week March, popular. It’s the home of the Hakone Open Air Museum, an old skool sculpture park, whose former director Adam had charmed in the Grizedale drizzle a few years back. The old school tie network of international sculpture parks meant that Mr Matsimura and Mrs Noda – whose park is funded by the Fuji empire – were happy to return the favour many times over, and we spent today with them sampling the incredible density of amusements on offer - from eggs cooked in the sulphurous steam of the local volcano (eggy smell / ergo eat eggs – what’s that about?!) - to a clotted cream tea at the colonial Fuyima Hotel, a Shinto shrine plus – in the inclusive Japanese spirit - a Buddha carved into a rockface.

We were very generously accomodated in the Park’s own club, a rather classy late 60’s affair, very stylish despite the bizarre Japanese versions of mid-century European art. Vast windows looked out onto exquisite Hokusai-esque forests, and closer the the building were tiny courtyards of traditional Japanese plantings – including the seasonal cherry trees. I squeezed in 2 traditional Japanese baths – one reluctantly this morning at 5 due to jetlag – and one last night. In both I was alone, though they are usually communal experiences where you wash first and then join the deep, wood and stone bath for a very very hot soak. In Hakone these baths are heated naturally by the hot springs, and a water level window looks onto an exquisite private courtyard. It was sublime and I am now wondering if I could fit one in at home.
Perhaps the most exciting thing was the dining, which took place in an epic room with very groovy 60’s carpeting, James Bond-esque picture windows, and a soundtrack of late 50’s Western pop.
On arrival for dinner our places were already set with a seasonal array of incredible creations – probably 15 separate dishes – and this was only one half of what was to follow in a succession of pots, dishes and trays. The artfulness is almost impossible to describe and each flavour was distinct, some fragrant and moist, some austere. Our hosts seemed genuinely delighted at our enthusiasm for the food, more so at breakfast when we devoured a traditional Japanese breakfast of rice, pickles and fish to the strains of the Everley Brothers and polite smalltalk about driving in England (actually that’s a crap description as noone can ‘devour’ such delicate foo, at least not with my chopstick skills). After dinner we retired to chat in a traditional tatame room, which save for the passive smoking and my jetlag, was a very enjoyable chance to talk cats with our host (he had a persian that looked like Catherine Deneuve and we discussed how to prevent them from ruining the tatame) and witness the endearing giggliness and natural warmth of the Japanese.

The Museum itself is located against a breathtaking natural backdrop, but is dominated by vast works by generally obscure 20th century sculptors. I found myself more interested in the tree-training structures all over the garden. The collection is still growing under Fuji’s patronage but the impression is of a tourist experience rather than an art one. However, this isn’t to denigrate it, as it as fascinating to visit not only the park but the other cultural sights locally with Mr Matsimura and Mrs Yoda – and to witness an attitude to cultural consumption so different from our own – one perhaps of a kind of casualness – which at its worst, in the UK, we see as camera snapping hordes of Japanese tour groups – but in fact one can interpret as consumerism akin to any other practiced here.


Friday, March 18, 2005

Well, it's a start

Let's start a great British blog with a weather report:
Though visability from my mountain-top home has been zero for the last 4 days, I managed to spot the first daffodil in bloom this year in my garden - as I reversed out of my drive at typical break neck speed to start the first leg of my journey to Japan via St Martin's in Lancaster where I teach.

Here at college things are busy - I'm remembering why I don't generally do holidays. It's so much easier just to keep working than to explain to students over and over that no, they can't expect feedback on their dissertation draft 27 whilst you are on the shinkansen to Kyoto next week - 'Please see Oxford English Dictionary' for definition of 'holiday'.
On the plus side, I have set up some good meetings to drive forward lots of iniatives at the start of next term - Kate Brundrett, the coordinator or the Cumbria Artist's Network - is coming to talk about the Fred arts festival in October this year - and if / how we can get our spanking new gallery here on campus involved. Also keeping up with the 'Business and Community Enterprise Unit' here, which seems to be one of the few areas of College with funding which just might be useful in getting a gallery programme of the ground. Also have secured two young artists - Jonathan Griffin and Oliver Lamb - to come to talk to and (I hope) inspire our 3rd yr art students about life after art school. So few of the art students here have any aspirations to make a career out of what they're studying, it's tragic. Both Jonathan and Oliver are still making work despite being in unsteady economic circumstances - so I am hoping that they will be both realistic and motivational.

Jez (the other half of the embryonic -i.e still recruiting - BA New Media Arts programme here (see www.ucsm.ac.uk/cme/) and I are supposed to be generating stage 2 of the afore-mentioned website over the next month, but we keep getting swamped by more urgent-feeling stuff - ergo I feel very chuffed with getting this blog going - a small step in the right direction....