北九州未来創造芸術祭 ART for SDGs

Space World Station Square

CHOI Jeong Hwa

Colorful balloon sculptures of fruits and vegetables appear in the plaza in front of Space World Station, named after the now-closed Space World theme park. With a steady stream of air, the sculptures feel alive and vibrant. The fruits and vegetables here are the blessings of nature that can only be cultivated in a good global environment. Air is what gives these large sculptures their shapes, which is an essential element in the environment no matter where you are in the world. It reminds the audience of the existence of the atmosphere and brings attention to climate change. Life is only sustainable thanks to nature and a stable global environment. This striking, colorful pop art will create an opportunity to encourage people to appreciate our Earth and look toward nature once again.

Gardening

2021

INTRODUCTION

Born in 1961 in Korea, where he currently resides, Choi graduated from the Hongik University Department of Painting. One of Korea’s most dynamic and accomplished contemporary artists, Choi was selected to represent the Korean Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (Italy, 2005) and has also participated in international art festivals in Liverpool, Sydney, Taipei, and Lyon. He also served as art director for the opening and closing ceremonies at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. He creates extraordinary sculptures of ordinary things such as flowers, clouds, and the sky with intense colors and dynamic shapes, encouraging us to reconsider the nature of reality from new and unexplored perspectives. His major exhibitions include Roppongi Art Night 2019 (Tokyo, Japan) and the solo exhibition Blooming Matrix (Gyre Gallery, Tokyo, 2019).

Higashida Blast Furnace 1

Akari-Lisa ISHII

Lighting designer. Born in Tokyo in 1971. After studying fine arts and design and training in pioneer lighting design firms in US, Japan, and France, Ishii founded I.C.O.N. in 2004. Based in Paris and Tokyo, I.C.O.N. realizes a wide range of lighting design projects all over the world as an expert in urban space, architecture, interior, event, museum, and stage lighting. Besides, Ishii is active in painting, giving talks and writing as well. Her representative works include Japonismes 2018 Eiffel Tower Special Light-up, Kabuki Theater, Pompidou Center Metz, Colosseum Light Messages, Perfumes Christian Dior Champs-Elysée store, Festival of Lights in Lyon and more.

Major honors:
Member of French and international lighting designers’ associations (ACE & IALD)
Author of Iconic Light (Kyuryudo) etc. Winner of many international awards, including "Award of Excellence" IES, "Grand prix of Lighting design" ACE, Recylum Trophy Lyon Festival of Lights etc.
Selected among the 120 most representative women of Japan by Bungeishunju
Member of Committee for reflection on tourisme promotion of Tokyo
Member of Brand Advisory Group for 2020 Tokyo Olympics

LIGHT X (light cross)

2021

INTRODUCTION

The towering blast furnace is a powerful symbol of the history of the Higashida area. At 70-meters-high, it paved the way for Japan's modernization and still stands tall today. In this work, the furnace is transformed into a giant, colorful light art installation that looks back on the history of Kitakyushu, expresses power of the city today, and its development to the future. The lights will be partially powered by the latest technologies in hydrogen energy, symbolically visualizing a solution to environmental issues. A video of the installation includes an original soundtrack to accompany this dramatic lighting performance will be available online. A spectacle of light will be repeated every five minutes every night.

Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery ＆ Studio

Keio SFC Hiroya Tanaka Lab. + METACITY (Ryuta AOKI)

Keio SFC Hiroya Tanaka Lab.
(Hiroya TANAKA, Yasuo NAGURA, Shin AOYAMA, Meg KAWAI, Moriyasu CHINEN, Nanaka MATSUKI, Mayuki OMURA)
Keio SFC Hiroya Tanaka Lab. pioneers in developing the cutting-edge technology that explores digital fabrication and possibilities of 3D/4D printing from a design engineering point of view. Its graduates are active in establishing design tech venture firms. Currently, the lab centers on the invention and development of "special modeling techniques", the archiving of the "design language", and the imagination and creation of "the vision of space and life of the future cities."

METACITY (Ryuta AOKI)
METACITY is a research team exploring forms of "possible city" through thought experiments and prototyping. METACITY collaborates with The TEA-ROOM, an art collective of the teaism, magazine "WIRED", engineer group CARTIVATOR, and Keio SFC Hiroya Tanaka Lab. in a number of projects. There are around forty members are active in the team currently.

Bio Sculpture

2021

INTRODUCTION

This collaborative project between METACITY and Hiroya Tanaka's laboratory at Keio University’s Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) explores social sculpture for a new anthropocene. It includes an ecological system that employs several natural materials which have been 3D-printed as new shapes and structures using digital technology. In recent years, global warming has increased forest fires and other catastrophes worldwide, which can incinerate and destroy diverse ecosystems in an instant. The group transplants soil components collected from deep in the forest into the urban space and tries to visualize its potential in this new environment, which they call a new “vessel.” The vessel is pleated and made with akadama—or red ball earth—and rice husks, while nine different types of moss are planted on the surface. It is designed to regulate temperature, humidity, CO2, and air pollution autonomously. The group says that the work will only truly be complete when the soil that they have collected is activated inside, and the invisible forest ecosystem that resides within the vessel manifests itself in new ways.
One of the works has been relocated to the courtyard of the “Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery ＆ Studio” for display. (As of February 2022)

Rhizomatiks

Rhizomatiks pursues new possibilities in technology and expression, working primarily on experimental projects with a strong research and development focus. The company oversees every step of a project, from operations to hardware and software development, exploring the relationship between people and technology while conducting their R&D projects and productions. Through their collaborations with other artists and researchers from outside the company, Rhizomatiks continues to push the cutting edge of creative expression. Their large-scale solo exhibition rhizomatiks_multiplex is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

TT

2021
Industrial robot provision and technical support: YASKAWA Electric Corporation

INTRODUCTION

Since its establishment, Rhizomatiks has constantly been reexamining the relationship between people and technology, creating works that pursue new possibilities in technology and art. For the festival, they present a video work in collaboration with Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a world leader in industrial robots based in Kitakyushu. Two-dimensional shadows are created by a pair of light sources and objects in front of the audience. The shadows are cast by a precision robot arm that moves geometric objects shaped from the poses of dancers taken with a 3D scanner. It is a primitive attempt to examine light and shadow, the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional, human movement and robot movement, and the relationship between them.

Ei WADA

Artist/musician. Born in 1987 in Tokyo. Lives in Tokyo. Ei Wada began working as an artist and musician while still a student, occupying a space between music and the visual arts. In 2009, he formed Open Reel Ensemble, a group that performs live music using instruments fashioned from vintage reel-to-reel tape machines. That same year, he won the Japan Media Arts Festival's Excellence Award in the Art Division for his musical performance art piece Braun Tube Jazz Band, in which CRT TVs were used as instruments. His work has been presented in concert and at exhibitions and events around the world, including Ars Electronica and Sónar. He has also contributed music to the unveilings of collections from ISSEY MIYAKE in Paris on 11 separate occasions. In 2015, Wada launched ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS!, a musical ensemble project in which old electrical appliances are brought back to life as new electromagnetic musical instruments. For this ongoing project, Wada won the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's New Artist Award in 2017.

BARCODE-BOARDING

2021
BARCODE-BOARDING / BARCODE-PARK Co-creation team：Ei WADA × Kitakyushu Skateboard Association × NISHINIPPON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Musical instrument production support: Hideki TANAKA, Nicos Orchest-Lab, Shiro YAMAMOTO
Skateboard development support: UMIE+NEWOLD
FINGERBOARD SKATE SECTION provision: NUKENUKE CHACCARI
Kokura-ori textitle provision: KOKURA SHIMA SHIMA INC.

INTRODUCTION

Wada produces performances that combine old electronic appliances with modern technology to create new musical instruments and ways of playing them. In this work, he creates a new world that combines street culture and engineering. In collaboration with local skateboarders, he uses technology to recycle obsolete and off-the-shelf appliances into an electronic sound system, offering a new way to enjoy skateboarding in the process. A modified barcode laser is attached to the bottom of a skateboard, and as the skateboard moves across a skate park covered with striped patterns, the reader scans the barcode-like patterns to generate electronic sounds. The skaters bring their wild street skating spirit to the venue as sounds echo throughout the park. Both locals and visitors alike are able to participate, allowing for improvisational sound performances for whoever happens to be present at that moment.

Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History

Yoichi OCHIAI

Media Artist. Born in 1987 in Tokyo. Lives in Tokyo. Received his Ph.D. in Applied Computer Science from the University of Tokyo, the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. Associate Professor at University of Tsukuba, Director of Research and Development Center for Digital Nature. Exploring the boundaries in "End to End Transformation of Material Things", exploring the boundaries between images and materials, nature and computers, and freely crossing the boundaries of computer science, applied physics, and media arts.

Major exhibitions and honors:
Image and Matter, Kuala Lumpur, 2016
Sehnsucht Nach Masse, Tokyo Amana Square, 2019
Reminiscence of the Unknown, in Shibuya, 2020
World Technology Award 2015
the Prix Ars Electronica 2016
the STARTS Prize from the EU 2016
Laval Virtual Award 5 times for 4 consecutive years until 2017
2019 SXSW Creative Experience ARROW Awards and more.

Perspective of Umwelt　- Time and Space, Digital Nature and Arts –

2021
3D Phantom Provision: Life is Style Inc.

INTRODUCTION

Using the keyword “Transformation of Material Things in Digital Nature,” Yoichi Ochiai has continued to explore the transition between computers and nature resulted from their seamless relationship. For the festival, he shot high-resolution images of items in the vast collection of the Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History. In addition, using a new media device created to project the images, he depicts the magnificent story of life in Kitakyushu with various media that will envelop and enrapture the audience. Weaving between the ancient and modern, micro and macro, artificial and natural, and digital and analog, he poses big questions such as: “what is this age in which we live?” “What does the uninterrupted history of life mean? ” which explores issues including the relationships between humanities and science, and between the earth and sustainability, from an umwelt (German: the world around) point of view.

Colors and Circles

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

I am thinking about the cycle of information and material processes created by living organisms and returned to minerals over hundreds of millions of years. When we go beyond the paradigms of nature and artificiality, and sustainable development for humanity, what is the nature of human existence as seen from a panoramic view of the cycles between living and non-living things, information and matter, and mass and non-mass nature? Isn't it the perspective of nature itself that we must reinvent?

Perspective of a fishhook

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

I was wandering around in the storage room. While I was looking at the various objects excavated from the ancient tombs, I came across a fish hook. I was reminded of the ancient people who fished for marine mammals in the ancient sea. The surface material has deteriorated over the years to the point where it is difficult to distinguish it from either a mineral or an artifact, but I wondered what the physical sensation was of a tool that I could still call a hook when I saw its shape. While dropping the fishing line of my thoughts, I would like to take a panoramic view of the stories presented by the objects and illustrate the umwelt of us.

Buddhist Time Capsule

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

I think it's a lovely habit of mankind to think that the world is coming to an end. In every age, mankind has tried to end the world. Whether it's in the Cold War, the energy crisis, the limits to growth, or the Doomsday Clock, the world is always trying to end with the image of the last day. I think this habitually lack of progress is the beautiful circularity of humanity. When faced with the end, people try to cling to something eternal. Each person has their own idea of what eternity is. Religion, art, science and technology, and the future are all just the present that can be seen from here and now. I feel as if the rusty cylinders are telling us these things.

Eternal Cat

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

Cat's internal organs found while wandering through the immersion specimen. As I searched and collected them, I found digestive tracts, nervous systems, lungs, hearts, and various other things. If they've been standing as immersion specimens since the early Showa period, they've probably been in this world for about a hundred years, and they'll probably continue to stay in this world. The value of filling a tube with eternal things is beautiful. Though it has no corporeal body, no fur, no lovely claws, no fluffy tail, the imaginary cat may be eternal.

Asymmetry and Marine Mammals

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

I'm looking for the skull of a toothed whale while thinking about fish hooks . I wonder what kind of toothed whale the ancient people caught and ate. And on the other hand, what kind of conversations did the toothed whales have with people? I was pleasantly surprised by the asymmetry of the skull of a bottlenose dolphin I saw in the collection room. Our skeletons are symmetrical in many places, and many organisms are. However, when I look at the position of the holes in this skeleton, I realize that such common sense may be something that should be discarded. As I think about symmetry and asymmetry, I find myself beginning to think of it as both a musical instrument and a rock.

Between matter, value, and information

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

Silver coins of the Edo period. Size and weight are not clearly defined, so value is exchanged by measuring it on a scale. I feel that the relationship between matter, value, and information is shaken just by inserting natural forms into the value exchange process. It is artificial, yet not artificial, like a favorite of nature, yet not. It seems conceptual, but it is also concrete. The relationship between nature and value is questioned by an existence that is outside the framework of money as a symbol. I am looking at a silver coin that transcends physicality while considering the relationship between the principle of responsible investment and the physical object.

Universe ∽ Mirror ∽Digital Nature

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

When I look at the circuit boards used in electronic circuits, I sometimes feel nature and the universe. The expanse of cities and the perspective periodicity of man-made structures. In the storage room, I am looking at the patterns on a mirror made in China in BC. It is said that everything in the universe, surrounded on all sides, is represented here. Perhaps mirrors were the entrance to the massless nature for the ancient people. The mirrored world, described by light but without touch or smell, may have been enough to make them imagine another world. Even today, we are still searching for another world. The mirror world, the digital body, the mirror, the human behavior that periodically remakes the infrastructure while piling up various names is lovely.

Sculpture of Digital Nature

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

Looking at various subspecies of rod-shaped ammonites. Traces of life inseparable from the rock, sculpture of unified nature. The connection between computational science and natural science is beginning to emerge in various processes, as the line separating computing and biology is not so easy to find. What is the object of computer science?　If the object of natural science is the original nature, then the object of computer science is the super nature that should be called Digital Nature. This super nature lies on the information processes that organisms have developed. Fractals, Turing patterns, Perlin noise, adversarial generative networks, and other structures created by computatinal process are beautiful.

Perspective of the Umwelt

2021
Quartz, Semiconductor Laser, Motor, Iron

INTRODUCTION

I have been looking for a method of expression to express time and space, the near and the far, the past and the future in a coherent manner. I have been interested in point light sources for a long time, but it has been difficult to develop a point light source that is bright enough for display. If we can generate a tiny point light source with sufficient brightness, we can project both near and far films without lenses, and we can project near objects larger and far objects smaller across distances. In order to construct a circular projector that symbolizes this perspective and the umwelt, we developed a new point light source by focusing a semiconductor laser on the center of quartz. As I look at the rainbow spectrum and the circular collection, I am reminded of the memories of various creatures.

Metaphorical Body

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

As I wandered around the storage room, looking at the fossil of a toothed whale skull from various angles, I found an angle that made it look like a headless clay figurine. I am wandering between minerals and artifacts, between minerals and biological traces. What is the object of man's prayer in the spreading seas and rivers? We see our own transcendent beings in nature, interpret the world as we see fit, and construct a circular world. The way people worship something is beautiful. The intoxication of the overlap of each person's perceptions of the world, and the rituals and structures that result from that intoxication, are all part of the creation process of a lovely Digital Nature.

Perspective of a fishhook

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

Immersion and Waves

2021
LCD Display, immersion specimens

INTRODUCTION

In the immersion specimens in the repository, I saw a fusion of humanistic-historical and nature-related archives. The notes and labels inside the specimens stored as natural history materials left traces of the creators who cut out nature. They are fused together and submerged in liquid, wandering through eternity. Cats are still cats, coconut crabs are still coconut crabs, and human caecilians are still human caecilians, and the creators and parasites continue to remain even after they have decayed. The way the preservation of species is lined up in one place is a beautiful altar of death. The static altar of eternal death, lined up as a time capsule, is moved by images without mass.

Perspective of metallic luster

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

The body surface of insects is beautiful. From a distance, they look like jewels, and up close, they look like metal that has passed through time. When we look at insects beyond their body size, their bodies are so vivid that they transcend our awareness of death. This may be the entrance to the umwelt different from our own.

Festivals and Naturalization

2021
Archival Pigment Inkjet Print, Fabric, Aluminum Frame
1682 x 2378 mm

INTRODUCTION

When I look at the unearthed copper spears, their texture seems like the ocean or the vivid surface of the earth. It is beautiful to see the polished metal rusting and naturalizing over time. Up close, the texture looks like a landscape, and from a distance, it looks like a pattern made by living things, a landscape that transcends the boundary between man-made and natural objects.

Bones, Stones, or Earthenware

2021
Platinum Print

INTRODUCTION

They look like stones, bones, traces of life, or even earthenware. The nature observed by humans, and the "traces of life" and traces of stones that exist in nature. Looking beyond the distinction between man-made and natural, the task of tracing the traces of information in the environment, both living and non-living, arouses our curiosity.

immersion spells

2021
Platinum Print

INTRODUCTION

This is an immersion specimen of a cleft-headed tapeworm, in which a commentary is also immersed. It looks like a scripture, and the immersion container itself has been transformed into a kind of scripture cylinder. What was supposed to be a natural history material has become a human history material as well. I capture this scene with a platinum print.

Emotion and Money

2021
Platinum Print

INTRODUCTION

Looking at the coins bound together with string, one can feel the emotions of the people who collected them. When the coins are bundled together, you can feel the manners of the people who collected them, which you cannot feel from the historical data on each individual coin.

Bodies of Nature

2021
Platinum Print

INTRODUCTION

I created a platinum print of a snake skull that looks different depending on the angle from which it is viewed. Looking at nature from different perspectives is one of the pleasures of crossing the border between the humanities and nature.

The umwelt of life and death, between mass and massless nature

2021
Moving LED display, bone

INTRODUCTION

As I look at the bones of a short-finned pilot whale, I think about the ocean of conceptual information and the afterlife. Blurred memories, light and dark, life and death, matter and life, between the beginning and the end of the ring world. Digital Nature is a new nature, a fusion of massive and massless nature. It may be a world in which the living and the dead exist in equal measure. The form of birth may be digital or analog, and death may not be directly equivalent to the loss of the body. I drew through Kobiregondou, imagining this circular world.

ZHAN Wang

Born in Beijing, China in 1962; lives and works in China. Zhan is widely recognized as one of China’s leading contemporary artists today. In his work that primarily encompasses sculpture and installation, he challenges ideas of landscape and environment, addressing issues related to its urban, rural, artificial and industrial aspects. In addition to international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale（Chinese Pavilion, 2003） and major museums worldwide, Zhan created a series of outdoor “public” artworks from 2000 to 2004, including New Plan to Patch the Sky, Mount Everest, Inlay the Great Wall. He is best known for his stainless steel sculpture series titled “Artificial Rock” that adopts the motif of fantastically shaped rock formations, or the “scholars’ rocks,” of traditional Chinese gardens.

Artificial Rock A57

2006
Artificial Rock A57
90 x 60 x 74mm

INTRODUCTION

As one of China's most famous sculptors, Zhan Wang presents his Artificial Rock series as a modern reinterpretation of a tradition that reveres strangely eroded rocks, a custom that began in the gardens of the Song Dynasty. His method for recreating these rocks is to mold sheets of stainless steel around the surface of a traditional Chinese scholar’s rock to replicate the complexity of their textures, weld them together, and burnish their surfaces to create a sculpture in the same shape as the original rock. It is said that it takes about ten craftsmen a whole year to polish the stainless steel surfaces. Wang has used this same method to create many other odd-shaped rocks, both big and small, in stainless steel. He has also noticed the surroundings reflected on the surface of his works, which he has made into photographic works. His works truly encompass the major themes of nature and the environment.

Kitakyushu Environment Museum

Tomoco KAWAGUCHI, Tetsuro TASAKA, Kyungilu CHUNG

Tomoco KAWAGUCHI
Theatre Director. Born in 1983. Tomoco started her career as a director in 2008 and has launched many collaborative works which involved artists from different backgrounds in Asia, especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, also including musicians, dancers, film makers and traditional performing artists. Tomoco presented English playwright Sarah Kane’s extraordinary work “4.48 Psychosis” as a contemporary punk opera version in Tokyo and Kitakyushu, 2020. This theatre piece will be staged in oversea theatres. Tomoco also plans some further works, Asia multi-lingual theatre and Opera written by Yoko Tawada. A part-time Lecturer at Tokyo Gakugei University and Rikkyo University Graduate School of Social Design Studies.

Tetsuro TASAKA
Playwright, Actor. Born in Okinawa. Tetsuro founded a theatre company Hi-Uresenkei Venus (Non- Commercialized Venus) in 2003, based in Fukuoka. Also belongs to Public Channel. Tetsuro also incubates and launches mystery entertainments, including collaborations with Urinko Theatre in Aichi, Kasuga City Fureai Culture Center in Fukuoka. Tetsuro is now into Real Escape Game. A part-time lecturer at Kyushu Sangyo University and YMCA Kumamoto.

Kyungilu CHUNG
Art Manager/Producer. Born in 1986 in Kitakyushu. Fourth-generation Zainichi Korean living in Japan. Graduated from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. Since 2012, he has been involved in the operation of Edamitsu IRON THEATER, a privately-owned theater in Fukuoka Prefecture, where he was appointed director in 2013. He is mainly engaged in contemporary dance and visual art. Since 2013, he has organized and directed the Edamitsu street art festival, an annual outdoor dance event. Chung has been involved in various art projects, working with numerous dancers and companies in Japan and abroad.

Exhibition: Once, the Gods created a town: INTRODUCTION

How is a town formed, and how does it evolve? As “MachiCra,” we used a theatrical approach for 12 days of “Machitsukuri (town formation)” with 28 elementary school and junior high school students aged between 6 and 15 to think about town evolution from beginning to the end. The venue for the first 8 days was Edamitsu Honmachi Shotengai Irontheater, a small private theater located in the City of Kitakyushu. The children dressed up as Gods and Goddesses of of Machitsukuri, built houses, exchanged ideas with other gods, came to a deadlock in their decision-making process, and actually created a town that they thought was “amusing.” “Once, the Gods created a town” exhibition is an ongoing trial that started with the relocation of the gods’ environment museum (new land), remembering the path taken by the town and thinking about a more comfortable and livable community.

Higashida Oodoori Park

Akihito OKUNAKA

Artist. Born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1981. Lives in Kyoto Prefecture. Graduated from Faculty of Education, Shizuoka University, Okunaka is now the co-representative of AO Institute of Arts. He also directs the experience art course at Yamashiro Cultural Center in Kizugawa City, Kyoto Prefecture. Okunaka became an artist after his experience of working as an art-play instructor at the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art and social welfare facilities for people with intellectual disabilities, during which he learned about modern and contemporary thoughts alongside. He then took a long-term training at AIR program in France, South Korea, and China with the support of Nomura Foundation and The Asahi Shimbun Cultural Foundation and others. In Okunaka's early artistic career, he participated in regional art events around Japan. Gradually he developed as an artist who creates experiential large scale works and workshops.Besides, he also works as a curator of international art exhibitions, and art therapist for the community. Okunaka suggests a new perspective as an emerging artist through his comprehensive art activities.

Major exhibitions and honors:
LUXELAKES A4 Art Museum ARIE 2019 International Artists Residency Program
JPN and CHN, Contemporary Art Exhibition and Residency 2019 "Right Place, Right Work"
Nomura Foundation Art Grant
Rokko Meets Art 2017 Organizer Special Award
7th Moscow International Biennale Parallel Program "Yearning for The Sky"
Kawaguchi Art Gallery, ATLIA "AIR-REAL"
Kizugawa Art 2016 Grand Prix + Citizen's Award etc.

INTER-WORLD/SPHERE: The three bodies

2021
Cooperative enterprises: SUMIKASEKISUI FILM CO.,LTD., YAMASHIRO Culture Center (ASPIA YAMASHIRO), NAFCO Corporation, HOLOGRAM SUPPLY CO.,LTD.
Technical support: akira_you, Ken NAKAMURO, Yukiharu NISHIKAWA, Ken YOSHIKAWA, Takeshi FUJIKI

INTRODUCTION

Three translucent, iridescent oval balloons are installed on the lawn to create a massive, light, and transparent sculpture. The bubble-like structure is soft and resilient to the touch with an airy presence. A fantastical, closed-off space awaits those who enter the work, where faint ambient light spreads throughout. The entire work shakes with the movement of the person inside. Air is the medium for these sensations and movements, symbolic of the pollution caused by human activities. An increase in carbon dioxide is causing climate change on a global scale. Okunaka uses a specific art experience to visualize the otherwise invisible relationship between people and air and hints at the importance of global environmental protection.

Eiki DANZUKA

Fukeishi. Born in Oita Prefecture in 1963. Lives in Tokyo. Born on Onyu-jima, a small island in the Kuroshio Current, Danzuka was raised in the forest region where a clear fresh stream flowed. The virgin landscape he grew up in exerts a strong influence on his work. After finishing Kuwasawa Design School, he studied under Nobuo Sekine, an artist who represented the "Mono" school. Danzuka works on landscapes that connect time, space, and people both at home and abroad, emphasizing the sustainable process by which the creative activity itself returns to nature.

Major activities:
Visiting professor at Tama Art University
Part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts
Founder and supervisor of EARTHSCAPE
Major honors:
Cityscape Grand Prize and BCS Award in Japan
Green Good Design Award in the U.S. and many more

Medical Herbman Cafe Project

2021
Costume design: ANREALAGE
Café planning: HOO. Landscape and food works
Painting：JUN INOUE

INTRODUCTION

Eiki Danzuka travels to different areas to research their medicinal herbs, using them to create human-shaped herb gardens, which he has dubbed "medical herbman." In each region, he operates a café that serves herbal tea made from herbs collected from his garden, using the proceeds to fund the next herbman” adventure. Herbman will appear in different places and offer herbs upon request. This kind of cyclical programming is the spirit of the work. Danzuka learned about the wild medicinal herbs that grow in Higashida Oodoori Park and their benefits from local residents, after which he produced an herbman based on what he learned. Good health and well-being is one of the goals raised under the SDGs, so the herbal teas and dishes served at the cafe during the exhibition are meant to raise awareness of nature and the body. Additionally, “walking and crossing” is the theme of a 25-meter-long herbman that expresses a story that unfolds around the lives and changes of the people and birds associated with the Yahata area.

Yodogawa Technique

Yodogawa Technique is the artist name of Hideaki Shibata (Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1976, Lives in Tottori Prefecture). Yodogawa Technique started its activity in 2003 at the river terrace of Yodogawa (Yodo river) in Osaka, Japan. It mainly uses garbage and floating objects that have drifted to the riverbank to create works. Its creations involve making beautiful models and sculptures that do not resemble its original form as garbage. "Chinu, the Black Sea Bream of Uno" in Uno port, Okayama, Japan is its well-known public art work. Yodogawa Technique's works and activities are introduced in primary and secondary art text books. Based on his original ideas, Shibata also conducts workshops around Japan. Moreover, Shibata initiated collage senryu, a form of comic haiku made of collages from newspaper headlines. In recent years, he often participates in exhibitions relating to environment problems.

Major exhibitions:
Kunst&Byrum Helsingør The life in the Sound, 2014, Denmark
the Breathing Atolls: Japan-Maldives Contemporary art exhibition, 2012, Maldives
TWINISM, 2009, Germany and Japan
KITA!!, 2008, Indonesia
the Busan Biennale, 2006, Korea

Kitakyushu Dodo Kitakyushu Tasmanian Tiger

2021

INTRODUCTION

Yodogawa Technique made sculptures of two large extinct animals—the dodo and Tasmanian tiger—using trash found washed ashore on the beaches of Aino Island, which lies just off the coast of Kitakyushu City. Many community members helped with the trash collection. These large, colorful animals emerge beyond space and time with humorous expressions to entertain the viewer, yet, at the same time, draw attention to the destruction of Earth’s natural environment at the hands of humans. The work poses a question that asks us to think about the future of humanity living on planet Earth.
These works have been relocated to the “Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History” for display. (As of February 2022)

Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art

Masaru INOUE

Born in 1943, Inoue currently resides in Shiga Prefecture. Since 1999, he has been affiliated with Atelier YAMANAMI. It was not until he was seventy years old that Inoue began his creative practice. Inoue is an earnest artist, using only pencils to create large works of people, animals, landscapes, and other motifs. He spends three hours a day drawing, and it can take up to three weeks to complete a single drawing. He is now visited by many people who come to admire his work, something that he most likely never imagined happening. Fully immersing himself in an activity that he enjoys has become a daily source of joy for him. Art is his life now, and he continues to energetically create one work after the next.

Human

2014
Pencil, Paper
1520 x 10000mm

INTRODUCTION

A giant piece of cardboard 1.5 meters tall and 2 meters wide. Most people would be intimidated if they were told to fill such a vast, blank space using only a pencil. Masaru Inoue started drawing when he was over 70 years old. He spreads sheets of paper out on the raised floor of his studio, drawing on his hands and knees for three hours a day, three days a week. This act of drawing has become an integral part of his life. His motifs are often living things, and his pictures include men, women, and animals, as well as musical instruments and other objects, all strikingly deformed in shape yet comfortably placed within the frame. This floating network of people may be a pictorial representation of Inoue’s ideal world. His boyish sensibilities extend beyond the picture’s screen, becoming ever fresher and brighter with age.

Yoshio IWAMOTO

Born in 1953, Iwamoto currently resides in Kanagawa Prefecture. He is a member of studioCOOCA. When he was younger, he helped at his father’s plastering business and later became an explosives worker, a job that lasted for more than 20 years. Iwamoto says the job was “his calling,” but due to various circumstances, he was forced to quit. In 2011, an acquaintance by chance suggested he visit studioCOOCA, which is how he began painting. Iwamoto said that he had never painted before, but once she started, his bold brush strokes and use of color quickly made him a familiar name at COOCA. He has since created his ongoing Blonde Girl series, inspired by ads found flipping through magazines.

Blonde girl

2020
Pencil, Acrylic paint, Marker, Canvas
1620 x 1303mm

INTRODUCTION

When he was younger, he helped at his father’s plastering business and later had a long career as an explosives worker. Iwamoto says the job was “his calling,” but decided to quit after some trouble at work. Iwamoto attended studioCOOCA and started painting for the first time at the age of 58. He has since consistently painted blonde women, drawing inspiration from his favorite models in foreign fashion magazines and advertisements. He brushes bold strokes using vivid acrylics for works that are incredibly stylish. Recently, he applies his paint in thicker and thicker layers for a sculptural appearance. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this piece marks the first time he has portrayed a non-blonde, non-white subject in his work. He is quite the liberalist.

Hidetaka KAJI

Born in 1992 in Osaka, Kaji currently resides in Osaka. Currently a member of atelier ripehouse. Kaji, who is severely autistic, has a variety of “obsessions” that are part of his daily life. He has been attending art classes for 11 years. Running colored pencils across paper is one of his “obsessions,” though he eventually began to draw in even strokes with balanced colors, so we can see that he is creating his paintings based on his own thoughts. He also uses his pencils and colored pencils until they are the same length, another of his “obsessions.” For Kaji, creating a drawing and keeping his pencils at the same length are equally important, and for him, both may be “works of art.”

K1-30（total 30 pieces）

Colored pencil, Wood Panel, Paper
318 x 410mm each

INTRODUCTION

When I first saw Kaji’s work, I couldn’t quite believe that he had drawn them only using colored pencils The drawings, which are made up of countless strokes in colored pencil on paper, are the visualization of a simple and earnest intrinsic desire to express himself. Kaji, who is severely autistic, has a variety of obsessions as part of his daily life. It has been 11 years since he started attending his art class. He eventually began to draw in even strokes with balanced colors, which conveys to the audience that he is creating his paintings with a certain intent. He also uses his colored pencils until they reach the same length, another important “obsession” of his. For Kaji, creating a drawing and keeping his pencils at the same length are equally important, and for him, both may be “works of art.”

Mari KATAYAMA

Katayama, who had both of her legs amputated at the age of nine due to a congenital limb disorder, is known for her self-portraits, which document hand-sewn objects, installations, and three-dimensional objects that mimic parts of her own body. In this exhibition, Katayama shows past works like you're mine and in the water, a series she created in 2019 using her legs as a motif. In recent years, she has begun to work abroad as well, having won the Kimura Ihei Award, one of the most prestigious awards for photography in Japan. Katayama's self-portraits convey her strength to accept and express herself as she is and show people a new sense of beauty and inspiration.

Major exhibitions:
KYOTOGRAPHIE 2020, Kyoto, 2020
the 58th Venice Biennale, Giardini and Arsenale, Venice, 2019
Broken Heart, White Rainbow Gallery, London, 2019
Roppongi Crossing 2016: My Body, Your Voice, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2016
the Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, 2013
Publication:
Gift (Tokyo: United Vagabonds, 2019)
Honours:
45th Kimura Ihei Prize, 2020
New Photographer category, Higashikawa Award, 2019

you are mine #001

2014
C-print, Uniquely decorated frame
1021x 1592mm

INTRODUCTION

you are mine #002

2014
C-print, Uniquely decorated frame
582 x 772mm

INTRODUCTION

bodies #004

2019
Crystal print
1000 x 1000mm

INTRODUCTION

bodies #001

2019
Crystal print
1200 x 800mm

INTRODUCTION

untitled

2019
Crystal print
1200 x 800mm

INTRODUCTION

lefty #003

2019
Crystal print
800 x 1200mm

INTRODUCTION

lefty #001

2019
Crystal print
1200 x 800mm

INTRODUCTION

Yuki KIHARA

Interdisciplinary Artist. Born in Sāmoa in 1975, Works and Lives in Sāmoa. Yuki KIHARA is of Japanese and Sāmoan decent. Her work seeks to challenge dominant and singular historical narratives by exploring the intersectionality between identity politics, decolonization and climate change through visual arts, dance, and curatorial practice. In 2008, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York presented a solo exhibition of Kihara’s work entitled ‘Living Photographs’ held at the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing in The Department of Modern and Contemporary Art featuring highlights of her interdisciplinary art practice, followed by an acquisition of her works by the museum for their permanent collection. Kihara’s work can also be found in collections, among others, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; British Museum; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. Kihara is currently a research fellow at the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands. In 2019, The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa selected Kihara to represent the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

How King Malietoa Forbid Cannibalism

2004
C-print
590 x 480mm

INTRODUCTION

Yuki Kihara is an artist of Japanese and Sāmoan descent. In this series about the history of pre-colonial Sāmoa, the artist herself perform scenes drawn from fāgono stories (myths and legends) of her Sāmoan ancestry. The dynamic color and style of the series’ photography references the work of Charles McPhee (1910-2002), a New Zealand painter known for his dramatic velvet paintings, a technique popular in the 1970s that uses velvet as a canvas. McPhee often portrayed Polynesian women as “dusky maidens,” positioning them in coy and overtly sexual ways through the colonial gaze. Within his paintings, the viewer can see a curious prejudice and discrimination that doesn't see his subjects as equal human beings. Kihara’s work has created as an expression of resistance and criticism against a colonial perspective that sees Indigenous people as commercial objects. Here, Kihara uses her body as an artistic material to challenge the colonial representation that exists in the spaces between sex, race, culture, and politics.

Fue Tagata; Ghostly Bodies

2004
C-print
590 x 480mm

INTRODUCTION

Tonumaipe'a; How She Was Saved by the Bats

2004
C-print
590 x 480mm

INTRODUCTION

Sina ma Tuna; Sina and Her Eel

2003
C-print
590 x 480mm

INTRODUCTION

Lalava Taupou

2003
C-print
590 x 480mm

INTRODUCTION

Akio KONTANI

Born in 1970, Kontani currently resides in Shiga Prefecture. Since 2015, he has been working as part of the Nakayoshi Gama ceramics studio. Kontani's work is reminiscent of Shisa, a traditional lion-like Ryukyuan cultural artifact found in Okinawa and other parts of Japan. He has a mental health disorder, the influence of which is seen in his evolving creative practice at Nakayoshi Gama.

Demon

2021
Clay, Glaze
250(W) x 240(D) x 420(H)mm

INTRODUCTION

Kontani’s symbolic ceramic objects resemble the shisa lion-dog statues found in Okinawa and other parts of Japan, as well as monsters and goblins seen in anime, which make a strong initial impression on the viewer. Some of them howl ferociously, and some stare back wide-eyed and furious, but all of them are full of talisman-like energy. Located adjacent to an anagama kiln in a mountainous village in Shiga Prefecture, Kontani’s studio is enveloped in a kind of tranquility with only a simple worktable on a dirt floor in a space covered by a corrugated roof. The taciturn Kontani works in silence. The magical and mysteriously powerful works he produces may be a cathartic conduit for the artist to resolve his inner anxiety and connect with the uncertainty of society. Kontani began making works in 2015 and soon began to see his influence in Shinichi Sawada's practice, who works in the same place.

Demon

2021
Clay, Glaze
220(W) x 320(D) x 225(H)mm

INTRODUCTION

Demon

2021
Clay, Glaze
235(W) x 200(D) x 250(H)mm

INTRODUCTION

Shinichi SAWADA

Born in 1982 in Shiga Prefecture, where he currently resides. Sawada works at the Ritto Nakayoshi Studio at the Nakayoshi Fukushi-kai social welfare corporation and continues to make pottery three times a week at the facility’s workshop. His work, reminiscent of Jomon pottery, has been exhibited at many exhibitions in Japan and abroad. His work has received considerable international acclaim, having been nominated for the 55th Venice Biennale (Italy) in 2013 and added to the public collections of the Collection de l'Art Brut (Switzerland), the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, and the Nippon Foundation.

Demon

2021
Clay, Glaze
280(W) x 235(D) x 270(H)mm

INTRODUCTION

Mysterious creatures with bizarre yet amusing expressions. Sawada kneads the clay and dexterously affixes it to a base with his slender fingertips. The repetition of these actions, which he continues without ever slowing down, covers the surface with countless protrusions. In the beginning, he made small pieces in simpler forms, but his works have gradually grown in size to become a decorative and shamanistic style reminiscent of Jomon pottery. His works are produced through simple, earnest physical actions that remind us of primitive art forms and a sense of universality that exists beyond time. Even now, he not only visits a welfare center while working another job, but he also continues to visit his kiln in the mountains around Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture, three times a week without fail. His work has received considerable international acclaim, having been nominated for the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.

Demon

2020
Clay, Glaze
200(W) x 170(D) x 250(H)mm

INTRODUCTION

Takashi SAWADA

Born in 1946, Sawada has created paintings at Katayama Studio in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, since 2003. He creates through a “use what you can” approach—for Sawada, this means his right foot. He first wrote by holding a brush between his legs, but after thinking that he wanted to express himself through more grandiose paintings, he developed a technique of kicking cups of paint with his right foot to spread them across the canvas. Working together with staff over ten years, he produced nearly 100 works, including collaborations with other artists and large paintings up to 1455 x 1120mm in size. He talked about how exhilarating it was for him to create, staying engaged in painting until the end of his life and involving those around him in the process as he developed his practice. Even after his passing in 2013, he continues to be an inspiration to many through his works.

Untitled

2005
Water-based paint, Paper
790 x 1090mm

INTRODUCTION

Sawada has created paintings since 2003. He creates through a “use what you can” approach—for Sawada, this means his right foot. He first wrote by holding a brush between his legs, but after thinking that he wanted to express himself through more grandiose paintings, he developed a technique of kicking cups of paint with his right foot to spread them across the canvas. His make-or-break style is thrilling, spreading a unique sense of tension across the canvas in a reflection of precious moments in Sawada’s life. Working together with staff over ten years, he produced nearly 100 works, including collaborations with other artists and large paintings up to 1455 x 1120mm in size. His works express the very essence of the feeling of being alive, seemingly inhabited by a spirit of exaltation of his own existence. He talked about how exhilarating it was for him to create, staying engaged in painting until the very end of his life. Even after his passing in 2013, he continues to be an inspiration to many through his works, which involved the people around him in the creative process.

Untitled

2006
Water-based paint, Paper
1030 x 730mm

INTRODUCTION

SECOND PLANET

SECOND PLANET is an artist collective formed in 1994 by Hisao SOTODA and Keiichi MIYAGAWA, both of whom reside in the city of Kitakyushu. Since its formation, SECOND PLANET has collaborated with many people across a variety of fields, using video, photography, sound, interviews, text, the Internet, and painting to create installations, video works, online projects, and more. Their major works include collaborations with fortune-tellers and psychic mediums in An Interview with Andy Warhol (in collaboration with Takuji KOGO) and THE FUTURE FOR ART MUSEUM / FORTUNETELLERS PROJECT (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Hiroshima MOCA / in collaboration with Jesper ALVAER, Philip HORST, Future Prospect, Tetsu TAKAGI, Mizuki ENDO, and others) as well as online project A Place Without a Catastrophe (GALLERY SOAP, 2018 / in collaboration with Fumiwo IWAMOTO). SECOND PLANET has also organized numerous art projects and exhibitions in Japan and abroad, including the planning and management of GALLERY SOAP (1997–), the Parasite Project (1996), HOTEL ASIA PROJECT (2011–2021 / co-curated with Gen SASAKI, Chinese curator NiKun, and more), and the Kitakyushu Biennale (2007–2015 / in collaboration with Takuji KOGO, Yoshitaka MORI, and Yoshihide OTOMO).

OYASUMI - Good Night

2021
Movie
3’38’’

INTRODUCTION

SECOND PLANET is an artist unit founded by Hisao SOTODA and Keiichi MIYAGAWA in 1994 and based in Kitakyushu, Japan. Here, they present OYASUMI - Good Night, a work that reconstructs the last scenes broadcasted each day from stations around the world. Each image portrays the diversity of the people and culture in each country at a moment when the state of their society appears in vivid color. Certain cultures cannot simply be excluded because they are different. Instead, we must all embrace one another and live in harmony together in an effort to achieve the SDGs. SECOND PLANET is now an integral part of the Kyushu art scene, where they continue to play an important role.

BABU

Born in Kitakyushu, BABU is a street writer, skateboarder, and contemporary artist. He has created street art all across Japan and abroad and is highly regarded for his boundary-crossing work that spans a variety of media, including film, painting, drawing, sculpture, and tattoo art, all based on street culture. His collages, made of skateboards, scrap wood, garbage, and discarded paintings, as well as his video works, are created with a unique sensibility that he has honed through his travels. In recent years, he has also engaged in contemporary art, with his works being shown at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the EAST-EAST exhibition (Dubai), the Ishinomaki Reborn-Art Festival, B GALLERY at BEAMS (Tokyo), the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), the VOCA Exhibition (Tokyo), and GALLERY SOAP (Kitakyushu), among others.

Disability 50+0

2019
Drawing, Painting, Canvas, Watercolor paper, Acrylic paint, Collage work
Dimension variable [3256(H) x 5863(W)mm as whole]

INTRODUCTION

BABU is a street writer, skateboarder, and contemporary artist living in Kitakyushu. GOSH! is a video work released in 2016 that captures BABU skating in the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, which is located right next to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and still designated as a “Difficult-To-Return Zone.” Here, BABU, who suffered a massive stroke in 2018, exhibits a group of works that he created on his path to recovery despite severe complications. His large wall installation comprises drawings, photographs, and objects that show the powerful expression that emerges from the intersection of life and death, of freedom and incapacitation.

Takuma HAYAKAWA

Born in 1989 in Tokyo, Hayakawa currently resides in Mie Prefecture. Hayakawa, who has an intellectual disability, began working at Atelier HUMAN.ELEMENT in 1999, and is currently a member of The Garden of Hope. He loves trains and Japanese idols, which are also themes in his artwork. He enjoys mixing colors on his palette and discovering new colors he has never seen before. Since childhood, Hayakawa has participated in many exhibitions and competitions both in Japan and abroad. He is the recipient of the Toyohashi Brut Art Contest Gold Prize (2020) and the POCORART National Open Call Audience Award (2011) and was featured in the program “Takuma Hayakawa: No Art, No Life” as part of an NHK special in 2020. Hayakawa has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Tokyo, Aichi, and Mie prefectures, as well as in Germany, Spain, China, and Vietnam.

Train 48

2013
Oil paintings, Canvas
1303 x 1620mm

INTRODUCTION

Hayakawa loves trains and Japanese idols, which are also themes in his artwork. The artist's longing for these motifs is directly expressed in symbolic images, which together create a dense pictorial space. One of Hayakawa’s favorite things to say is, “I've never been there, now have I?” The train, which he repeatedly depicts transporting crowds of people, may be a vehicle of his curiosity and an icon that invites us to travel into the unknown. His favorite color is cerulean, a darker shade of blue. This unique sense of color conveys a sense of tension, but it also makes the mysterious compositions of people and trains that much more unique. As if in response to the facility director's praise of his work, Hayakawa can often be heard shouting, “That’s great! I’ve never seen anything like it!” whenever he mixes a new color on his palette.

Dancing with passing train

2020
Oil paintings, Canvas
1167 x 1167mm

INTRODUCTION

Noriko HIGASHIMOTO

Born in 1983, Higashimoto currently resides in Osaka. She is a member of the art club at the Nishi-Awaji House of Hope. Higashimoto uses assorted colored pens to draw triangles, squares, pentagons, and other patterns made up of dots, lines, and surfaces on rolls of cushion material. Her hand never ceases to move as she works with layouts in her mind’s eye. Higashimoto creates her art with a smile on her face, teasing those around her in the way that only a sharp-witted Osakan can. She has received numerous awards, with her work being selected for the Pocorart National Open Call Exhibition (2013/2015/2016) and the Kanden Collabo Art 21 Exhibition (2005/2010). She has also participated in many group exhibitions, including Art Brut? Outsider Art? Or? (EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, 2017).

Untitled

2011〜2017
Marker, Bubble sheet
1200 x 25000mm

INTRODUCTION

It’s hard to believe that the material for Higashimoto’s beautiful, mysterious geometric patterns is bubble wrap. Higashimoto truly enjoys the rhythmical repetition of dots using a color pen, and for her, the creative process may be akin to playing with color. However, as the dots become lines, form surfaces, and eventually weave a magnificent fabric-like image, her creations gain an intensity that sublimates them into works of art. This work, which took six years to complete, uses a vivid color palette but overall portrays a kind of soft transparency. Always happy and smiling, Higashimoto creates a cheerful mood at her facility. The happy world of Higashimoto extends for thirty meters of bubble wrap as she continues to draw today.

Clothing is Wearable Medicine (Reiko Tsurumaru Atelier)

Reiko Tsurumaru has been working to create haute couture clothing for people with disabilities. She reexamines the physical characteristics of people with disabilities to create a one-of-a-kind sense of fashion that fits people of any body type. Her unique method, which measures 46 points on the body, creates a comfortable fit that suits an individual's body shape, allowing them to enjoy fashion without discrimination. So far, Tsurumaru has made more than 1,000 pieces of clothing. The clothes she designs not only expand the possibilities of clothing but also encourage the joy of living and bring health and happiness to those who wear them.

Clothing is Wearable Medicine (Reiko Tsurumaru Atelier): INTRODUCTION

Reiko Tsurumaru is a fashion designer. Born in 1956 in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, she currently resides in Oita City, Oita Prefecture. After working in haute couture at Givenchy, Tsurumaru founded a private-label company in the city of Oita, Japan. Since 1989, she has specialized in clothing for people with disabilities. Tsurumaru is the creator of the “Tsurumaru Diagramming Method” and directs considerable energy toward the training of the next generation in her field. She holds patents for a number of health care and social welfare-related products and has served as a lecturer at graduate schools and junior colleges. Tsurumaru is the Vice President of the National Association for Fashion for Persons with Disabilities and has been awarded Meister status by the Zengiren (National Federation of Skilled Workers). She was the recipient of the 50th Eiji Yoshikawa Cultural Award.

Atsushi FUKUSHIMA

Born in 1981 in Kanagawa Prefecture, where he currently resides, Fukushima graduated from the Department of Photography at the Osaka University of Arts in 2004. In 2006, he graduated from the School of Photography at Tokyo Sogo College of Photography. Fukushima was selected for the Nikon Salon Juna 21 awards in 2008 and was the 2019 KG+ Award 2019 Grand Prix winner. His major solo exhibitions include Trip to plant trees (Kobe 819 Gallery, Hyogo, 2018), Eat food (Nikon Salon bis, Tokyo, 2018), and SCOPE (Nikon Salon, Tokyo, 2004).

From the Series of “Bento is Ready”

digital C print
406 x 508mm
Support: KYOTOGRAPHIE international photography festival

INTRODUCTION

Atsushi Fukushima worked for ten years delivering lunch boxes for the elderly. His Bento is Ready series comprises a vast number of photographs that capture the everyday lives of the elderly he saw out on his deliveries. In his photographs, the audience can see the loneliness of older people who live on their own, the current situation of aging in Japan, and the slow, steady creep of death that modern society tends to ignore. However, in presenting this series, Fukushima wrote that what he had seen over the past ten years was not death but “an awe at the elderly’s will to live.” As Japan braces for a “super-aged” society, these photos challenge the audience to think about aging, caring for the elderly, facing death, and life in old age.

Mai HONMA

Born in 1984 in Matsuzaka City, where she currently resides. She is a member of the Garden of Hope. She loves flowers and animals (especially birds), which are central themes in her work. She enjoys looking out the window of her shuttle bus and is delighted to see birds flapping their wings reflected in the sparkling surface of the creek. With impaired motor function in her arms, the disordered lines and vivid colors she produces seem to convey the emotions she experiences. In 2005, she won the 57th Subarashiki-Mie award at the Mie Prefecture Art Exhibition. Honma has gone on to hold solo exhibitions and participate in group shows throughout Japan and has also shown her work in Germany, Spain, Vietnam, and China. Through ACM Gallery, her work has also been presented at Outsider Art Fair (New York, 2020) and Contemporary Outsider Art REAL -What Comes Next for Contemporary Art?- (GYRE GALLERY, Tokyo, 2019).

Relaxing forest

2013
Oil paintings, Canvas
1303 x 1620mm

INTRODUCTION

A flock of birds with colorful plumage is about to take flight from the canvas and join us in the real world. And it’s no surprise since all of the birds that Mai Honma draws are actual people from her daily life. Her beloved principal, friends from the facility, and Miyu—a staff member who assists her in her creative activities—all make an appearance. To make sure no one gets lonely, she draws a rabbit to be the bird’s friend and a mama bird for the baby bird. Her straightforward way of expressing love and affection fills the canvas in a work full of emotion. Her work Garden of Hope incorporates oil painting, which is difficult to handle and is rarely used in facilities across the country. In such a free space, Honma is able to put her passionate thoughts to the canvas with every brushstroke, cute smile, and occasional serious gaze.

Be together as one

2011
Oil paintings, Canvas
1303 x 1620mm

INTRODUCTION

Hironobu MATSUMOTO

Born in 1991 in Hokkaido, Matsumoto currently resides in Kumamoto Prefecture. He began drawing at just two years old and was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at the age of three. His works often reflect his current interests and concerns, which he transforms by painting them as he perceives them. He creates delicate and colorful artworks after choosing a color without hesitation from his collection of over 300 colored pencils and 100 water-based pens, never using a ruler, eraser, or whiteout. Matsumoto has participated in numerous exhibitions, including VOCA: The Vision of Contemporary Art (Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2021 and 2015), Art As It Is: Expressions from the Obscure (The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2020), Outsider Art Fair (New York, 2020), and KOMOREBI: Une exposition d’art brut japonais (Le Lieu unique, France, 2017). His work is also part of the public collection of the Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto.

World Map

2011
Colored pencil, Water-based pen, Paper
One set is 2 pieces
767 x 1085mm each

INTRODUCTION

A kaleidoscopic world map or view from the window of an airplane. While his subjects are large in scale, Matsumoto’s style of repeating motifs is meticulous, painstakingly depicting even the smallest of details. An avid reader of illustrated books and atlases, he was interested in living things, space, and history as a child. In his garden studio, he doesn’t hesitate when choosing a color from 300 colored pencils and 100 water-based pens. He draws freehand without the aid of rulers, erasers, or correction fluid. His bright, beautiful colors and shapes harmonize and resonate with each other so well that it is difficult to read any negative emotions from his work at first glance. However, he says that he has woven in deep-seated memories of fear, sadness, and anxiety that are difficult to put into words. For Matsumoto, drawing is an essential part of life, an act that both helps to suppress and heal delicate, wavering emotions.

MEGA City

2015
Colored pencil, Water-based pen, Paper
One set is 2 pieces
各767 x 1084mm each

INTRODUCTION

Chisato MINAMIMURA

Born in Japan; lives and works in London, UK. Chisato Minamimura is a Deaf performance artist, choreographer & art guide. Minamimura has created, performed and taught dance in over 40 locations across 20 countries, including 3 years (2003-2006) as a company member of the internationally renowned CandoCo Dance Company. She has also performed in aerial productions with Graeae Theatre Company, and as part of the London Paralympic Opening Ceremony in 2012, and the 2016 Paralympic Cultural Olympiad in Rio, Brazil. Minamimura approaches choreography from her unique perspective as a Deaf artist, creating what she calls ‘visual sound’. By collaborating with international digital artists working in sound, projection, vibration and animation, Minamimura often uses mathematical scores to create her choreography with professional dancers and aims to enhance the experience of dance and performance without sound, instead creating visual music. Minamimura is currently an associate Work Place Artist at The Place, one of London’s leading contemporary dance performance venues.

Scored in Silence

2019
video
9’48’’

INTRODUCTION

Scored in Silence digitizes the performance of the voices of deaf hibakusha victims who survived the horror and devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Her performance brings together body, sound, lighting, animation, and sign language with recordings of hibakusha speaking about their experiences at the time of the bombings. She carefully unravels their stories, telling the tragedy of war in an entirely new way. While this marks its first production in Japan, it has been performed in the UK, Canada, Korea, Tunisia, Chile, and Mexico. Despite being deaf, Minamimura joined the Candoco Dance Company, a world-renowned dance group where disabled and non-disabled people perform together. In recent years, however, she has used media to create cutting-edge digital video works like this one, becoming interested in bridging the gap between sight and sound, between physical expression and a world without sound.

Sakubei YAMAMOTO

Born in 1892 in the Kaho District of Fukuoka Prefecture. From the age of seven or eight, he began to accompany his parents to coal mines in the Chikuho region, working in 18 different mines over a period of about 50 years. There was a period during his youth when he quit his work as a miner and set his sights on becoming a painter—even becoming an apprentice to a house painter in Fukuoka City. However, after considering his family's circumstances, he eventually returned to life as a coal miner. From that time on, his paintbrushes did little more than collect dust as he spent the next 40 years immersed in everyday life. In his mid-60s, he finally picked up his paintbrush again to record life in the coal mines, leaving behind as many as 2,000 paintings. His collected works include Life in the Coal Mines: An Anthology (1967) and Sakubei Yamamoto Anthology: The Chikuho Coal Mine Collection (1973). He died in 1984 at the age of 92. On May 25, 2011, a 697-item collection of personally annotated paintings and diaries were registered as the first Japanese entry in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.

Genre painting of coal mine (out of a pit)

1975
Color on paper
925 x 1480mm
Collection Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History

INTRODUCTION

The vast number of paintings by coal miner Sakubei Yamamoto clearly depict the life of the men and women in the mines around the Chikuho region near Kitakyushu. Deep in the coal mines, men in loincloths shovel coal while women in sashes carry it away. His paintings suggest that there were often pairs of men and women who worked in the mines together. The mines were dimly lit, and there was always the danger of a cave-in, flood, or gas explosion. Their hard labor cannot be forgotten as it was these individuals who provided the coal—the main source of energy at the time—that sustained the steel industry and, in turn, fueled the modernization of Japan. In recognition of its significance, Sakubei Yamamoto's work was the first in Japan to be recognized in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Meiji Taisho Showa era: Waiting for coal box “Hako-machi”

1974
Color on paper
382 x 542mm
Collection Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History

INTRODUCTION

Sakiyama (workers carrying pickaxes and lanterns down into the mine)

1971
Single color on paper
270 x 380mm
Collection Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History

INTRODUCTION

Atoyama (workers carrying coal to assist the sakiyama miner)

1971
Single color on paper
270 x 380mm
Collection Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History