Period:
2015.11.28(Sat.) - 2016.5.8(Sun.)
2015.11.28(Sat.) - 2016.5.8(Sun.)
Galleries / 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
[ Concurrent exhibition ] Awazu Kiyoshi: Makurihirogeru (EXPOSE) 2
“From Graphics to Visual : Awazu Kiyoshi’s Theory on Visual Communication”
Mondays, Dec 29 to Jan 1, Jan 12, Mar 22 (Open on Jan 11, Mar 21, May 2)
Combi Ticket for "Awazu Kiyoshi : Makurihirogeru (EXPOSE) 2"
Adult: ¥360 (¥280)
University: ¥280 (¥220)
Elem/ JH/ HS: Free
65 and over: ¥280
*( ) indicate group rates (20 or more).
*Advance ticket will not be on sale.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Phone: +81-76-220-2800
Facsimile: +81-76-220-2802
E-Mail: info@kanazawa21.jp
The Collection 1 exhibition, this fiscal year, provided opportunities to question and explore what is for us the world of “now.” In continuation, Collection 2 envisions our “future” through artworks recently acquired by this museum and by freshly interpreting its existing collection. What is contemporary art’s potential in the 21st century when social values are rapidly changing in every region of Japan as in every nation of the world? In an exhibition organized into the themes “History” and “Regrowth,” we invite viewers to join us in imagining the road before us.
In continuation from last year, furthermore, the exhibition “Awazu Kiyoshi: Makurihirogeru (EXPOSE) 2” will be held concurrently with the Collection exhibition.
Born in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan in 1968. Lives and works there. Aono Fumiaki obtained a graduate degree in art education from the Graduate School for Teacher Training of Miyagi University of Education. While still a student, he developed a unique concept of restoration that he began applying to his work. In creating sculptures, he restored damaged or missing parts of discarded objects that he had picked up. In carrying out this process, however, he did not attempt to restore these objects to what might be imagined as their original condition. His ‘restoration’ work was done by filling in missing or damaged parts with other found objects that were unrelated to the main object. His approach of creating new and different forms by fusing different objects together or causing one object to invade another was extended to existing wall and road surfaces in urban areas. All of his works entailed questions or comments on the essential nature of art.
Born in Hakusan (former Tsurugi), Ishikawa, Japan in 1946. Lives and works in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. While aspiring to be a painter, Kadonaga came across conceptual art and started to make works using wood. He established his style in the 1980s making works with wood, for example, scraping bark off a cedar log and sliced it horizontally, or cutting the log into small blocks and reconstructing it back to the original log shape. Even when he uses other materials such as glass, paper and bamboo, artificial processing is kept to minimum, and he consistently maintains an attitude of visualizing the natural feature of the material and the production process of the work.
Born in Nanto (former Inokuchi), Toyama, Japan in 1969. Lives and works there. While studying ceramics at Kanazawa College of Art, and influenced by KUZE Kenji, a professor of the same university, Fujii Kazunori learned how to produce works focusing on the nature of earth as material for ceramics. Since then he has pursued his own creative style in art. As a college student, he invented his expression style ‘bakutoh’ (exploding pottery) as he called it, and after that, it has become the core of his production. To make ‘bakutoh’ ceramics, an explosive is put in shaped clay and after the explosive blows up, the clay is dried and fired in a kiln. Fujii’s artworks return to the root of artistic act as he is closely involved in both the explosion, the ultimate natural phenomenon, and the material of earth that leaves form permanently once baked in fire.
Born in Helsinki, Finland in 1965. Lives and works there. After studying cultural anthropology at Helsinki University, Taanila created short films, video works, and photographs depicting scenes of a future that might be described as “techno-utopia,” moving back and forth between reality and fantasy. Because technology is at the epicenter of contemporary society, it has become a major theme of art during the process of modernization. Taanila’s works contain factual information that is not connected to a definite narrative, but he takes an experimental approach that could be described as creative documentation.
Born in Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan in 1965. Lives and works in Takatsuki, Osaka. An artist who uses steel and various materials to make three-dimensional objects. Yanobe’s art is rooted in his childhood experiences at the Expo ’70 site. The Expo represented the ‘future’ that the heart leapt for, but after the exposition came to an end, the site became ‘ruins’ of the future. This impressed the artist on the disconnect between human ‘dreams’ and ‘reality’. The artist’s work took up the theme of how to survive in the context of this discord. From around 2001, the theme of Yanobe’s work has shifted from ‘survival’ to ‘revival,’ with a new focus on rising up from the ruins.
Born in Nara, Japan in 1973. Lives and works in Yamagata. Mise first centered his artistic activity in the Kyoto-Nara area. Since his move around 2009 to take up a teaching position at a university in Yamagata, he has continued to explore the potential of contemporary art as he experiments with an ethnographic approach to the scenery and customs of the Tôhoku region. As a painter he uses tarashikomi (ink puddling) and decalcomania techniques to create accidental images, and combines motifs drawn in thin-lined ink, all while composing and expanding his picture plane by piecing together fragments of washi (Japanese paper). These elements not only create an effect peculiar to a particular region, they also reflect the painter’s heightened will to express the creation and expansion of the universe not visible to the human eye.
Starting in 2014, the series "Makurihirogeru (EXPOSE)" presents each year the world of Awazu Kiyoshi from a multi-dimensional perspective based on ongoing research into some 4000 artworks and other materials gifted to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa by the Awazu Design Room between 2006 and 2007. The title of this year's exhibition, the second in the series, is "From Graphic to Visual: Kiyoshi Awazu's Theory on Visual Communication."
The 1960s was a period of dramatic development and change in the design world, beginning with Japan's hosting of the 1960 World Design Conference and including the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the build-up to Expo '70 in Osaka, the 1965 graphic design exhibition "Persona," and the dissolution of the Japan Advertising Artists Club in 1970.
Shift in Perception, a work from the Museum's collection, is a poster-sized relief produced by Awazu Kiyoshi in 1963. As a result of research conducted this year, it has been ascertained that this work was shown at the 13th Japan Advertising Artists Club (Nissenbi) exhibition. A total of 19 Nissenbi exhibitions were held, the first in 1951 and the last in 1969 prior to the club's dissolution the following year, 1970. After winning the Japan Advertising Artists Club Award at the 5th Nissenbi exhibition in 1955 for Give Our Sea Back, Awazu Kiyoshi played an important role in the club, serving as a judge at every exhibition from 1962 (the 12th) through 1968 (the 18th) with the exception 1965 (the 15th).
This exhibition surveys Awazu Kiyoshi's activities in the 1960s, presenting works shown at exhibitions held in conjunction with the World Design Conference, the Nissenbi exhibitions and the "Persona" exhibition as well as related works and materials, with a particular focus on the waves, fingerprints and the words "shift in perception" seen in Shift in Perception. It also covers Awazu's 1968 move into spatial expression with his "environments" using multiple slide projections. The graphic design Awazu aspired to in the 1960s is encapsulated in the concept of “from graphic to visual,” the approach to “visual communication” he developed in his "Shikaku dentatsu ron" (Theory on visual communication).(1) In this way, the exhibition examines Awazu Kiyoshi's "graphism" that took shape in the 1960s.
*1 Published in Gendai dezain koza 4: Dezain no ryoiki (Contemporary design course 4: The field of design) (Fudosha, 1969), pp. 91-152.
Born 1929 in Tokyo, died 2009 in Kawasaki. Self-taught in painting and design. In 1955, Awazu received the Japan Advertising Artists Club Award for his poster Give Our Sea Back. He was a leader in post-war graphic design in Japan and involved in the development as creative expression of reproduction and mass production of images using printing technology. In 1960, he participated in the architectural movement "Metabolism", and in 1977, exhibited his work Graphism, Three Part Work at the Bienal de São Paulo. From the 1980s onward, he conducted a study of hieroglyphics and the written language of Native Americans. He continued to question not only images and the act of communication, but also human existence itself within the entirety of all living things. The foresight and totality of his creative activity still has a major impact today.
Design: Washio Tomoyuki
Price: 2,700JPY (including 2DVDs)
Contents
◯"Awazu Kiyoshi, Makurihirogeru (EXPOSE) 1 Art Running Wild: Awazu Kiyoshi and Performance"
・"Art Running Wild: Awazu Kiyoshi and Performance" Kitade Chieko
・Lecture "Awazu Kiyoshi's Art from the Perspective of his Performance" Sanda Haruo
・Lecture "Investigation and Restoration: Give Our Sea Back and Performance Score" Nakagoshi Issei, Kaji Seika
・Interview: Hara Hiroshi
・"Art Running Wild: Awazu Kiyoshi and Performance" List of Works (Total 110 items)
◯"From Graphic to Visual: Awazu Kiyoshi's Theory on Visual Communication"
・"Awazu Kiyoshi's Theory on Visual Communication: 1955 - 1969" Kitade Chieko
・Interview: Sugirura Kohei
・"From Graphic to Visual: Awazu Kiyoshi's Theory on Visual Communication" List of Works (Total 93 items)
◯Appendix
Exhibition Overviews / List of Related Programs / Artist Profile, Guest Profiles
○2 DVDs
・DVD1 Documentary "Art Running Wild: Awazu Kiyoshi and Performance"
-Edit and Production: Nakagawa Yosuke
- Graphic and Illustration: Washio Tomoyuki
- Performer: Awazu Kiyoshi, Washio Tomoyuki, Tamaki ROY, Suga Dairo, Suzuki Hiraku, Sanda Haruo, Nakagoshi Issei, Kaji Seika, Takeda Yusuke, Takahashi Yuji, Chichibu Avant-Garde (Sasakubo Shin, Aoki Daisuke, Irma Osno), Shimada Riri, Umeda Tetsuya
・DVD2 "Art Running Wild: Awazu Kiyoshi and Performance" Performance Documents
- Edit and Production: Nakagawa Yosuke
- Graphic and Illustration: Washio Tomoyuki
- Contents
1. Tamaki Roy Performance "Multiple Together"
2. Suga Dairo × Suzuki Hiraku Live
3. Takahashi Yuji × Sasakubo Shin, Aoki Daisuke, Irma Osno / Chichibiu Avant-Garde Performance
(other participants: Washio Tomoyuki, Takeda Yusuke, Nakagawa Yosuke, Nacása and Partners)
4. Shimada Riri × Umeda Tetsuya Performance "Vexations: Whirling with Satie and Awazu"
5. Awazu Kiyoshi "Summer Performance 1979"
Available at Museum Shop, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (TEL: 076-236-6072)
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa Art Promotion and Development Foundation)