21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, kanazawa

Living Writing

Through writing, primarily using the Chinese traditional calligraphy he learned as a child, QIU Zhijie has continually inquired into universal, primordial human existence. Fujian Province, where he was born, was once a vital center for seaborne trade, rich in cultural exchange born from commerce and immigration. Qiu’s works with their dynamic, free perspective are deeply influenced by the culture of his home region. This exhibition examines the art and expressive power of Qiu Zhijie, who sees the world comprehensively and merges his own existence with representation of the relationships between people and things.

The many art styles coming out of Asia, while attuned to their particular vernacular history and culture, intently explore the interval between tradition and rapid globalization, working trial and error. This exhibition presents works that challenge the waves of post-industrialization and technological change, asking the universal question, “Where is humanity headed?”
SUH Do Ho’s Home within Home – 1/11th Scale – Prototype will be displayed in the exhibition’s first period. The work—a 1/11-scale recreation of the Western building Suh first lived in when studying in the United States—is seen on closer inspection to contain a replica of his childhood Korean-style home. Zai Kuning will exhibit the culmination of his project researching and creatively substantiating the name of the first Malay King, Dapunta Hyang Jayanasa. The artist UJINO, in his sound sculpture Plywood Shinchi, employs everyday objects to evoke a “city” strongly nuanced with nostalgia. Japan is currently gripped by excitement over the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games, a mood reminiscent of the fever infecting the nation in the 1960s period of rapid economic growth. UJINO’s moving sculpture, while humorous in its motions, appears to harshly question materialistic civilization. In Parade from far far away, TERUYA Yuken, an Okinawan artist now living and working in New York, depicts motifs of dugongs, military drones and over 110 Okinawa people, using dye on a traditional Ryukyuan garment. Jun NGUYEN-HATSUSHIBA, in beautiful film images, evokes the nameless people whose lives have been sacrificed in times of political and social upheaval. Featured, along with film works concerning refugees and minorities, embarked on in 2001, is his recent piece dedicated to the Tohoku people who suffered a natural disaster ten years later in 2011.
These works, illuminating our changing society from the perspectives of Asian artists, are displayed under the theme, “Asian Landscapes.”

DeathLAB, founded by Karla Rothstein at Columbia University in 2013, is an interdisciplinary initiative exploring the space and social consequence of urban disposition and memorialization. Housed at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, DeathLAB’s cross-cutting research engages diverse academic fields, including architecture, environmental engineering, religious studies and sociology. We will introduce the lab’s ongoing work, which intertwines sacred space and civic life.

NISHIMURA Yu (1982- ) complexly overlays commonplace scenes and actions, and fragments of “fulfillment” in everyday life to construct a single unified scene in a painting. His approach resembles that of a novelist assembling words and forming paragraphs to weave a narrative. While personal and small in scale, Nishimura says, the momentary scenes and pleasant spaces of our days lend us psychological support. While always concrete in nature, the phenomena Nishimura depicts appear as if occurring in a place remote from reality, owing to his characteristic blurred brushstrokes and coloring. This exhibition’s title, “paragraph,” implies one complete unit. When we see each painting as a paragraph and move through the exhibition, reading and absorbing the pictures dispersed throughout the venue, the rich everyday moments and scenes they portray will congeal in a narrative and speak to us. Viewers will likely want to remain endlessly in the venue’s spaces, looking at Nishimura’s paintings and imagining, not one, but multiple narratives. Featured will be 13 new works of varying sizes, displayed so as to draw viewers deeply into the narrative.