Generation iDunnowhat iWant

Presented with a sea of abundant choice, I cower

 

ANONYMOUS shinjuku elevator decorator

MORI Art Museum: 'Can There Be Art?' Exhibition May 2010

'If you want to know what is occurring, actually occurring inside, underneath, at the centre, at any given moment, art is a better guide than 'politics' more often than not'

 Whyndham Lewis

From a TART-ophile, it is fair to say any such quote entrusting art its well-deserved cultural reins will find its way, unsurprisingly, onto the pages of this blog. Fortunately for us all however, beyond the somewhat egotistical moral uplift it can provide for artists such as myself, such elucidating words highlight the importance of art as a social mirror. Don't get me wrong though, before we can come to this conclusion about some art, there is a plethora of work that indeed, even the most progressive amongst us, find difficult to say the least. In truth, a bulk of the 'contemporary' work I do come across, in those continents I have had the pleasure of galumphing across, conveys nothing more than the perceptive nature which an artist lacks. Thankfully however, in some rare circumstance (precisely why such moments are so prized in my book/blog), you stumble across a body of work that invites lush wonder and inspiration. 

Mori Art Museum's 'Can There Be Art?' is a mixed candy bag of golden oldies and up-and-coming artists, collected together to discuss this very question. Despite the overlying assumption that Japan is an alienated country, this show is very much a reaction against this now dated view. I am plump with patriotic pride when trying to capture how sugoi this exhibition really was (though in all honesty, the extent to which I am permitted such feelings are quite questionable, considering my identification with Japanese culture based almost entirely on topics food and fashion related). Humor (or not so humorous) comments aside, this show shook me up, and rightly so. For a very long time, I was only able to gather a concept of Japan's culture embryonically (through thy mother). Otherwise formed via mediation (in Dragon Ball Z cartoons, mostly) or stupendously entertaining game shows, it is difficult to pin-point Japan's place on this earth beyond the gags and obvious contrasts. Despite my geographical removal from this country for so long, I was able to feel a great tug of artistic sympathy, no scrap that, actual empathy, with the concerns and feelings raised by the works of some very skilled social surgeons (again not all, though certainly enough worth mentioning here).

My impression was one of a shifting current in the mentality of the Japanese, an acceptance, neigh, exaltation for the indelible proliferation of cultures and a responsibility to uniquely express the views of a community that is now global. Special attention should be paid to this concept of the unique, as the show exhibits such a wide variety of formats including video, performance, installation and sound-pieces that an accepted definition for art and what we view as art, can be and should be much wider in scope. ( I very simply believe there is room for this to occur, even whilst still remaining accessible to the general psychology of the public, not just all ye crazy art folke.)

One the one hand, the conveyed psyche of 'what is actually occurring inside' seems to me, remarkably turbulent. Lieko Shiga's: Canary photographic series was a personal favorite. Her vivid dreamscapes of exploding light trees juxtaposed with grotesquely decapitated animal heads puts the viewer in a position of vulnerability. These images cause a type of emotional upheaval, akin to the experience of questioning by an impatient psychiatrist. Though difficult to explain, it is as though the dark sands of your subconscious rise suddenly in front of you, to which you can only respond using goosebumps, paranoia and shifty eyes; all very instinctive responses. I am still allowing the particles to settle, though my visibility is very much clouded every time I dare to stare at her images. My carnal soul is afraid to wake. Beautified horror? Perhaps. Masochistically conscience-confronting? Almost certainly, but you just can't help yourself. 

(excuse the reflections of myself in the images... and yes, the world is iphone-osizing, naturally. Ah, the ubiquity of technology.) 

We can flip the coin to another series of works I could not help but gape at in open mouthed, Japanese-style awe.  Yuka Teruyen's Notice-Forest sculptures: constructed from luxury brand shopping bags such as Chanel and Hermes and lest we forget post-modernism's favorite victim, McDonald's as well, Teruyen replicates delicate trees out of the negative cut outs of the top of the bag itself. Difficult to envisage? Allow me to demonstrate, in purely Shiga-esque nature, that photos communicate better than words sometimes:

 

Though obviously commenting on the notion of the paper bag's origins as a tree, the approach the artist has taken in this work is so gentle that it re-invigorates the concept of the micro-humanity and the single man as gentle and nurturing. Rather than the assigned pessimistic views of man's destructive consumption, we are introduced to a more poetic perspective. Unlike Shiga's more obscure intentions, I believe this work is one of hope, for a renewed faith in slow, contemplative activities. A new direction is proposed for the way that man (or woman) interacts with their environment beyond the stress we have already caused on nature's resources, evidenced by phenomena such as global warming. This work asks us to think about watching the movie in slow motion and notice that indeed, the devil is in the details, for want of a better expression.

Though I could continue in this vain indefinitely, I feel that ruminating on every piece that struck me would eventually be self-defeating. And so I leave you with a list of artists who I feel deserve your art-hungry attention, so I invite you to peruse at your own leisure (or furor):

• Satoru Aoyama (pain-stakingly intricate work, all made with a sewing machine and the patience of a monk)

• Suzuki Hiraku  ( mass consideration: the concentration of numbers... accumulation of differently shaped plastic reflectors)

• Takehito Koganezawa (installation artist)
• Amemiya Yosuke (performance art that works- Alice in Wonderland-esque, reality vs. constructed reality, theatre mysticism... avant-garde practice, that doesn't just make you walk away with the notion of artists as ridiculous human beings)

A comprehensive list of the artists available on their website:

http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/roppongix2010/artist/index.html