A tour of the Japanese art scene
‘Sunshower: Contemporary Art From Southeast Asia 1980s To Now’ is the largest art exhibition on Asean in Tokyo
Recently, embattled Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet reshuffle was seen as a desperate attempt to improve his popularity that nosedived due to scandals involving ministers. Despite the summer heat in Japanese politics and the North Korean missile tests, the “Cool Japan” policy initiated by Abe’s government to revitalise Japanese contemporary culture and art has developed.
Art festivals and cultural programmes in Tokyo and many prefectures have become extremely lively. The following are a few outstanding exhibitions that confirm Japan’s cultural policy is making the country a formidable force in art and culture in Asia.
As part of Roppongi Artfest, “Sunshower: Contemporary Art From Southeast Asia 1980s To Now” is the largest art exhibition on Asean to be held in Japan. Coinciding with Asean’s 50th anniversary, more than 80 artists from 10 Asean countries represent this blockbuster and bring together seminal artworks made during the 1980s and 90s and more recent pieces by emerging artists.
Staged at the Mori Art Museum and National Art Center, the exhibitions are divided into nine themes (Dialogue With History; Medium As Meditation; Growth And Loss; Passion And Revolution; Diverse Identities; Day By Day; Fluid World; What Is Art?; and Archiving) that intend to display multifarious trajectories of how Asean contemporary art is seen through Japanese eyes.
At the entrance of the 52nd floor at Mori Art Museum, Sunshower by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Chai Siris comprises a model of a life-size white elephant elevated high above the escalators with multicoloured sunset lights and a video of a sleepy male in bed. Commenting on the malaise of Thai democracy and changing politics, this captivating mid-air installation reflects Thai zeitgeist in a precarious condition.
Through the packed and congested rooms, viewers are bombarded with fragments of Southeast Asia full of dynamism, tension and imbalance. Contrary to Asean’s motto of “Unity In Diversity”, Sunshower
reveals slices of reality of member nations made up of different religions, ethnicities, political ideologies, social and economic strengths and weaknesses.
Capitalism and communism; globalism and localism; Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, spiritualism, animism; kitsch, glamour and shopping. Mixed and matched, these ideologies collide throughout the galleries as large-scale installations compete with one another. After a while themes overlap as viewers are overwhelmed by local contents, subjects and interpretation.
Aditya Novali’s Project NGACO Solution For A Nation comments on superficial value, inconsistencies and social dysfunctionality;
Graphic Exchange by Jakarta Wasted Artists explores signage productions, translation and miscommunication common in daily life; Montien Boonma’s Melting Void/Molds Of The Mind with plaster casts of Buddha heads and Than Sok’s Srie Bun with different shades of clerical garments contrast strongly with Agus Suwage’s Tolerance Wall
with zinc and gold-plated brass of ear lobes and chanting sounds.
In anOther story, Roslisham Ismail recreates historical events in the past of resistance against British colonial rule in Kelantan. Border friction and decolonisation have resulted in intense nationalism in many Asean nations. Lim Sokchanlina’s
National Road No.5 are photographs that capture destruction of the environment and agricultural land due to highway construction that connects Phnom Phen with provincial towns in Thailand. Shacks and houses battered and broken like the humans who live in them are the outcome of development.
Korakrit Arunanonchai’s video displays fragments of Thai myths, spectacles and schisms. Scenes of Dhammakaya monks’ confrontations with authority; body art and game shows; figures of the damned at Wat Rongkun in Chiang Rai; the artist’s autobiography and hip-hop Bangkok seen through drone and internet.
At the National Art Center, the themes continue to muddle. Anggun Priambodo’s
Necessity Shop satires global consumerism and shopping. Surasi Kusolwong’s Golden Ghost (Why I Am Not Where You Are) invites participants to venture among 5 tonnes of colourful threads in search of gold chains. Shopping and fortune are intertwined in daily life.
Satiago Bose’s Passion And Revolution is a captivating installation with rich layers of Catholic icons, indigenousness and animism. Worship and faith with a bamboo altar, a skull and Christ on the donkey are seen in parallel with the peasant movement against Spanish colonial rule. Ho Rui An’s
Solar: A Meltdown video installation peels away layers of colonial veneer through images and clips of British Empire and colonial hangover. Speaking with no traces of Singlish, Ho with Brit stiff-upper lip accent comments on versions of The King And I and British supremacy through use of cinema and documentary. For instance, why Anna Leonowens and Queen Elizabeth are never seen sweating? The punkah is designed to keep them cool but is as well a symbol of labour and sweat.
The archiving section collects important documents on Chiangmai Social Installation, Baguio Arts Guilds, Artists Village, Singapore, and Myanmar Art Resource Center and Archive. Surprisingly, no mention of Asiatopia, performance art events involving artists from Southeast Asia and other regions that has been active for more than two decades.
“Sunshower: Contemporary Art From Southeast Asia 1980s To Now” is a delightful exhibition that covers the expanse of three decades of Southeast Asian Art. It also reminds us of Japanese cultural policy in the region that began with the Fukuoka Art Show and a series of Asean art exhibitions created through Japanese curatorship. The audience is entertained as if gliding through art malls with a density of works.
For a major exhibition on Asean art from 1980s to the present, it is a pity that there is an absence of timeline of socio-political events in the region. No section related to revivalism and neo-traditionalism. More importantly, major artists such as Thawan Duchanee, David Medella, Redza Piyadarsa, Tang Da Wu, Roberto Villanueva, Dadang Christanto, Chandrasekaran and Sakarin Krua-On have been omitted. The viewer gets a glimpse of internationally renowned Rirkrit Tiravanija on a sheet of paper on the wall with directions for a Thai lunchbox at a cafeteria.
In contrast, the inaugural opening of 6th Yokohama Triennale entitled “Islands, Constellations & Galapagos” was low-key with 35 participating artists. However, the display at Yokohama Museum of Art and The Red Brick Building is most fascinating and thought-provoking.
Addressing a world facing challenges such as conflict, refugees, migration and emergence of protectionism and xenophobia, Yokohama Triennale offers a platform for artists to express issues and themes of isolation and connectivity.
Ai Weiwei’s Safe Passage And Reframe at the entrance of Yokohama Museum of Art consists of orange life jackets and black dingy boats suspended on the façade of the museum. These objects signify immigration, boat people and refugees. Inside, a colossal bamboo sculpture in a twisted shape, The Border Between Good And Evil Is Terribly Fuzzy by Jojo Avianto greets the viewers. Maurizio Catellan’s figure of a lonely man suspended high on the wall looks down at Weiwei’s migration of orange and grey crabs.
Minimal and contemplative black lines against white walls by Prabhavati Meppayil contrast strongly with Anna Samat’s Tribal Chief series and bright geometric forms by Olafur Eliasson. Paola Pivi’s I And I (Must Stand For The Art) consists of five cheerful polar bears with bright fur. They are oblivious of humans who surround them. In a nearby gallery, Mr. is inspired by manga and anime to produce a colourful, provocative painting installation reflecting Japanese society drowned in erotic games, adult shops and sex toys.
At Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse located near the harbour several impressive works need to be mentioned. Christian Jankowski’s video explores history, monuments and sports. A team of Polish weightlifters attempt with enormous effort to lift monuments around the city.
For Yokohama, Jankowski collaborated with local masseurs and used public monuments as part of healing and connectivity. In project Don’t Follow The Wind, connectivity is at a different level. Artists collaborated with inhabitants in the Fukushima exclusion zone after the Daiichi nuclear plant accident. With headsets eerie, scenes of sea and abandoned buildings expose the environmental disaster that connect viewers to the reality of life after disaster.
Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s The Return Of K.t.o. (Tenshin Okakura also known as Kakuzo Okakura) is the highlight of the exhibition. In the series about overseas activities of historical figures, Ozawa traces Okakura’s venture that opened up the knowledge and idea of Pan-Asiaism. Okakura’s contact with Rabindranath Tagore in India inspired Asian cultural revivalism.
At Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Yoshitomo Nara’s solo exhibition “For Better Or For Worse” drew an enormous crowd. Covering the period from 1987-2017, major works by Nara including large paintings, sketches, sculptures, installations and record albums are on display.
In the meeting I had with Nara he talked about his years spent in Nagakute on the outskirts of Nagoya and becoming emotionally attached with Aichi Prefecture. Nara also informed that music by David Bowie, Lou Reed, Allman Brothers and The Who enormously inspired his work.
At Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the solo exhibition “Araki Nobuyoshi: Sentimental Journey 1971-2017” is both powerful and emotional. Silently, viewers packed into galleries as they scrutinised works by one of Japan’s leading photographers. Araki wrote about his late wife: “It’s thanks to Yoko that I became a photographer.” Hundreds of black-and-white shots of Araki’s honeymoon and happy times with his wife from 1968 to her death in 1990. This latest exhibition by Araki must be regarded as one of his very best.
Team Lab summer show “Jungle Light Art And Music Festival” at Shibuya Hikarie draws lots of crowds. From interactive digital art to a computerised laser beam concert, the one-hour event can be dizzy and hallucinatory.
At Tokyo Opera City, Inter Communication Center displays “OTO NO BA: Sound-digging With Senses” which focuses on art with sound and smell. At 21_21 Design Center “Grand Projects: How Far Will You Go?” is a stunning display of documentary monumental works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Masahiko Yanagi, Yasuke Asai, Numen and others. Bold and innovative projects including a floatable pier, inflatable concert hall and cave made out of tape.
With the Olympics looming in 2020, Japan is investing heavily in contemporary art and design to make Tokyo a creative and innovative city, as well as a truly cool one.
Contrary to Asean’s motto of ‘Unity In Diversity’, Sunshower reveals slices of reality of member nations made up of different religions, ethnicities, political ideologies, social and economic strengths and weaknesses
Apinan Poshyananda is former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Culture. He is now artistic director, Bangkok Art Biennale 2018.