Rendering the Unseen Art & Architecture in Japan
The under lying theme of this media exhibition is art in the context of contemporary architecture in Japan. In 1996 during a Japan Foundation artist fellowship, I was able with a Hi8 video camera to record some of my location visits. Included in the tapes are buildings by Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, Itsuko Hasegawa, Kengo Kuma, amongst other famous architects, with examples of art landscapes such as the Site of Reversible Destiny, With the application of video editing and frame capturing software I have produced a mixed media rendering of the recorded projects most of which remain unseen in the UK. The exhibition combines laminated video stills and two seperate half hour long mini movie presentations. One programme features a varied selection of two minute movies such as the Sony Building and Umeda Sky Tower in Osaka and the Water-Glass house in Atami. The other shows a dozen public buildings by the architect Tadao Ando including the Awaji Island Temple and the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum.
A documentation at the freshold of the digital revolution from printed video still imagery offers an alternative media format to traditional still photography. Images produced from video although largely studio based and retrospective have an immediacy and informality which is both intuitive and spontaneous. It is the transformation between pixelised rendering of the analogue video patterns and the digital computer graphics which offer the potential of a new way of representing and reading imagery hither to largely unseen. Apart from sharper focus and minor tonal adjustments software interventions have been deliberately kept to a minimum
Tadao Ando Video includes Awaji Shima Temple Chapel on the Water Naoshima Museum of Contemporary Art Suntory Museum Osaka Nariwa Municipal Museum Garden of Fine Art Kyoto Oyamasaki Museum Kyoto Chikatsu Asuka Museum Gojo City Museum Himeji Museum of Literature Chapel on Mount Rokko Kobe Rokko Flats Kobe
Art & Architecture in Japan Video includes Waterglass House Atami Kengo Kuma Shimosuwa Municipal Museum Toyo Ito Fog Mountain Showa Park Atsushi Kitagawara Meguro Gajo-en Hotel Nikken Sekkei Sogetsu Art Centre Isamu Noguchi/ Kenzo Tange Site of Reversible Destiny Arakawa & Madelane Gins Sapporo Brewery Visitors Centre Hokkaido Toyo Ito Sony Building Osaka Kisho Kurokawa Spiral Building Fumihiko Maki Sky Tower Umida Osaka Hiroshi Hara Fruit Museum Itsuko Hasegawa Rhythms of Nature Kansai Susumu Shingu Tachikawa City Curator Fram Kitagawa Tokyo International Forum Raphael Vinoly
Venue Volume Gallery 12 Woburn Walk London WC1 25th March to 8th April 2002
Holden Gallery Manchester Metropiltan Museum Cavendish Street Manchester 15th April to 31st May 2002
The Lighthouse Glasgow 9th to 12th August 2002
Exhibition supported by Japan 2001 & Sony UK