29 June 2015
Berlin based artist Youki Hirakawa talked about his oeuvre to date in relation to the main themes that inspire his works. Time and place are two notions of special interest for Hirakawa. Reflecting on the expanded sense of these principal vectors of orientation, he creates poetic works of art that often move us in their singular beauty.
24 June 2015
Bizen (named after Bizen in Okayama Prefecture, where it is produced) became the most popular type of ceramic in Japan during the Edo period because of its superior clay and durability. Many tea ware masterpieces were made in this period, and it became renowned for its red-brown hues and flourishes of melted ash.
26 May 2015
This talk highlighted the curatorial concerns of Griffin Gallery Director Becca Pelly-Fry about the impact of cultural displacement on artistic practice. She moderated a conversation amongst the 6 Japanese artists from the exhibition Two Truths. Two Truths explores the Buddhist doctrine of the same name that differentiates between two levels of truth: conventional and ultimate (or, relative and absolute). Conventional truth is how we usually see the world; a place full of diverse and distinctive things and beings. Ultimate truth is empty of concrete and inherent characteristics; there are no distinctive things or beings.
16 April 2015
Thanks to the ever growing popularity of Japanese cuisine worldwide, miso soup is well-known- however, the real value of miso is still not very much appreciated yet in the UK. Miso (a fermented paste made from soybeans), is so versatile that it can be used as a base seasoning in variety of dishes- not just in soup- as a sauce, dressing and even marinade.
7 April 2015
This third edition of The Anime Encyclopedia brings the landmark reference work up to date with six additional years of information on Japanese animation, its practitioners and products, as well as incisive thematic entries on anime history and culture. Helen McCarthy summarised the book’s genesis, its main aims, and share some of the stories it has accumulated along the way to its third shelf-shattering edition of over a million words.
11 February 2015
The connection between tea and suzuri (ink-stones for calligraphy) makes itself evident through calligraphy scrolls displayed in a tea house. Timothy d’Offay from Postcard Teas and Teruo Kurosaki, an influential figure in contemporary design, introduced these two examples of artisanal masterpieces from Japan.
3 December 2014
The practice of Takahiro Ueda is interdisciplinary, recalling a scientific researcher observing natural phenomena: atoms, chemical elements, sound vibrations, weather and environmental changes. His work is realised in collaboration with teams of experts including quartz miners, scientists and engineers.
13 October 2014
Ei Arakawa started the UNITED BROTHERS art collective with his brother Tomoo Arakawa in 2011. Their purpose is a mediation between the reality of Fukushima (where they were born) and the reality of the international art world at large. UNITED BROTHERS created the Green Tea Gallery, and is participating in the new Live Section of this year’s Frieze Art Fair with their new work Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent? Arakawa discussed this new performance of giving away soup containing an ingredient grown in Fukushima.
15 July 2014
One of the most important imports from Japan in the world of performing arts in the last half century has been the dance form butoh, which has shocked and captivated audiences around the globe. However, it appears that contact with Europe and America was changing butoh in significant ways.
2 June 2014
The shared attitude of young Japanese artists in the 2000s was to turn elements of their surroundings, such as news, society, culture and nature, into tools that can be freely incorporated into their artwork. In a complex time when it is hard to understand current situations or social structures, this must be the process to form a new reality.
