Tracing Water - a collaborative artwork with Japanese architect, Iwaki Kazuya, and Iwaki Lab, Tokyo Denki University - Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2018
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Tracing Water is a collaborative artwork with Japanese architect, Iwaki Kazuya, and Iwaki Lab, Tokyo Denki University who work closely with the Aramachi Shinden community. Historically this community suffered shortage of water for centuries until the Kawanishi Dam was built in 1980. Our work draws on the local stories about water that circulate orally in the community.
It comprises outdoor site works and a spatial structure for a group exhibition at the Kinare Museum. The outdoor artwork will take the form of many giant blue woven ‘water molecules’, clustered and suspended in six locations in and around the Aramachi Shinden. The locations are on a terrace and a park looking onto the Kawanishi Dam; a shrine, playground, pond in the Aramachi Shinden; and a nearby forested ravine surrounded by rice fields. The site traces memories of a river from the mountain to the ridge of the Shinano River. The museum component is a 10 ft square spatial construction incorporating mirrors, shelves, stones and a rotating ‘water molecule’ for the exhibition Hojoki Shiki 2018, at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Contemporary Museum of Art. The stones on the shelves hold memories of water, each collected from the Minami-sawa River which flows from the mountain through the Aramachi Shinden to the Shinano River. |
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Tracing Water - Hojoki Shiki 2018, at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Contemporary Museum of Art.
A 10 ft square spatial construction incorporating mirrors, shelves, stones and a rotating ‘water molecule’. The stones on the shelves hold memories of water, each collected from the Minami-sawa River which flows from the mountain through the Aramachi Shinden to the Shinano River.
A 10 ft square spatial construction incorporating mirrors, shelves, stones and a rotating ‘water molecule’. The stones on the shelves hold memories of water, each collected from the Minami-sawa River which flows from the mountain through the Aramachi Shinden to the Shinano River.
Hojoki - Shiki: the universe of Ten Foot square spaces by architects and artists.
Echigo Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art – Kinare.
29 July- 17 September 2018.
Inspired by Hojoki (an account of my hut) a book written in the middle ages, to survive our troubled times. 30 groups are participating selected by panel - Hiroshi Hara, Ryue Nishizawa and Fram Kittagawa.
In the depressing ages with many wars and disasters, Kamo no Chomei (1155-1216), a law ranked nobleman, willingly lived in a 10ft hut from where he observed, considered and recorded the unquiet world. Ryokan (1758-1831), a Buddhist monk, also lived in a hermitage known as ‘Gogo-an', surviving on charity, as the feudal system of the Edo period reached its limits. After WW11, the novelist, Yoshie Hotta (1918-1998) wrote Hojoki Shiki (the private records of Hojoki) and attempted to emulate Chomei’s way in post-war chaos where traditional values were crumbling at the roots.
The exhibition is an opportunity for the architects and artists to present their own Hojoki Shiki, proposing a different ‘hojo’, the minimum model of Japanese architecture, with different functions, following the way of life of Chomei, who settled down in his own place and observed the world from there.
The exhibition is also a new proposal to revitalise the central Tokamachi City area. By embedding small spaces with a variety of desirable functions into existing empty shops and houses, it is designed to turn the declined area to be a unique shopping.area. With the aim of creating new circulation and bustling in the town through the ‘invisible city’s network ‘ Echigo -Tsumari Hojo Village One Hundred Years Initiative” has been launched.
Echigo Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art – Kinare.
29 July- 17 September 2018.
Inspired by Hojoki (an account of my hut) a book written in the middle ages, to survive our troubled times. 30 groups are participating selected by panel - Hiroshi Hara, Ryue Nishizawa and Fram Kittagawa.
In the depressing ages with many wars and disasters, Kamo no Chomei (1155-1216), a law ranked nobleman, willingly lived in a 10ft hut from where he observed, considered and recorded the unquiet world. Ryokan (1758-1831), a Buddhist monk, also lived in a hermitage known as ‘Gogo-an', surviving on charity, as the feudal system of the Edo period reached its limits. After WW11, the novelist, Yoshie Hotta (1918-1998) wrote Hojoki Shiki (the private records of Hojoki) and attempted to emulate Chomei’s way in post-war chaos where traditional values were crumbling at the roots.
The exhibition is an opportunity for the architects and artists to present their own Hojoki Shiki, proposing a different ‘hojo’, the minimum model of Japanese architecture, with different functions, following the way of life of Chomei, who settled down in his own place and observed the world from there.
The exhibition is also a new proposal to revitalise the central Tokamachi City area. By embedding small spaces with a variety of desirable functions into existing empty shops and houses, it is designed to turn the declined area to be a unique shopping.area. With the aim of creating new circulation and bustling in the town through the ‘invisible city’s network ‘ Echigo -Tsumari Hojo Village One Hundred Years Initiative” has been launched.