Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’
Confirmation Paper February 2014
‘A new milieu - materializing a presence of the untranslatable’
Utako Kanai
(Probationary PhD Candidate) The Center for Ideas, Faculty of the VCA & MCM, The University of Melbourne
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Abstract -p.2 1. Motivation -p.4 2. Research Method -p.6 3. Research undertaken during Probationary candidature 1. Key Concepts & Literature Reviews -p.7 2. Research Questions -p.11 3. Investigation into the Questions - part1 -p.12 4. Investigation into the Questions - part2 -p.17 4. Relevance and Importance of the Research -p.18 5. Planned Further Research -p.19 Conclusion -p.21 A brief Bibliography and Reference -p.22 List of Presentation and Publication -p.23
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1 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ Abstract
This paper discusses my research project that investigates a method for articulating and creating an art practice that encompasses my experience of being in-between ‘milieus’ and gives a presence to ‘what cannot be translated’ in that spatiality.
My PhD investigation was born out of my observation of what was not effectively translated and communicated in trans-cultural art projects that I participated, coordinated and acted as translator for. The ‘Immanent landscape’ project presented many challenges in clarifying and sharing the concepts with various artists and other art communities in different languages and locations. However, ‘what was not translated’ felt richer, and it felt as if it was holding the project together.
In articulating ‘what cannot be translated’, there are two key ideas that I identify with in my own art practice: ‘landscape’, ‘shadow and reflection’. ‘Landscape’ operated as a conceptual platform onto which I projected both my perception of being somewhere and my desire to be in a particular place or space; and ‘shadow and reflection’ functioned as an obscure and ephemeral medium, reflecting both what I see and what I want to see at a particular moment. Through my textual research, I found that ‘landscape’ was articulated as conceptual platform that “belongs to possibilities of seeing and to be seen1”; and ‘shadow and reflection’ as an obscure medium, of “degrees of shades2” or “indexical sign mediated by various degrees of transparency3”. Through these notions, I recognized a situation that prompts possibilities for seeing and interpretation.
In order to investigate this situation, I explored the French geologist, Augustin Berque’s concept of milieu that was developed through his analysis of the Japanese philosopher Watsuji Tetsruo’s fudo. While fudo is translated in English as ‘climate and culture’, Berque expresses it as milieu, which means ‘a place in between’ in French. He interprets milieu (fudo) that “encompasses various activities, modes, systems and presences… and that it is generated from one’s experience of ‘place’ and one’s thinking in ‘space’”4. This ‘place’ and ‘space’ are communicated by trajectivite (defines as both reversible traffic and reciprocal formation), which conditions linguistic and representational activities. However, whose systems are not perfect, therefore, ‘gaps in meaning’ occur and prompt “endless adaptations of a system of language between milieus, in turn creating ‘a history’”5. These ‘gaps’ are ‘what cannot be translated’, and opens up possibilities for seeing and interpretation. It is there but not there – it is ‘untranslatable’ – like how ‘shadow and reflection’ appears obscure in one’s seeing ‘landscape’.
An art practice can materialize a presence of the untranslatable and open up a space for a new milieu. This led me to explore ‘translation’ as a method for such art practice. By ‘translation’, I mean not just linguistically but also translation between different materials, forms and conditions, which are mediated by obscure and ephemeral
1 Catherine Grout, “Absolute landscape” in Contemporary Photography, Absolute Landscape between Illusion and Reality (Yokohama: 2 Junichiro Tanizaki, Innei Raisan - In praise of shadows (Tokyo: Chuoukoron-Sinsha, INC., 1975), 32 3 Atsushi Okada, Hantoumei no bigaku: Aesthetic of diaphanes (Tokyo:Iwanami Publishing, 2010), 18 4 Augustin Berque, Fudo no Nihon: Le sauvage et l'artifice_Les Japonais evant la natura, trans. Katsuhide Shinoda (Tokyo: Chikuma Publishing, 1988) 154-158. 5 Ibd.154.
2 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ elements such as absence, shadow and reflection. I have explored ‘translation’ through three major works that I produced this year and reflecting on my experiences of practicing between different geographical locations. This exploration identified three useful concepts and raised questions; firstly how to notice ‘misunderstanding’ as a possible indication of a presence of the untranslatable; secondly, what ‘architecture’ as a structure can hold the obscure and ephemeral media; thirdly, how ‘volcano’ could be a geographic metaphor to generate milieu. Alongside, I have begun developing a ‘vocabulary’ to conceptualize ‘translation’ and this includes tracing and trajectory, gaps and slippages, space and obscure layer, material surface and distancing, opening and anyone.
This has led me to examine ‘translation’ as a research methodology in contemporary art. It is significant for me, through my art and research practice to create a space that is open for anyone to enter, because a milieu is only activated through one’s experience and one’s thinking of the untranslatable. However, not everyone can enter as it is not homogeneous. One’s activating a milieu can also be a painful and violent process, yet, it enables one to form a new life. In the same way that the eruption of volcano may hurt itself and disrupt other lives around it, it can also create fertile soil for new forms of living.
I am planning further research to create a method of ‘translation’ and to propose an argument for its significance in the field. To do so, I will examine and develop the ‘linguistic environment’ and ‘vocabularies’ in my practice, and investigate the concept of ‘translation’ through exploring the relevant historical and contemporary discourses and practices. For example, Atsushi Okada’s aesthetic concept of ‘half-transparency6’ and the Aristotlelian concept of the ‘diaphanous7’; Gabriel Orozco’s works such as ‘frozen portable puddle’, ‘Extension of reflection’ and his recent exhibition ‘thinking in circle’ curated by Briony Ferry8; and Kenjiro Okazaki’s works developed around the idea of linguistics and his recent curatorial project ‘Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says)’9; the experimentation with the scales of my work, the analysis on the locations where my work is sited, and the negotiation between different materials. These will be done through exploring the various volcanic plains across continents as well as developing a workshop and techniques for translation.
The research on the discourse around ‘translation’ and ‘global art making’ includes: the dialogues between Jacques Derrida, the Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki and the economist, Akira Asada, during the international architecture conferences titled ‘Any’ series10, Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The task of the translator11’, and the Japanese thinker, Kojin Karatani’s discussion12 and idea on ‘Trans-critique’.
6 Atsushi Okada, Hantoumei no bigaku: Aesthetic of diaphanes (Tokyo:Iwanami Publishing, 2010) 7 Masashi Nakahata, trans., Aristotle ‘De Anima - On the Soul (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2001) 8 Briony Fer, Gabriel Orozco: thinking in circles (Edingburgh: The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2013) 9 Kenjiro Okazaki, “Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says)”, Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says) (Tokyo: Musashino Art University Mseum & Library, 2013) 10 Anyone Corporation. ed. Anyone (New York: Rizzoli International Publication, 1991) 11 Steven Rendall. tarns. “The translator’s task, Walter Benjamin” (Traduction, terminologie, redaction. vol.10, n2, 1997) 12 Kojin Karatani, Tankyu (Exploration) vol.1 (Tokyo:Kodansha publishing, 1986) 3 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 1. Motivation
In my Master’s research entitled ‘felt oscillation as ma’ undertaken at the VCA School of Art, I aimed to bridge western and eastern aesthetic concepts and philosophical ideas, for the purpose of articulating my art practice as one that prompts states of oscillation in an audience. I examined how a visual aesthetic can stimulate the haptic sensitivity of a viewer, and how installed artwork can create a ma like situation that stimulates an audience’s sense of being ‘somewhere’. I named this understanding of ‘somewhere’, which is both a visual and physical space as, ‘immanent landscape’.
After my Masters, I wanted to see if its outcome could extend to be shared and discussed with other art practitioners. This became a project, where I created a platform for artists from Japan and Australia to visit each other’s places to make and present their art works in response to the theme ‘immanent landscape’. In the project, my role was to set a platform, as well as produce artwork, and in both roles I was making an ‘immanent landscape’ as a particular place or space that is shareable through creative activities.
Figure 1: The exhibition view, ‘Immanent Landscape—内在の風景’, Japan Foundation Gallery Sydney, 2012
The project can be seen as successful in that it created a platform in which residencies, exhibitions (Fig.1) and catalogue productions were completed across three cities over the course of three years. However, it raised uncertainties about what I meant by ‘immanent landscape’. It may have been the lack of contact with my own art making during the project, overtaken by the business of actual running of the project, or the stress caused by expectation to have a shared outcome that resulted in constantly stretching and thinning out the idea in order to easily communicate it to the other artists. The curator, who co-hosted the project in Japan, Hanae Nakao described, “The vessel Shindo prepared for the artists is extensive. And in accordance with the growing number of people engaged, the shape of the vessel alters organically.13” I found her observation very encouraging, but I still felt that there is something unresolved in my reflection on the project.
13 Hanae Nakao, “ The expanding Immanent Landscape” in Immanent Landscape exhibition catalogue, (Oyama: Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art, 2011), 19 4 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’
Following this project, I was continuously involved in creating a platform for ‘international’ art exchanges, and often I stood in-between two parties as a coordinator and a translator. Through these jobs, which often aimed to have a social impact locally and globally, I deliberately avoided seeing things that could not be communicated or translated due to the necessity to ‘achieve’ exchanges and outcomes with limited resources. However, ‘what cannot be translated’ intuitively felt richer and it was always present, often holding the trans-cultural situations together. It felt almost meaningless to pursue clarity in communication and exchanges because it seemed that what is difficult to communicate felt richer and without understanding this deeper the outcome of exchanges could have felt superficial.
These observations prompted me to ask what ‘untranslatable’ is, what ‘immanent landscape’ meant to me, and what the purpose is of attempting to share or exchange ideas with others. These became reflective questions to myself as an artist and as a professional who support and creates a platform for global connections among different art communities and exchange ideas of art making. At the same time they were also questions about making artwork, presenting artwork to others and exchanging artistic activities in a trans-cultural context, as there were always different understandings of what art is, and different expectations of the role of artists.
5 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 2. Research Method
These frustrating questions led me to my current PhD research and to undertake practice-based research at the Interdisciplinary Center For Ideas (CFI) within the faculty of VCA and MCM.
I was interested in moving outside a contemporary Western art context. Nor did I want to work solely within a contemporary Japanese art context.
A candidate at CFI is required to first identify the fields of their research and consider methodological approaches for research in an interdisciplinary context. The requirement suited my motivation, which was to re-define for myself what art is and to articulate new methods for my art practice. In this regard, the manner encouraged at CFI, in which an artist conducts art research in an interdisciplinary manner, appeared to offer wider scope that may enable the identification of art among other disciplines and cultures. The identification does not result in revealing art from others but clear its unique presence in the academy at large.
During my 1st year as a PhD candidate, the meaning for me being situated in between ‘milieus’ became clear. I realized that I had always been looking for ‘the untranslatable’ in my art practice. This articulation led my research to investigate a method to materialize ‘the untranslatable’ and give a presence to it as an artwork - a ‘milieu’.
My research is practice-led, as I initially make artwork to explore ideas and then followed by the understanding that comes from articulation in speaking and writing. My textual and visual research helps me to examine what my artwork does and offers useful reference points. My writing thesis reflects upon how my artwork embodies a method that I am exploring and generating.
I write this thesis in English, which is not my native language. However, I can talk about art almost like a ‘native’ speaker, as my art practice developed in an English speaking environment. However, my artwork embodies my sensitivity, thinking and interpretation that are also derived from my Japanese background. These ‘complex’ linguistic environments also motivate me to write in both English and in Japanese. The limitation in my English writing means that I write simply and plainly. This is a useful device for me to express my thinking clearly, which is formed through my various encounters in linguistic environments. As I am also interested in reflecting on how my artwork critiques the idea of homogenization, I am constantly aware of not letting my English homogenize or simplify my thinking either, but encompass complexity of my linguistic background. This is challenging but important to consider in my writing.
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I have outlined some of the research methods that I employed this year. They were undertaken through many languages and locations, English, Japanese and Spanish in Australia, Japan and Mexico.
6 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ • My research practice have included: art productions in and outside of studios, through participating studio- residency and artist-in residency programs, creating exhibitions and holding research projects at public domain; experimentations with materials, scales, media and techniques.
• My textual/visual research have included: critical engagement with essays through text; dialogues and lectures through various media resources; seeing artworks and listening to artist talks/discussion held at art venues such as galleries and museums, and as well as private studio visits.
• My thesis became a base for both recording and reflecting the progress of both practice and textual/visual research. A philosophical link between these became clear, and ‘translation’ manifested between locations, cultures, languages and materials.
7 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 3. Research undertaken during the Probationary Candidature
3-1. Key Concepts and Literature Reviews Another prompt - “what does ‘immanent landscape’ mean to me?”, came when I was looking at the scenery out of a hospital window with my ninety-nine year old grandmother who was in her wheel chair. In reality, we were viewing the direction to the west of Tokyo, but I heard her say in raptures, "We can see Mt. Aso there, so beautiful". Despite my understanding of her misunderstanding that Mt. Aso cannot be seen as it is located in the south island of Japan, for a moment, I became lost in time and space. To me, what she was looking at and how she described it, felt very close to what I was meaning by ‘immanent landscape’. It is there but not there. It was personal to her, but somehow it can also be shared. The way she described felt very much like an artistic experience – the hospital was like a gallery space, where my viewing was evoked by my grandmother’s ‘artistic’ description. Even though her view was outside of what makes sense and it may be considered as a misunderstanding, it felt most beautiful and true to me.
Figure 2: The photo taken by the author in the hospital. August 2012, Tokyo With this experience in my mind I intended to examine some ideas that had been prominent in my practice. These included ideas of ‘landscape’, ‘shadow and reflection’ (Fig.3 and 4). In my practice, ‘landscape’ operated as a conceptual platform, onto which I projected both my perception of being somewhere and my desire to be in a particular place or space. ‘Shadow and reflection’ functioned as an obscure and ephemeral medium, reflecting both what I see and what I want to see at a particular moment.
Fig. 3: One Place of Six Moments, 2012, ink jet print on awa paper / 38x74cm Fig. 4: Shadow Drawing-Hanakaido, 2011, lithograph / 38x50 cm
8 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ In my textual research on ‘landscape’, I was most inspired by the perspective introduced by the art historian, Catherine Grout, whereby “absolute landscape is neither reality nor fiction, but a possibility that belongs to who sees and what is seen14”. In my research of ‘shadow and reflection’, the following perspectives were appealing. The novelist, Junichiro Tanizaki, aesthetically considers shadow and reflection as “‘degrees of shades’”15. The art historian, Atsushi Okada, in interpreting shadow and mirrored image as ‘projection and reflection’, analyses them as “indexical sign that is mediated by various degrees of transparency16”.
The above perspectives seemed to share an understanding that ‘landscape’, ‘shadow and reflection’ provide a similar situation that prompts possibilities for seeing and interpretation. While I explored this situation through my art practice (Fig.5), I was also reminded the situation in which ‘immanent landscape’ appeared during my visit to my grandmother. I, then, aimed to find a conceptual framework to articulate this. In so doing I explore ‘what art is to me’.
Fig.5 Muntain-ing (section), 2013, LED light, paper clay, Perspex, paper, base / dimension variable
When researching the etymology of the term ‘landscape’ in Japanese, I encountered the concept of milieu developed by the French geographer and philosopher, Augustin Berque. The concept evolved through his analysis of the Japanese philosopher, Tetsuro Watsuji’s concept of fudo. The term fudo literally means weather and land. While it had been introduced in English as ‘climate and culture’, Berque translated fudo as ‘milieu’ in French, which means “‘a place in between’”20.
The concept of milieu interested me because it shows that translation of an idea expressed in one language can differ in another, and across moments in time. Originally, the concept of fudo was formed in the 1930s as Watsuji’s critical response to Martin Heidegger’s influential text ‘Being and Time’. Watsuji placed emphasis on the articulation of one’s presence in space rather that in time, and argued that humans give a meaning to ‘nature’ through ‘culture’. In this way, nature is understood metaphorically.
14 Catherine Grout, “Absolute landscape” in Contemporary Photography, Absolute Landscape between Illusion and Reality (Yokohama: Yokohama Museum of Art, 1997) 15 Junichiro Tanizaki, Innei Raisan - In praise of shadows (Tokyo: Chuoukoron-Sinsha, INC., 1975), 32 16 Atsushi Okada, Hantoumei no bigaku: Aesthetic of diaphanes (Tokyo:Iwanami Publishing, 2010), 18 20 Katsuhide Shinoda, “The translator’s afterword”, in Fudo no Nihon: Le sauvage et l'artifice_Les Japonais evant la natura, Augustin Berque. trans. Katsuhide Shinoda (Tokyo: Chikuma Publishing, 1988) 415 9 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’
In his book ‘Le sauvage et l'artifice_Les Japonais evant la natura’, Berque defines milieu as that which “encompass various activities, modes, systems and presences… and it is formed from one’s experience of ‘place’ and one’s thinking in ‘space’”22. He applies a term ‘trajectivite’ (for which he refers to epistemology and anthropology, and can be translated as trajectory) to what connects and communicates between ‘place’ and ‘space’. The trajetivite generates a particular spatiality, and it is considered “reversible traffic and reciprocal formation” 23. Berque argues that this spatiality conditions linguistic and representational activities. He writes :
“It is impossible for a system of language to represent all the presences within a milieu comprehensively… The adaptation of a system to another system cannot be perfect either. This causes endless repetition of being adapted and not being adapted, in turn creating a history.” 26
I found this intriguing - how one makes sense OR NOT of her/his being in a place through linguistic activities which are not perfect. These “gaps in meanings” allow for a creation of meaning, and can be considered as what cannot be translated into words or between languages. These notions are perhaps what were not addressed or understood in the trans-cultural projects that I was previously involved in. I also understood ‘a history’ as a sequence of forming a new milieu, a new meaning given to a new presence.
Here, I attempt to analyze that what cannot be translated – the untranslatable, embodies a situation that serves for possibility and variability in which new understandings and meanings can be formed. It is there but not there, in a similar way that ‘shadow or reflection’ appears obscure in one’s seeing ‘landscape’.
22 Augustin Berque, Fudo no Nihon: Le sauvage et l'artifice_Les Japonais evant la natura, trans. Katsuhide Shinoda (Tokyo: Chikuma Publishing, 1988) 154-158 23 Ibd.185. 26 Ibd.154,161. 10 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 3-2. Research Questions The investigation of ‘the untranslatable’ leads me to question: • “How can an art practice materialize a presence of ‘the untranslatable’ as a new ‘milieu’ to open up a space for new understandings and meanings?” • and conversely, “How can ‘translation’ be considered a method for revealing ‘the untranslatable’ and creating a ‘milieu’?”
These are sub-questions stemming from the key research questions: 1. How can a method of ‘translation’ reveal ‘the untranslatable’ between milieus? 2. How can ‘the untranslatable’ be materialized and given a presence as an artwork? 3. How can an artwork be considered a new ‘milieu’ that opens up a space for new understandings?
1. How can a method of ‘translation’ reveal ‘the untranslatable’ between milieus? I investigate ‘translation’ as it was experienced in three major works that I produced this year, from working and negotiating translations between different geographical locations. There were instances where there were openings and slippages, which do not literally translate from one to another. ‘Translation’ here doesn’t only mean linguistic translations between Japanese, French and English, but also translation between different materials, forms and conditions, which in my view are mediated by obscure and ephemeral elements such as absence, shadow and reflection.
2. How can ‘the untranslatable’ be materialized and given a presence as an artwork? Obscure and ephemeral elements can also be considered as ‘media’ for materializing ‘the untranslatable’. I attempt to further explore this through ‘vocabularies’ as a strategy for giving a presence to ‘the untranslatable’. These include: tracing and trajectory, gaps and slippages, space and obscure layer, material surface and distancing, opening and anyone, and as well absence, shadow and reflection.
3. How can an artwork be considered a new ‘milieu’ that opens up a space for new understandings? I discuss that presenting an artwork - a new ‘milieu’ is one way to open a space, where other people –‘other milieus’ are invited and situated in a possibility of seeing and interpreting. They give a new understandings to ‘the untranslatable’, which emerge from her/his interpretations, sensitivities and voices. The new understandings vary and each of them only means to that person, who is bringing her/his own ‘milieu’ to the artwork. However, an artwork- a milieu is open to be shared.
In the following section, the research questions are investigated further through reflecting on the major artworks that I produced this year, and in discussing ‘vocabularies’ that I have developed.
11 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 3-3. Investigation of Questions: part1
‘Understanding of misunderstanding’ (the work produced for the exhibition at Slope in Tokyo) The image of my grandmother (Fig.2), which prompted my PhD research, implicates two layers: one layer is an actual location, and another, a location in her memory. She had put these together, and though there are slippages, she could construct a meaning from it, which had an emotional truth to it even though it was not geographically true. It speaks about her life of aging, a history of her hundred lived years of interpretation.
From that image, I created a cabinet installation through interpreting her milieu. I interwove my short history of interpreting places by connecting horizontal lines and mountain ridges or juxtaposing similar shapes that appear on various imageries. The sculptures, which are set on a sheet of perspex, created shadows on a blank sheet of paper and reflections on a sheet of perspex. The space between sculptures and shadow or reflection, and the space between the perspex and the paper mediated and opened “gaps of meaning” from which audiences were invited to interpret.
Fig.6&7 Understanding of misunderstanding, 2013, collage with mixed media, paper clay, Acrylic board, frame / dimension variable 12 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ ‘Pretend not to see’ (the work produced during Studio residency at BankART NYK Studio in Yokohama) The work emerged from commuting between the two locations: the residency studio in BankArt Yokohama, and my home in Tokyo. I first looked for shadows and reflections, which exist commonly but appear differently in these distant locations. I then intended to recreate this sense of what was almost same, but not quite translatable, from one location to another, by employing water and light as materials. I also used the architecture of the studio as a linguistic environment, to construct a structure to hold these intangible materials. For example, by tracing window frames with strings and fabrics, light coming through the window was translated into shades to leave its index as projected shadows onto the walls. The water drawn from the bay outside of BankArt was stored in a rectangular glass tank while I filmed the surface of the bay and projected onto the wall in a similar rectangular shape.
As a result of capturing water and light as medium to materialize my ‘translation’ between locations, I constructed shifting images in similar shapes on various surfaces across the studio environment. The construction, as an installation piece, became a device to hold the spaces between these elements, as well as to embody imageries of obscure and ephemeral. In this way, ‘the untranslatable’ was materialized in the spaces between as the gaps, into which audiences were invited to enter.
Figure 8: Pretend not to see, 2013, string, fabric, paper, wall, floor, window, mirror, air, water, tank, projector, clay, etc. / dimension variable
13 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’
Figure 9-11: Pretend not to see, 2013, string, fabric, paper, wall, floor, window, mirror, air, water, tank, projector, clay, etc. / dimension variable
14 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ ‘Pensé en ir de alguna manera - Somehow I thought I’d come’ (the work produced during Artist in residency at Arquetopia & Museo Taller Erasto Cortes in Puebla) Prior to my artist-in-residency in Puebla, Mexico, I visited Mt. Aso in south of Japan, which was present in my grandmother’s seeing the scenery out of the hospital window. I wanted to somehow make a link between Mt. Aso and the volcanoes in Puebla. After arriving there, I learnt that Puebla had always been in an endless process of translating between various cultures throughout its history. The three volcanoes, in particular, are symbolic of its culture and history, and I saw that they embodied the process of ‘translation’.
On the border of Puebla, there are two volcanoes that represent the Aztec story of Iztaccihuatl, meaning sleeping woman, and Popocatepetl, smoking mountain – a man waits for his love to come back to life. Using a volcano as a metaphor of life and death, the story seems to reveal the space in-between the two, which are sustained in the possibility of new form of living. On the other side of the border, there is another volcano, which was named after Malintzin who worked as a translator for the Spanish conqueror Cortes in the 16th century. For a long time, she was thought of as a rebel but this perception is changing more recently, as people have come to realize that the liberation of new Mexico was nearly impossible without her mediation between the two languages and cultures.
Figure 12&13: Mt. Popocatépetl & Mt. Iztaccihuatl (left) An image of Malintzin(right)
In the making of artworks in a residency studio and a printmaking workshop in the museum, I experimented with local materials which convey the culture and geography of Puebla, and explored the concepts and methods of printmaking which were applicable to talk about the idea of a system of language in ‘milieu’.
From this, I held an exhibition across three continuous spaces in the museum. I considered the entire exhibition a new milieu, which was generated through my making artworks and my translations. The opening of exhibition also meant to open a new milieu and invite other people – audiences to enter and give a meaning to this new milieu through their interpretations. The first work in the exhibition was a text given by a local writer. We had shared many dialogues in our broken Spanish and English, which prompted her writing a text about the opposing possibilities for which language can be used: violence or liberation. The text was layered on the surface of a paper sculpture, which was shaped into Mt. Malintzin. The floor piece became a map, entwining visual information that I sourced and created in Puebla and Aso. The lava shaped sculptures made out of local volcanic clay, were hung from the ceiling, creating shadows in order to materialize a sense that could not be translated in the language of the map. The two- monitor video works introduced two personal stories around volcanoes that are similar but differently situated in Japan and Mexico. The languages spoken and subtitled were in Japanese, English and Spanish, and they were intended to be experienced simultaneously in audiences’ perception.
15 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’
Fig.14-16 Pensé en ir de alguna manera – Somehow I thought I’d go (part), 2013, siligraphia-print, digital print, window, digital displays, video / dimension variable 16 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 3-4. Investigation of Questions: par2 I have begun identifying ‘vocabularies’ as a strategy and device for a method of ‘translation’.
From the three major works, I identified three different useful concepts: • ‘Questions of misunderstanding’ as an indication of a presence of the untranslatable • ‘Architecture’ as a structure to hold the obscure and ephemeral media such as absent, shadow and reflection • ‘Volcano’ as a geographic metaphor of generation of a milieu.
The following terms became key in the process of ‘translation’: • ‘Tracing’ can be a form of translation and also a record of its ‘trajectory’. • The ‘gaps’ and ‘slippages’ are revealed temporarily as a ‘space’ and an ‘obscure layer’. • The ‘space and ‘obscure layer’ are held in-between ‘material surfaces’. • ‘Distancing’ these ‘surfaces’ can create and structure ‘the untranslatable’ as a ‘milieu’. • ‘Opening’ the presence is a way to invite ‘anyone’ to enter and interpret.
For instance, a string can trace and translate the shape of a window frame into an abstract rectangle shape. It also creates a shadow onto the wall, indicating what was not identical between the shapes of the string and the shadow. The tension, which holds the gaps in shape, opens a space. The shadow is an obscure layer, which slips between materials surfaces. By ‘distancing’ these ‘material surfaces’, the gaps and the slippages are given a material presence. It will be also be open to the viewer’s interpretations.
In the next stage of my research, I aim to further develop the ‘vocabularies’. In so doing, I will be able to articulate ‘translation’ further as a method.
17 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 4. Relevance and Importance of the Research
My research is an opportunity to create an art practice and write in English about the process of ‘translation’. This process is meaningful as it reveals ‘the untranslatable’, which I consider rich in mediating presences.
I have attempted to examine the significance of my research in the field of contemporary art, and in its discourse around ‘global art making’:
• This research through my art practice creates a space – ‘milieu’ – which is conditioned to open for anyone to enter, because a ‘milieu’ is only activated through one’s experience and one’s thinking. However, it is against homogenization, as a ‘milieu’ is opened for anyone’s interpretation and it serves for unaccountable presences.
• One’s activating a milieu can be a painful and violent process but it enables one to form a ‘new life’. In the same way that the eruption of volcano may disrupt or destroy as a re-generative process for fertile soil for new forms of living.
• In contemporary art field, it is required for an artist to talk and write about her/his artwork. In the context of global art making, which, in my view, includes exhibitions, exchange programs, artist-in residency, art conferences and art education, whether we want to or not, English is recognized as ‘official’ language for speaking and writing about art. Thus, for artists whose English is not their main language, it is crucial to convey and share ideas with others without dismissing or undermining the richness of ‘the untranslatable’. The methods I explore and contribute must say what I want to say, derived not only from English but also other languages such as art and Japanese.
• This method enables to practice art between more than one system of language or culture, making it diverse and heterogeneous instead of homogeneous.
18 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ 5. Further Research in the Next Stage of the Candidature
I plan to further research a method of ‘translation’ and argue its significance in the field of contemporary art. To do so, I will examine and develop a ‘linguistic environment’ and ‘vocabularies’ in my practice.
The research for a method of ‘translation’ includes: the investigation into the art historian, Atsushi Okada’s aesthetic concept of ‘half-transparency27’ and Aristotle’s concept of the ‘diaphanous28’; Gabriel Orozco’s works such as ‘frozen portable puddle’, ‘Extension of reflection’ and his recent exhibition ‘thinking in circle’ curated by Briony Ferry29; and Kenjiro Okazaki’s works developed around the idea of linguistics and his recent curatorial project ‘Et in Arcadia Ego- Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says)’30; experimentation with the scale of my own work ; analysis of locations both in and outside of the studio where my work is sited; and the negotiation between different materials. These will be done through exploring the various volcanic plains across continents as well as developing a workshop and techniques.
The research on the discourse around ‘translation’ and ‘global art making’ includes: the dialogues between Jacques Derrida, the Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki and the economist, Akira Asada, during the international architecture conferences titled ‘Any’ series31, Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The task of the translator32’, and the Japanese thinker, Kojin Karatani’s discussion33 and idea on ‘Trans-critique’.
Here I briefly outline some of the ideas to be explored. - Isozaki and Asada make a link between spatial concepts such as ma, chora and espacing, and Derrida expresses “Ma as the place for translation is untranslatable. Chora as a place for translation is untranslatable 34”. - Benjamin uses a metaphor of a broken vase, which someone tries to stick different pieces together. - Karatani discusses that communication with ‘others’ within a shared linguistic system is as violent as communication between completely foreign linguistic systems35. - Okada’s concept of ‘half-transparency’ evolves through his interpretation of Aristotle’s ‘diaphanous’ and draws a link between concepts such as the ‘ineffable’, ‘diaphanousness’, ‘inframince’ and ‘gray’.
----- I have planned the brief schedule for the next stage of my candidature.
27 Atsushi Okada, Hantoumei no bigaku: Aesthetic of diaphanes (Tokyo:Iwanami Publishing, 2010) 28 Masashi Nakahata, trans., Aristotle ‘De Anima - On the Soul (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2001) 29 Briony Fer, Gabriel Orozco: thinking in circles (Edingburgh: The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2013) 30 Kenjiro Okazaki, “Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says)”, Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says) (Tokyo: Musashino Art University Mseum & Library, 2013) 31 Anyone Corporation. ed. Anyone (New York: Rizzoli International Publication, 1991) 32 Steven Rendall. tarns. “The translator’s task, Walter Benjamin” (Traduction, terminologie, redaction. vol.10, n2, 1997) 33 Kojin Karatani, Tankyu (Exploration) vol.1 (Tokyo:Kodansha publishing, 1986) 34 Anyone Corporation. ed. Anyone (New York: Rizzoli International Publication, 1991) 35 Kojin Karatani, Tankyu (Exploration) vol.1 (Tokyo:Kodansha publishing, 1986) 19 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ A Proposed Schedule
Semester/Break 2014. Jan Prepare Confirmation Paper Develop concepts and methods Feb
2014 Sem.1: Investigate the concept and method of ‘translation’, and develop a method and technique. Sem. break: Trip to China and interview with a curator and writer, Hu Fuang at Vitamin Creative Space, and visit to the city designed by Arata Isozaki). Sem.2: Research with Japanese Institution (to be confirmed) and communicate my research concepts and discussions in Japanese; Exhibition or Residency in Taiwan (to be confirmed). Summer break: Write a progress report and plan/organize a potential project and final exhibition for 2015.
2015 Sem.1: Hold a project based on my research outcome 2014; refine concepts, methods and technique. Sem.2: Finalize artwork and thesis towards the completion. Hold a completion Exhibition.
2016 Feb.: Submit thesis and give a completion presentation
20 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ Conclusion
In summary, ‘what cannot be translated’ which I observed in my previous trans-cultural projects is understood as rich, beautiful and emotionally true. Through the exploration of the concepts of ‘landscape’, ‘shadow and reflection’, ‘untranslatable’ can also be considered a situation that prompts possibilities in seeing and interpretation. Berque’s concept of ‘milieu’, which identifies “gaps in meaning” in a system of language and representation informs my main argument that an art practice can materialize a presence of ‘untranslatable’ and open a space for a new ‘milieu’. I have proposed a method of ‘translation’ through my art practice and have reflected upon how ‘translation’ as a method can reveal the untranslatable in my art works produced this year. The research is now developing the ‘vocabularies’ for a method such as ‘questions of misunderstanding’, ‘architecture’, ‘volcano’, ‘obscure medium’ etc. My research critiques the idea of homogenization in favor of a plurality of ‘milieu’ as new forms of life.
21 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ A brief Bibliography and Reference [Book] Kuresawa, Takemi. Fukei to iu Kyokou: Landscape as fiction. Tokyo: Bruke Publishing, 2008
Berque, Augustin. Fudo no Nihon: Le sauvage et l'artifice_Les Japonais evant la natura. Translated by Katsuhide Shinoda. Tokyo: Chikuma Publishing, 1988.
Okada, Atsushi. Hantoumei no bigaku: Aesthetic of diaphanes. Tokyo:Iwanami Publishing, 2010
Nakahata, Masashi. trans. Aristotle ‘De Anima (On the Soul). Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2001
Stoichita, Victor I. A short history of the shadow. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 1997
Tanizaki, Junichiro. Inei Raisan (In praise of shadows). Tokyo: Chuoukoron-Sinsha, INC., 1975
Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century. MIT Press: 1992
Mitsuda, Yuri. Kotoba to Mono - Words and Things: Jiro Takamatsu’s issue –with Japanese art 1961-72 Tokyo: Daiwa Press, 2011
Yamadori, Atsuhi. What our soul is made out of – from brain science to philosophy of mind. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2011
Haskell, Babara. ed. Agnes Martin. N.Y.: Whitney Abrams, 1992
Fumiaki, Noya. edit. México no Bi no Kyosei tachi - Grandes maestros del arte mexicano moderno. Tokyo: Tokyodo Publishing, 2011.
Fer, Briony. Gabriel Orozco: thinking in circles. Edingburgh: The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2013
[Journal and Magazine Article] Kajiya, Kenji. and others. ed. “Art as negotiation”, Hyosho (The journal of the association for studies of cultural and representation) 05 (2011). Tokyo: Getsuyosha, 2011
Moser, Edvard I. and others, “Place Cells, Grid Cells, and the Brain’s Spatial Representation System”, The Anal Review of Neuroscience, 31(2008): 69–89
[Catalogue Essay] Grout, Catherine. “Absolute landscape”, Contemporary Photography, Absolute Landscape between Illusion and Reality. Yokohama: Yokohama Museum of Art, 1997
Okazaki, Kenjiro. “Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says)”, Et in Arcadia Ego-Haka ha kataruka (if tomb says). Tokyo: Musashino Art University Mseum & Library, 2013
Irrek, Hans. “Images of the Flux of time: in the flood of Associations”. Bangkok, ed. Beat Wismer (Dusseldorf: Museum Kunstpalast in association with Steidl Verlag, 2012),
Isozaki, Arata. “A Ma cycle of some twenty years”, Ma Espace-Temps du Japon. Tokyo: Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, 2000
[Symposium, conference etc.] Isozaki, Arata., Okazaki, Kenjiro., Matsuda, Tatsu., and Suzuki, Ken. “Computer Aided City” in Public Talk Event at Exhibition ‘Solaris’ by Arata Isozaki, Intercommunication Center, Tokyo, January 25, 2014.
Derrida, Jacques. “Summary of Impromptu Remarks - ‘The status of the individual’, International Architecture Conference ‘Anyone’. New York: Rizzoli International Publication, 1991
McHugh, Tomas. “A private lecture” held for the post-landscape study group, at Laboratory for Circuit and Behavioral Physiology, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako City, August 15, 2013.
22 Confirmation Paper: ‘A new milieu: materializing a presence of the untranslatable’ List of Presentation and Publication
[Exhibitions] Mountaining, Emerging Artist Award, Kawaguchi City, Art Gallery Atlia, March, 2013 Understanding of misunderstanding, SLOPE, Tokyo, April 2013
[Studio Residency & Exhibition] Pretend not to see, Bank Art Studio NYK, Yokohama, May-July, 2013
[Research Project & Presentation] Sphere Sensitive, IRO, Tokyo, August 26-30, 2013
[Artist-in-residency & Exhibition] Pense ́ en ir de alguna manera - Somehow I thought I’d go, Arquetopia & Museo Taller Erasto Cortes, Oct-Dec 2013
[Presentation] Artist Talk, Bank Art Studio NYK, Yokohama, July 20, 2013 Lecture, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, November 19, 2013
[Publication] Translated the exhibition catalogue essay ‘Thermo dynamic of Sun’, written by Kazuhiro Yamamoto, Tochigi Prefectural Art Museum, July 2013
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