special issue Feature Interview The Wings of Miwa Yanagi

Miwa Yanagi has wings, and she flies easily across the borders of different art genres. She majored in textile dyeing in her school years, but shifted to contemporary art, creating photography and video work using computer graphics. Since 2012, she has been also been a professor at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Art and Design. The next place she landed at was theater. In the past four years, she has been organizing many plays based on modern , as if excavating hidden voices of people buried in history. In 2014, she introduced the Taiwanese moving stage (stage trailer) to Japan for the first time. Together with students of Kyoto University of Art and Design, Tohoku University of Art & Design, and Taipei National University of the Arts, the moving stage they made in Taiwan will be “drifting” to various places after “landing ashore” at Yokohama Triennale. A pilgrimage and tour begins with “Wings of the Sun,” a road novel by the late novelist, Kenji Nakagami.

Photography：Shen Chao-Liang What does this touring performance mean to her? The stage trailer unfolds and the stage appears. In Taiwan. As Miwa Yanagi is on a quest to find her ideal expression, we too chase after her as she continues to fly on the artistic stage.

1 2 make things using my hands. Being in the classical and traditional Departments of Crafts, I didn't know much about art when I was an undergraduate student. Of course, I was familiar with Dumb Type1 or Yayoi Kusama2, but I didn't quite understand the concept of contemporary art even if I visited an exhibition. In my third year, I began to take interest in theater and wanted to make theater costumes. I thought I would work as an apprentice with Emi Wada3, so I visited her with a letter of reference. Information City: Fountain Garden/ Woods of Shine/ Elevator 1996 C print

Eventually, I was turned down. That was when I decided to go to So what made you go back to making artworks? What were your ideas behind Elevator Girls? graduate school. So graduate school was when I started learning about It was frustrating. I think the last thing you want to be is an art student I made a photography series of usher girls in my late twenties when I art. who has stopped making art. One day, on my way to work, I stopped by was mainly working and not making art. It was clearly representing Did you start your career as an artist right after graduation? at a convenience store in a suit that I hated wearing but had to. There, myself, acting to work in small offices and classrooms. Compared to There is a period of time after graduation when I didn’t create or At the venue of her first solo exhibition held simultaneously with her graduation exhibition. I met my classmate wearing a work suit, obviously because they were that, my next work, My Grandmothers, is a lot more open because I made exhibit anything. I had three different jobs, six days a week, and there busy working on their artwork, and I was super jealous…No, that's a it while communicating with the models. In my works, melancholy and What were you doing when you were 20 years old? were times when I had to work in all Keihanshin areas (Kyoto, , joke (laughs.) For me, the reason I started making art again was because emancipation, reason and chaos, appear in confrontation with each I was always in the university studio. Always. All I did was make art. ) in the same day. It was hard making a living in my twenties, so I could see it from the outside. In the end, I rented a gallery and held other, so theater is a great medium for me. I was constantly working in the Fine Arts Building. I would go home I couldn't really create any artwork. I couldn’t store all the large works an exhibition, almost obsessively. It was performance art, not a picture, The “performance of smiling usher girls” from 20 years ago (see the on my scooter late at night, fall asleep, then go back to school as soon I made in university, so I had to throw almost all of them away at where a real life elevator girl sat still and smiled all day long. People lower right photo of the previous page) has recently restarted, and as I woke up and start working. Everyday was like this. It’s not that my graduation. around me must have been bewildered because I had been working in they appear in my recent plays as chorus5 or as supporting roles. How mind was focused only on making art, but because this was the only crafts all along. Well, people are still surprised now, since I’m started in these usher girls in symbolic uniforms without identity will speak, thing I knew. The university was located along the highway and there 1.Dumb Type An artist collective made up of memebers mainly from Kyoto City University of Arts, founded in 1984. theater all of the sudden (laughs.) and what they will speak about – it’s endlessly interesting. Explaining was nothing else around. We didn’t have Internet in those days, so I Members were trained in various fields such as architecture, art, music, and dance. Teiji Furuhashi, Shiro Takatani, Ryoji Ikeda are among the members. Was there a reason why you stopped working in crafts? contemporary art in a pre-modern form of storytelling, they are was totally isolated from information. In such environment, I was able 2.Yayoi Kusama (1929-) It’s because there was a time when stopped making art and worked. deconstructing in a most natural way, including their appearance. I wish to work only on things I liked. I had three solo exhibitions during my Yayoi Kusama works in various fields as a sculptor, painter and a novelist. After leaving the New York art scene, she is now based in Tokyo. Her exhibitions are held all over the world, including the Venice I studied traditional crafts until second year, and from fourth year, I I had them talking much earlier. Biennale, 1993. She is famous for her works using her signature poka dot pattern. school years, which was pretty rare in those days. I spent all the money was making large-scale installations using fiber4. Then I got caught up 3.Emi Wada (1937-) I earned working part-time making Kyo-yuzen dyed kimono for my Emi Wada is a costume designer born in Kyoto, Japan. She is the first Japanese woman to win an with this material I crated. I wasn't good with words, so I wasn't able Academy Award (Academy Award for Costume Design) for the Akira Kurosawa film, Ran. She also 4.Fiber art exhibitions. I didn’t do anything else, so I knew little about the world. makes costumes for foreign movies, plays, and operas. to develop my ideas, nor did I have the patience to persevere. After Works using fibers such as thread, cloth, rope, or plants as a material. But by holding solo exhibitions, and showing my works to other people, stalling for a while, I pulled myself away, got a job, worked for three 5.Chorus I came to know about myself. It was a very tough time when I suddenly Chorus is a choir in the plays of ancient Greece. They offered summary and explanation of the play to years, experiencing and observing society, then I came back. the audience and expressed what the main characters could not say. had my solo exhibition in Tokyo, but it also was a good experience since I got to know the state of contemporary art in Japan. Were your ideas in your school years related to the works you make now? One work always leads to another, so all I thought about was making the next work. It still is. But come to think of it now, the things I saw or read as a student are tied to what I do now. It’s all connected. Did you already have an interest in contemporary art while in university? At that time, I was attending Department of Crafts and I just wanted to White Casket, 1993 At the solo exhibition venue, women hold their smiles Midnight Awakening Dream (partly) 1999 C print 3 4 1. Grand Daughters Video Installation 2002 7. 1924 Tokyo-Berlin 2011 2. Little Red Riding Hood from Fairytale series 2004 8. Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape 2013 3. HYONEE from My Grandmothers series 2004 9. 1924 Machine Man 2012

4. SHIZUKA from My Grandmothers series 2004 10. A poster of 1924 trilogy by Yanagi Miwa Theater Project 2011

5. Windswept Women Exhibited in Venice Biennale 2009 11. A poster of Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape 2013 12. Railways from Panorama 2013 13. 1924 Sea Battle 2011 14. 1924 Machine Man 2012 10 15. A Poster of 1924 Machine Man 2012

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You often use women in your pictures, but the main characters inseparable, and so it is with men and women. museums and theaters, although it’s difficult because the length of a primitive chaos, like at an open-air theater surrounded by natural in your plays are always men. Why is that? Is there a connection between you always changing the media history of each is so much different, I think it is easier to breathe phenomenon and various noises all coming together as one. I might make a play with a woman as the main character, but at the you work with and the “ability to persevere” that you mentioned inside the theater. I prefer a dark room rather than the beauty of a Are there any other media that you want to try and work in? moment, women play the role of “storytellers” in my plays. Women earlier? bright room where everything is all white. I want to question the I’m pretty busy enough with just drama and photography, but maybe don’t perform but narrate instead. Some usher girls explain, act, and Giving up is very important. Even if you want to give up, that part of meaning of forcing light into a dark box in a scientific way. storytelling would be interesting. I want to do more of it. Karaoke explain again once in a while. In my concept, men perform tragedy you that doesn’t hastens what comes ahead. We have to keep moving In drama, the weight of the body in the time frame of a play basically and pole dancing too. and women perform comedy. Women always have to perform on because art itself never comes to an end. hasn't changed from thousands of years ago. The aim of a theater is Pole dancing…? “storytelling and comedy.” Of course, it’s not about which is superior. Was working in theater an intuitive choice?I still I not to preserve plays until the next millennium, but to realize this I bought a stage trailer and furnished it with a mirror ball and a pole, A grand tragedy where a hero is tossed about by fate and a comedy I still like photography and am actually working on a new piece, but moment and place. When I think to myself, what kind of landscape so I have to make use of it. born from the everyday pathos of ordinary people – these are it’s just that drama better suits me physically. For example, comparing I want to see at the very last moment of my life, I think I want to see

5 6 to present your concept and explain it. It of drama. I love the theater, but I’ve always takes a great amount of work and time. wanted to do a pageant and do a tour on a There are things you can pay for with stage trailer. money, but you will be constantly question The stage trailer that we’re using this time whether the play was worth such a large was made in Taiwan, and this is the first budget, knowledge, technique, and time. by Sophocles6, Oedipus the King7 today, people time it has been imported to Japan. It left the You’ll always have to answer for that. of each era try hard to make the best stage, harbor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and is on its Once the play is out, there are always pros trying to catch the voices. The history of way to Yokohama on the Japanese Current and cons in evaluation. Some people burst drama is similar to history of delusion. just about now. It wasn’t easy to get here (as into tears and admire the work, and, on History is made by people, so maybe the of June 2014), and I’m sure there are more other hand, there are people who find it a history of drama is “straighter” than the problems waiting ahead. waste of time. There is no “excuse” of just history of fine art. How do you feel about the significance leaving it to history to make a reasoned piece like they can in fine art, but there are I find strong artistic elements in your of doing this project now? judgment over time. But I think art is born many ways you can relate to it, not only by drama. Do you think there are pieces that I decided to bring the stage trailer from from those kinds of tensions. understanding the context or direction, but only you could make? Taiwan to Japan after reading the novel by Do you consider that thrill as part of by judging the skills of actors or admiring “Being artistic” and “art” are two totally Kenji Nakagami, Wings of Sun. To me, the the attraction of drama? them as icons or by supporting them. It’s not different things. I don't belong to theater stage trailer and Kenji Nakagami naturally When was the first time you were Well, I think it’s healthy. It’s necessary for art about having several rich collectors. Drama nor fine art. Being borderless is my strong attracts each other finding out about them interested in theater? to have people make their own comments constantly has to struggle with realities like point now. All the borders, not only was inevitable in a way. The first play ticket I bought was for Shojo at that moment. Once at a museum I did financial issues, trying to figure out what I can say the same thing in direction too. between drama and fine art, are not meant Kenji Nakagami9 refers to his birthplace, Kamen (a play about young female fans of a workshop where we picked one artwork people like and whether it will succeed as a I have to explain my thoughts in words to be crossed, but connected by powerful including the "burakumin" area, as the “roji Takarazuka company) by Juro Kara’s Red from the contemporary art collection and show. to the actors. You can’t just tell them to individuals in every time period. I started (alley).” It represents a community that Tent production by Jokyo Gekijo theater had people make up their own explanation Have you ever thought of acting “feel it” from the beginning, can you. Art from crafts to photography, a form of was abominated, alienated, and eventually company. I got lost while looking for the on the spot. Once you get rid of the illusion yourself? education in Japan needs to focus more on reproduction technique. After that, I got forgotten. The “roji” is found everywhere tent in the woods, so I only got to see the of art being lofty, almost like an outcast in a I can’t. But there is an anxiety that I have words. Technique is the main issue, and involved in live concerts and sets, and now I in the world, not only in Japan. I think the last half of the play, but I still can remember way, people start explaining in their own way to one day to understand what actors go what cannot be explained in words is left in am working in drama. I like to think that the act of bringing back the voices that was the scene like a nightmare I saw last night, as if they were the artists. It was interesting. through. a vast unknown world. It’s okay to choose god Dionysus8 has chosen me. Photography once heard in those areas, and the voices where the young female fans wearing In drama, the audience can’t own the I have the impression that you are very to do so in the end, but we have to give and reproduction art are connected to that were forgotten is connected to the title padded air-raid hoods came on stage at the careful in your choice of words. How do you more chances to children to talk about art. theater to me very naturally. of Yokohama Triennale this year, “ART climax. Come to think of it now, that was apply that when directing? I keep telling my students to “think using The stage trailer project will begin at Fahrenheit 451: Sailing into the Sea of the last performance by Jokyo Gekijo theater I don’t make a lot of technical comments, words.” Nothing will ever change if we just Yokohama Triennale 2014. In this project, Oblivion.” company. but I explain the reasons behind what’s stand still with our own senses, refusing to the location of the performance is always Kenji Nakagami once said, “roji is found This year, I had the chance to write a script directed in the script. I have to explain verbalize it. moving, isn’t it? everywhere,” literally meaning roji is for Theater Group Kara Seminar and carefully and why such a part is necessary. I heard that you are recently interested Exactly. But performing outside the theater omnipresent. I believe this is the most performed the play Panorama Kara Seminar When the actor performs, I have to make in voices. has been done by many people in the history necessary and significant theme at this point. Edition. There I had the honor to meet Mr. Stage setting and lighting are important, decisions right away and be able to explain 6 Why do you believe so? Kara, and it was like I met my first love of of course, but the most essential factor why it’s right or wrong. I am there to make 7 Because Japan is an extremely “oblivious” 25 years. I was very happy. in drama is voice. We assume that a voice decisions, and that was very difficult when I 8 country. It has its strong point of going in Weren’t you under a lot pressure first started working in drama. disappears once spoken, but this might not small circles repeatedly instead of layering directing for the first time? be true. time to continue everyday life. But at the It was easier in the beginning because I Do you mean that it will be same time, I feel insecure when I think about didn't know anything. But as I got to know remembered? where it will lead us, just being “oblivious” the overall picture, I started feeling pressure. Not only that, but the sound wave of the in order to get by, and not making any Of course, art requires hard work, but in voice will circulate in the universe and history. drama, you are forced to face the audience someone might catch it 2500 years ago from What do you expect of art students to make the play work in real time. Many now and let it out again. Something like who live in present Japanese society? people are involved, so you constantly need that. When performing the Greek tragedy To lose interest in who you are now as

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years, suddenly make sense and come to life when I watch them now. There was a time when I cried over some Fellini11 movie I saw From media where you are in control of everything to drama, in the past. So I hope this whole experience where you have to work with others – talk about why you made this will be “evoked” one day for students too. shift. 6. Sophocles One of three ancient Greek tragedians and the father of Greek Art is also a medium that you can’t control as well.... Unpredictable tragedy. It is said that he wrote 123 plays but only seven have survived. happenings are nothing but trouble, but they’re interesting at the same

7. Oedipus the King time. This might sound too extreme, but that's the only fun part in it. A play written by ancient Greek tragedian, Sophocles in 427 BC. It is a tragedy about Oedipus, who kills his own father and In drama, you are working with and for people, so you have to accept mates with his own mother, unaware of each other’s identities. irregular issues. Drama and working with students are the same: both 8. Dionysus Dionysus is a god of the good harvest and ecstasy in Greek are unpredictable and out of your control. Both people and drama are Mythology. Because Greek drama developed from Dionysia, very shaky. Being able to accept these uncontrollable forces is a very a festival honouring Dionysus, he is also known as the god of drama. big change in my life, as big as going to an art university. 9. Kenji Nakagami (1946-1992) Does being able to accept irregularity have something to do Kenji Nakagami is a writer, born in the city of Shingu in Wakayama prefecture, Japan, famous for his novels set in the with having your own child? Kumano region of Kishu area. He passed away at the young age of 46. His major works include The Cape, The Kareki Sea, Yes, I became more patient with people. Children do crazy things Hosenka (Rose Balsam), Sennen no Yuraku (A Thousand Years of Pleasure) among others. Wings of Sun is a road novel where everyday. They can’t help it because they’re trying to adjust to the a young boy and an old woman go on a pilgrimage on a trailer truck from Kumano to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. existing world around them, trying to blend in. Their past is too short

10. Waiting for Godot and they have no sense of future; they live in this moment of “now.” Waiting for Godot is a play by novelist and playwright Samuel quickly as possible and to learn history. Art Beckett (1906-1989). I it one of the most renowned absurd Of course, they don’t have any sense of planning (laughs.) But it’s so plays in which two homeless men wait for the arrival of a man and history are the one. named Godot having meaningless conversation in vain, and interesting to watch them become humans, cutting time and space nothing happens in the play. What do you currently teach students? apart and seeing the outlines of the world by learning words. 11. Federico Fellini (1920-1993) What does family mean you? For first year students in Contemporary Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. He Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape 2013 won five Academy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement In one word: an absurdity play. The first absurd thing about a family Zero Hour is the name of a radio program broadcasted during Art and Photography Course, they study Award. He is famous for his fantastic images. He became internationally renowned by La Strada, 1954. His major works 10 is that you cannot choose your parents. And once an “evil drama” World War II for Allied Forces by the Japanese Government. The and perform Waiting for Godot by Samuel are Nights of Cabiria, 8½, among others. fascinating voice of a female broadcaster reached the American Beckett. I do this because I want them begins, no child can stop that driving force. Not just family, but all Photo Captions servicemen in the South Pacific, and eventually she was named to learn from history, not their “own fixed organizations like schools, for example, are the same. Society Page 7 (From top left - top right - bottom center - bottom right) Tokyo Rose, the siren of the Far East. After the war ended, experience.” Learning from your “own - A Scene from 1924 Tokyo-Berlin at The National Museum of has to at least support children to cope through education when they American servicemen and journalists rushed to see her in the ruins Modern Art, Kyoto (2011) experience” is unnecessary. The scope is too - Usher girls guiding the audience into the theater (2011) from grow up and decide whether their families are dysfunctional or not. of Tokyo but …. Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape 2013 is a tale 1924 Tokyo-Berlin about voices where historical facts and fiction intertwine: stylish small. - The set model of 1924 Sea Battle and Miwa Yanagi (2011) They are our future. - In front of the Large Studio of Kanagawa Art Theatre from 1924 stage arts and videos, texts in a mixture of Japanese and English, Waiting for Godot was first performed in 1952, Sea Battle (2011) Do you think all organizations are like a theater company? and “usher girls” wandering the edge of reality and fantasy. - Practicing for 1924 Sea Battle (2011) Like Hamlet said, drama is a huge mirror which reflects this world, but what was the meaning of it coming out - The set model of 1924 Sea Battle (2011) The stage change its This play received positive reviews after its first performance at form flexibly and you can say the opposite as well. in this specific year? Time, Space, memories - The sets of Kikuchi Mini Theater were remade for 1924 Sea Kanagawa Art Theatre (KAAT) and Aichi Triennale in 2013. Invited (2011) Battle What was the biggest change that took place in you when you by Japan Society in New York, the play will go on tour in seven are all vague in this play. The characters - Staring seriously at the stage first learned art? cities in America and Canada, including California where the play have nothing in common and are extremely Page 8 (From top left - top ceter - bottom center) takes place, from January or February in 2015. - All the costumes were handmade 1924 Machine Man (2012) I’m not sure if I still know it, but one thing I can say is that I became suspicious. It’s full of unfamiliar Christian - A mysterious mood hangs in the air from a poker-faced woman from 1924 Tokyo-Berlin (2011) modest. Out of all human behavior, art is the most thrilling, exciting, metaphors. But as the students memorize - The usher girls play the role of a tricksters from 1924 Machine Miwa Yanagi Profile the lines and recite them in class, they come Man (2012) never-ending, and something you can spend your life doing. It’s a - Students busy making props for the stage from 1924 Machine Miwa Yanagi was born in the city of Kobe. She graduated from the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts. From the latter very close to Beckett’s voice. The essays Man (2012) guilt-free pleasure. - Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape 2013 The costumes of the half of 1990’s, she created photographic works with young ladies as on Beckett by 18 year-old students written usher girls change according to the program the motifs using computer graphics and special effects makeup, and - Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape 2013 It was decided that she gained prominence especially with the series Elevator Girls, where after the performance is quite amazing. the play will be performed again 2015 she had costumed usher girls stand in commercial facilities. From 2000, she published My Grandmothers, a series in which young girls act Performing a play for the first time in their Page 9 as themselves in 50 years, and Fairy Tale, a series of stories in which - Students making set models a young girl and an old woman appear, as well as held a lot of solo - New works are born here at the studio in Kyoto lives, this play similar to a “device to survive exhibitions at home and abroad. In 2009, she was appointed as the artist - Professionals and students all working together for the Japanese Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale of Art. In 2011, she nonsense” – I’m not sure how this will help Photo Captions: from top to bottom started theater projects such as Trilogy 1924 and Panorama, both based on modern Japan. After exhibiting her latest work, stage trailer at the them in later life. But I can say the movies - Outside design of the stage trailer inspired from the novel, Wings of Sun Yokohama Triennale 2014 and the 2015 KYOTO PARASOPHIA, she aims - The stage trailer was first lit in Taiwan I saw but never understood in my school to hold road shows visiting several places with the trailer. - The first scene of Zero Hour at Kanagawa Art Theatre 2013

9 10 URYU TSUSHIN –Kyoto University of Art and Design Magazine

Publisher: Kyoto University of Art and Design Address: 2-116 Uryuyama Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8271, Japan Phone: +81-(0)75-791-9112 Fax: +81-(0)75-791-9233 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.kyoto-art.ac.jp/en/

Special Issue: Planning and Editing: Mari Sawamura (3rd year of Department of Historical Heritage), Mika Suzuki (3rd year of Department of Art Studies and Cultural Production), Marie Yoneda (1st year of Department of Fine and Applied Arts), Kaho Ohnishi (1st year of Department of Creative Writing) Design: Yumiko Nakamura (3rd year of Department of Information Design) Photography: Michio Hayase (4th year of Department of Fine and Applied Arts), Sayaka Asano (4th year of Department of Information Design) , provided by Miwa Yanagi Office Translator: Eric Luong (Lecturer of Creative Learning Center, Art Communication Team), Remmy Ninomiya (Art Communication Team) Editorial Director: Keiichi Kadosaki (Professor of Department of Creative Writing) Art Director: Yusuke Mimasu (Designer, intext) Creative Integrator: Jiro Nakamura (Office of Public Relations)