Issue 4: July 2001 The Japan Foundation London Newsletter Facts of Life Contemporary Japanese Art at the Hayward Gallery Co-organised with the Japan Foundation 4 October – 9 December 2001 As a major Japan 2001 event, Facts of Richard Wentworth), their title Life presents 25 Japanese artists in the referring to the story of a baseball largest show of contemporary Japanese player who never fulfilled his art ever to be seen in London. promise. They capture everyday moments where the world does stablished artists, including key figures such not work as smoothly as it might, Eas Nobuyoshi Araki, Hiroshi Sugimoto, exemplifying the difference and Tatsuo Miyajima, will be shown alongside between theory and practice, the a younger generation of emerging artists. collision between best-laid plans Many of the works, including painting, and real life. photography, video, installation and There is great strength in performance, will be created specifically for painting in Japan across the the exhibition. Assisted by Nobuo Nakamura generations. Tanaka, a prominent of the Centre for Contemporary Art in member of the Gutai group (most Kitakyushu, the works have been selected by famous perhaps for her “electric Jonathan Watkins, Director of the Ikon dress” performance), now over 70, Gallery in Birmingham. He writes: continues to make vibrant This exhibition arises from a refreshing abstract paintings. Their freedom and inventiveness in current Japanese configurations of dripped circles art practice. And by no means does this apply and lines of colour are derived just to young emerging artists. There are a from the patterns of electrical number of established figures in the Japanese circuitry. The young Tokyo artist art world, such as Genpei Akasegawa, Tomomi Maekawa, on the other Nobuyoshi Araki, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Yukio hand, makes figurative paintings Takefumi ICHIKAWA Fuyu ’97 © the artist, 2001 Nakagawa, Atsuko Tanaka and Takehisa Kosugi, depicting small aeroplanes and helicopters in being synonymous with virtual reality. Perhaps who stay remarkably true to the essential large foreboding skies. They communicate her most famous for his photographs of the Kobe proposition of their work. They remain very understanding of a tragic and futile (male) earthquake in 1995, he is now engaged in a influential without becoming historical figures. heroism. project concerned with the homelessness They have much in common with (and are The themes of this exhibition are based on endemic in Japanese cities. He makes and revered by) younger artists also participating an assumption of the continuity between art exhibits photographs in wooden “pin-hole such as Mitahiro Shimabuku, Rogues Gallery, and (non-art) life. Certainly now there is houses”, cameras obscuras which resemble the Rika Noguchi, Tomoko Isoda, Tadasu greater emphasis on quotidian phenomena in simple desperate shelters made by those with Takamine, Navin Rawanchaikul and contemporary Japanese art and this is nowhere else to go. The extensive (often Takafumi Ichikawa. manifested especially in a continuing beautiful) views they embody – the actual Akasegawa, Araki and Nakagawa utilise preoccupation with urban life and a built views from homeless encampments – are photography especially to communicate a environment very particular to Japan. contrasted by the cramped circumstances strong sense of the fugitive nature of the Concomitantly, much of the work here, Miyamoto recreates. material world. Akasegawa’s Thomason whilst not being exactly issue-based, is more Concomitant with art/life continuity is the photographs, for example, are endearingly all- politically motivated. overlap between visual arts and other forms of too-human with their gentle sense of humour Ryuji Miyamoto’s work, for example, could cultural expression. Younger Japanese artists (not unlike that of contemporary British artist not be further from the idea of Japanese reality particularly have a strong affinity with Continued on page 2 Education Catching Them All? The Pokémon Project n 1999/2000 the Japan Foundation and then battle their Pokémon to gain badges, playing with learning, manipulating knowledge Isupported a research project, based at the fame and fortune. Pokémon is a very good about the Poké-verse, committing to memory Institute of Education, London University, example of what the industry calls ‘integrated and testing the facts and figures of this strange which investigated the range and significance marketing’. Although it was originally invented world. of the Pokémon phenomenon. This research by Nintendo as a game, there were also TV In some respects, it is easy to identify the was part of a global project, with colleagues shows, films, books, comics, trading cards, reasons for Pokémon’s global success: it offered in the USA, France, Israel, Japan and Hong toys, stickers, bed-linen and a whole range of a unique combination of different elements of Kong. An account of this project, ‘Pikachu’s other merchandise. children’s culture, effectively uniting distinct Global Adventure’ (edited by Joseph Tobin) The UK research focused partly on the audience groups (boys and girls, older and will be published next year by Duke marketing of global games culture, and the younger children). However, as with previous University Press in the USA. unique significance of Japanese computer forms of children’s culture, its lifecycle is now An abbreviation for ‘pocket monster’ games companies. Although cultural critics fret effectively spent. To some extent, we see (‘poketto monsutä’), Pokémon has been one of about the ‘Americanisation’ and evidence here of children asserting their most successful media phenomena ever aimed ‘Disneyfication’ of their indigenous popular autonomy and agency, in resisting the appeals at children. Originally released on Nintendo’s cultures, Japan is now competing successfully of commercial culture. Yet explaining this Game Boy platform, the narrative follows 10 with the US as a cultural exporting nation - yet familiar pattern of ‘rise-and-fall’ raises year old Ash Ketchum’s quest to become the it is also ‘deodorising’ its culture in attempting challenging questions that will need to be greatest Pokémon trainer in the world. The to reach a global market. Some of the UK addressed more extensively in future research. Pokémon themselves are a series of (mainly researchers were based in schools and explored Professor David Buckingham cute) creatures who live in the Poké-verse, a how children’s interaction with the game Dr Julian Sefton-Green world inhabited by children who tame, train worked as kind of education- imitating and London University, Institute of Education Facts of Life continued from page 1 News from our Nihongo Centre 2001 is proving to be a busy year for Japanese language Education in the UK. Below the experimental music. Rogues Gallery, for Nihongo Centre reports on 3 new projects currently underway for secondary schools. example, an artistic duo based in Osaka make “noise music” by attaching microphones to car Homestay UK team to 20 schools, we are now editing the engines, mixing and playing it to exclusive This programme gives school-aged Japanese material and the finished video will be available audiences of two at a time – the passengers in learners a chance to spend the weekend with a from September. It will serve not only as a the cars which provide them with their raw Japanese family based in the UK. A core training tool for prospective and newly qualified aural material. education programme for Japan 2001 jointly teachers but also as a showcase of best practice The work of artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto organised by the Nihongo Centre and the Japan from inside the classroom. and Tatsuo Miyajima, by contrast, is quieter. Festival Education Trust (JFET), it is generously Sugimoto’s famous photographic seascapes are sponsored by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese BBC / Nihongo Centre Digital Japanese Project to be included in this exhibition alongside an Foundation and the Nippon Club. This ground-breaking Key Stage 3 Japanese installation, In Praise of Shadows, which So far 142 pupils and 78 Japanese families Pilot project, funded by the DfEE (now DES) involves a candle burning in a dark room, its have applied. Since its launch in May, 26 and produced by the BBC in partnership with light passing through a transparency image of a homestays have already successfully taken place the Nihongo Centre, is nearly complete. The candle burning. More than demonstrating a with overwhelmingly positive feedback from project, known as Tobu, provides resources via fundamental kind of photography, this work participants. And more are the internet for Year 7 beginners in communicates the artist’s profound interest in planned! There is still time to play secondary schools; explores the the nature of light. Miyajima similarly here your part; if you would like to host potential of using the internet to asserts an essentialism in his work through a young learner as part of deliver a course in Japanese; and Floating Time, an installation of constantly Homestay UK, contact Kazuko Sato at JFET aims to discover whether the availability of ICT- moving, constantly counting illuminated for a hosts pack and application form. Tel: 020 based resources could have an impact on the numbers. His reference to a Buddhist 7630 8696. take-up of Japanese in schools. Using the apprehension of human existence is both subtle particular strengths of interactive media, such as and clear. Class Acts: Success Stories from the UK graphics, animation, quiz activities, sound and There is a distinct tendency towards new Japanese Classroom video, Tobu will appeal to young learners and kinds of realism in the work of artists selected Now in its final stages, this project involves can be used as an independent learning tool or for this exhibition. It aspires to an engagement making a video showing the range of integrated into class lessons by the teacher. The with facts of life. approaches and good practice currently to be website, containing 12 units for the first year of Jonathan Watkins found in Japanese classrooms across the UK.