Inspired by the Japanese traditional process of drying and preserving octopuses, YU ARAKI creates Wrong Revision (2016), a multimedia installation that explores the myth of the octopus as the “devil-fish” brought to Japan by Catholic missionary Francis Xavier in the 16th century. Comprised of video clips, images from slides and books, and photographs of Japanese scenery, the film reflects on Japan’s relationship with the Western world. All photos by Stephen Leung and Jacqueline Liu for ArtAsiaPacific.
JOSÉ LEÓN CERRILLO’s sculptural work, Place occupied by zero (Okayama PANTONE 072, 178, 3245) (2016) spreads across classrooms and corridors over three floors at the Korakukan Tenjin School. Pre-fabricated aluminum tubes in three colors “penetrate” ceilings and walls to construct another architectural space that is based on viewers’ memory and imagination.
On the sports ground outside of the school building, viewers encounter LIAM GILLICK’s Development (2016), a mini golf course with nine short tracks that resemble geometric forms. Visitors are invited to pick their own golf club and ball—the process of delivering the ball using different angles and strengths is a reminder of the fluidity and setbacks that can be found in every form of development.
In a larger room next to the sports ground, ROCHELLE GOLDBERG’s Leaked Into Fixture (2016) presents the artist’s view of urban development. With three steel structures that resemble high-rise buildings in the United States, the irregular forms beneath the steel tubes and transparent plastic layers near power cables call upon ideas of waste, leakage and environmental damage in urban development. Rather than accumulation, Goldberg urges viewers to consider subtraction as an alternative form of development.
Detail of ROCHELLE GOLDBERG’s Leaked Into Fixture (2016).
In the 34-minute film The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun (2015), ANTON VIDOKLE explores Soviet biophysicist Alexander Chizhevsky’s theory on solar cosmology that describes the influences solar activity has on human sociology, psychology, politics and economics. Filmed in Kazakhstan with Russian narration, the work presents a surreal, captivating and cross-disciplinary understanding of the growth cycles of human societies.
Recent Hugo Boss Prize winner ANICKA YI sets up a series of three 48-inch cubic light boxes, entitled Sessile, Subjugation, and They Don’t Need Eyes (all works 2016) at the Former Fukuoka Soy Sauce Factory. Walking into the darkened room, viewers are only able to see two floating planes with vivid colors shining through. Upon closer examination, one can see small and subtle hints of movement on the surfaces as what lies beneath are bacteria samples Yi collected in the former Fukuoka Soy Sauce Factory. This time-based organic work aims to reflect upon the Japanese paranoia on contagion and hygiene.
At the Okayama Orient Museum visitors can find ROBERT BARRY’s Wire Sculpture with Ring (1968), a sculptural work that consists of three nearly invisible wire lines that converge to support a small metal ring that hovers in the air. The piece prompts viewers to reconsider the relationship between space and architecture. This photo shows a group of school children clustering underneath the work.
Swiss artist duo PETER FISCHLI and DAVID WEISS present Untitled (Mobile) (2008–09), an installation of two rag puppets of a rat and a bear, alongside their film The Point of Least Resistance (1981). The puppets hang under the sky window of the Okayama Orient Museum, above viewers’ heads, giving off a sense of playfulness that is also apparent in the film where the artists challenge conventional aesthetics and social codes.
PETER FISCHLI and DAVID WEISS’s How to Work Better (1991) can be found on the side of a large building in Okayama city. The text-based public artwork consists of a list of ways to “work better,” with mottos such as “Do one thing at a time,” and “Accept change as inevitable.”
On the exterior wall of Cinema Clair Marunouchi is LAWRENCE WEINER’s public artwork 1/2 Begun 1/2 Finished Whensoever (2008/2016). “Every gesture, if there is no linearity of time, is half begun & half finished,” writes Weiner in his artist statement. With the artwork’s title written in vibrant colors in Japanese and English on the cinema’s facade, Weiner invites viewers to visualize the relationship between an artwork-in-progress and a non-structured, non-linear concept of time.
Three of RACHEL ROSE’s artworks are displayed at the Hayashibara Museum of Art. Lake Valley (2016) is an 8-minute long video made with stop-motion animation using illustrations from 19th and 20th century children’s books. The video tells the story of a lonely household pet that wanders off into people’s gardens in the suburban neighborhood, a tale adapted from a 19th century tale written by an anonymous author.
In the museum backyard is PIERRE HUYGHE’s Untilled (2012), a concrete cast of a reclining woman with a beehive that sits on the figure’s head. As bees are constantly flying in and out of the hive, visitors are prohibited from entering the area. Looking at the sculpture from afar, Untilled invites viewers to contemplate on the relationship between living organisms and man-made objects, as well as the sweetness and danger that come with objectifying the female body.
In the front garden of the Okayama Prefectural Government Offices Area is HANNAH WEINBERGER’s somewhat hidden sound installation, On Time (2016). With bells ringing at particular times at the backdrop, ringtones from 16 phones hidden in potted plants on the two sides of the front garden go off in a random fashion as viewers walk by them. The playful act of hiding objects and arbitrary ringtones defy the sense of political authority that is embedded in a governmental site.
Next to the Okayama Castle is Thai artist RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA’s site-specific work, Untitled 2016 (this is A this is not A this is both A and not-A this is neither A nor not-A) (2016). Tiravanija has built a mirrored tearoom that sits on a scaffold that stands above the original foundation stones of the Tenshukaku, a donjon that was destroyed by an air raid in 1945. Along with two 3D-printed Bonsai plants, the installation recognizes the painful past of the site but also attempts to reactivate it, allowing for new social engagement and new meanings to be associated with local heritage.
Also near the Okayama Castle is JORGE PARDO’s 1/5 model house, Untitled (2016). Fabricated in Mérida, Mexico, the house is meant to serve as the ideal prototype of architecture for the city.
