Why we're still Rapt!
Australian perspectives on contemporary Japanese art

A world away from the traditional art of origami, kimono and ukiyoe prints, the contemporary Japanese art scene offers a vastly different cultural perspective on Japan. Vibrant, daring and often amusing Japanese art has been drawing increasing global interest with artists such as Takashi Murakami and Junko Mizuno gaining international renown. Interest in Australia is at an all-time high following the ambitious Rapt! art project, held during the Australia-Japan Year of Exchange. Rapt! saw 20 artists representing the Japan of "now" bring the best in their country's contemporary art scene to every state capital in Australia. jstyle spoke with two Sydney-based contemporary Japanese art specialists about the latest work coming out of Japan and why it is attracting so much attention...

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Rapt! 20 Contemporary Artists from Japan was organised by the Japan Foundation in 2006, as part of the Australia-Japan Year of Exchange. It was the largest collaborative arts project ever undertaken in Australia, involving 20 organisations, cross-cultural research and discussions between Japanese and Australian teams of curators, and of course, the exhibitions themselves. Twenty of today's most prominent Japanese artists were invited to participate in artist-in-residence programs across Australia and showcase their works in museums, galleries and public spaces in Melbourne and Sydney. The artists who featured in Rapt!, all born since 1960, belong to a generation of Japanese whose lives have been full of rapid and immense change which has impacted on their world outlook and work. The exhibitions provided a new way of understanding Japan and the Japanese people, in relation to the world.

Tomoko Konoike mimio-Odyssey video installation

Konoike's works feature various motifs that invoke the fantastical and the dreamlike, including a six-legged wolf, a character called 'mimio' and the legs of a young girl without a body. Using a variety of media including pencil-based animation and video installations, Konoike creates her own unique world through art.

 

 

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Reuben Keehan is the curator of Artspace Visual Arts Centre, in Sydney's Woolloomooloo, and also works as a freelance writer and critic. He has been heavily involved with the Japanese contemporary art scene over recent years and through his work, strives to strengthen the artist network between Japan and Australia. He has worked with several Japanese artists, including his role in the Japan Foundation's Rapt! exhibition in 2006, and he has also curated exhibitions of works by artists Muneteru Ujino and Hiroharu Mori. Keehan has travelled to Japan on various occasions for research, with his next trip scheduled for November 2007.

Kathryn Hunyor has had strong ties with the Japanese art scene for many years. First encountering contemporary Japanese art through her work in Sydney, she spent 1999 to 2004 living and working in Tokyo as assistant director of cultural relations at the Australian Embassy, a position that allowed her to meet and work with many Japanese and Australian contemporary artists. She now works at the Object Gallery in Sydney's Surry Hills, which specialises in Australian and international contemporary art and often exhibits Japanese works. In 2006, she was invited to be a curatorial advisor for the Rapt! exhibition. As part of the Rapt! project, Object Gallery held two exhibitions - artist Yuken Teruya and architecture duo Atelier Bow-Wow.

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Question/Answer with Reuben:

Do you think contemporary art in Japan as a general movement can be described in terms of any defining characteristics?

I think the influence of Takashi Murakami (the artist whose cherry blossom design for Louis Vuitton caused a global sensation in 2003) and the Superflat movement is still very dominant in Japanese contemporary art, especially in terms of the way it is being presented internationally. Murakami is a very liberating presence for a lot of Japanese artists, proving that you can draw on Japanese imagery and compositional approaches, particularly from manga and otaku ("nerd" culture), and still be successful in Western markets. But as Rapt! and the selection of Japanese artists at the recent Venice Biennale showed, there is more to Japanese art than just Superflat. The critic Midori Matsui recently framed Japanese art with the term "Micro-pop", stressing the importance of individual responses to everyday situations and popular culture, and I tend to agree with this assessment. You're also starting to see the influence of more experimental artists like Makoto Aida and Tsuyoshi Ozawa, who perhaps aren't as commercially motivated as Murakami, and there a lot of artists who studied overseas, such as Hiroharu Mori and Meiro Koizumi, who are returning to Japan and bringing with them different ways of thinking about art.

What do you think contemporary Japanese art says about Japan and the Japanese people?

I guess I'd start by saying that Japanese art of the past 15 years or so has been characterised by artists born after 1960 asserting themselves very strongly and creating new platforms for experimental culture, which is perhaps a reflection of general trends in Japanese society. Murakami really gave a lot of artists the confidence to stop copying Western artists and draw on their own experiences, but at the same time he was very internationally minded. Younger Japanese artists therefore tend to make use of a lot of typically Japanese imagery and pictorial styles - both traditional and modern - in their work, and they aren't ashamed to be Japanese, but at the same time they have a more critical view of their own culture. So there is a real confidence and humour to Japanese art at the moment that makes it quite unique. Midori Matsui says that this is an attempt by artists to create a small utopia as a way of dealing with the pressures of daily life, which might say a lot about Japanese society.

In your view, what is Japan's place in the world of art today?

Japanese art has enjoyed a real boom in the last two decades, with more museums and galleries exhibiting works and more attention being given to Japanese artists by overseas critics, curators, dealers and collectors. It's taken a while to get to this point, largely because of the language barrier and the lack of a large commercial market within Japan itself. There's still a long way to go, of course. The infrastructure of the art world in Japan is still quite limited, even in comparison to Australia, and it risks being dwarfed by the Chinese market, which is becoming more and more competitive. I think the key for Japanese art is to not be afraid to keep experimenting and innovating, and to continue with international dialogue and exchange. Japan has so much to offer the rest of the world, so this is very important.

Question/Answer with Kathryn:

Who are some contemporary Japanese artists that you have worked with?

As part of the Rapt! project, Object Gallery held two Japanese exhibitions - contemporary artist Yuken Teruya and architecture duo Atelier Bow-Wow. Yuken Teruya was born in Okinawa, and his works are observations of contemporary society and also the turbulent history, rich culture and complex political situation of the once independent Ryukyu Kingdom. His works consider issues of globalisation, identity, history and the environment. Of particular interest to me is the way that he uses traditional Japanese crafts such as "bingata" (traditional Okinawan kimono) to create his artworks.
Architects Atelier Bow-Wow created a "Manga pod" within the gallery - a fabulous wooden shelving system that also acts as a space to sit and read, or relax. Reflecting their interest in human adaptability and interaction with physical space, the "Manga pod", like their architectural projects, draws on Atelier Bow-Wow's keen sense of observation, humour and a desire to push the limitations of contemporary urban living.

What influence do you think traditional Japanese culture has on the contemporary art movement in Japan?

This is a big question! It's these sorts of issues that many artists and curators debate constantly, both from within and outside of Japan. Certainly in the work of Yuken Teruya I mentioned you can see a wonderful interplay between these two very contrasting areas. There are many other examples of contemporary artists drawing on Japanese traditions in their work - from ukiyoe ("floating world" woodblock prints) to literature - and this is where the fascination lies for many curators and other artists.

What is your impression of contemporary Japanese art and artists from your experience working with them?

There is a tendency for the same artists who become known internationally to keep appearing in every international art event, or art magazine. People in Australia know a few names but aren't aware of the incredible breadth and diversity of contemporary art in Japan. Even though I used to live and work in the arts in Japan, the Rapt! project took me well beyond what I already knew. Many of the artists we brought from Japan were genuinely "new" to Australian audiences, which was exciting. Due to the curatorial aims of the Rapt! project, I was really pleased to see a lot of work that dealt with social and political issues in Japan. My opinion previously was that most of the work in Japan deals with personal issues and an examination of the "self", rather than broader concerns. My overall impression is that contemporary Japanese art continues to be one of the most rich, complex and fascinating areas of contemporary culture internationally. I hope that Australians continue to be exposed to the best contemporary art from Japan, and through that learn more about Japanese culture, history and contemporary life.