Art in Japan>Contemporary Art 1930-2004>Life/Art '02

Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan.

Life/Art '02

by John McGee

To see all of Masato Nakamura's sculpture, remove your shoes at the front door: The artist has built a new, two-story house-inside the gallery. 

Kenichi Kanazawa, Fragments of 
Sound-Table for a Family, 2002 
with Masato Nakamura's house
behind (Photos: John McGee)

"House" is the theme for this second installment of Shiseido Gallery's "life/art," a five-year series of annual exhibitions by the same five artists. In each of these shows, one artist gets exclusive use of the smaller of two adjacent galleries while the four others share the larger space. This year, Nakamura's L-shaped house conceptually and physically bookends the large gallery. In fact, one of its high exterior walls nearly blocks the entrance. The Higashi Nihon housing firm designed and built the structure according to the artist's brief—narrow enough to fit in the sukima (gap) between other buildings (the architect chose the unusual shape for lateral strength). 

All of the artists in this series of shows were selected because their work deals, at least partially, with the complicated distinctions between craft and art. Process is one consideration. Nakamura has others fabricate his work for him. The other three in the main room work as craftsmen. Yoshihiro Suda hand-carves his wooden flowers and plants. Nobuyuki Tanaka makes traditional lacquerware in unusual forms. 

The fourth artist, Kenichi Kanazawa, works with the sensual properties of metal. In one project, he heats layers of metal, creating a range of small works with the deep crimson and aqua streaks of abstract painting. In his other major piece—a long metal table with six chairs—wooden cubes, balls and eggs lie on top of a thin tablecloth like a minimalist installation. But bounce the blocks around and the table starts to sing: The tablecloth hides a fragmented network of metal plates that function as a giant xylophone. 

Meanwhile, Hajime Imamura set up a shanty-like corrugated metal screen at the entrance to the smaller gallery to separate his mini solo show. His collection of doctored ready-mades—vintage furniture, appliances and tableware—are both natsukashii (nostalgic) and uncanny. In several of the pieces, Imamura seems to have introduced a pathogen that eats away the wood and metal surfaces in regular, geometric patterns. An aluminum teapot becomes a skeleton of thin, ragged-edged, pentagonal frames. A thin section of veneer rises from the top of a wooden table in a mysterious band of polygons, exposing a glowing orange light below. 

Part of 2001-11 Ie installation by 
Hajime Imamura

Imamura's old teapots don't evolve into trash or antiques but into eccentric, unusable abstractions. Overall, however, Nakamura's sukima house—recalling both the work of conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark and Atelier Bow-Wow's recent book "Pet Architecture"— dominates the show by pushing the conceptual even farther. Like all Japanese prefab houses, Nakamura's is clean, utilitarian, superficially attractive and flimsy. But no one lives in the Shiseido Gallery, so the house must be sculpture. 

This concept collapses when you enter Nakamura's house and see not only furniture and appliances but the artwork of the others displayed inside. In the genkan, there's Imamura's persimmon with a metal curlicue poking out the top. On the wall, there are two of Kanazawa's metal paintings. One of Suda's small weeds sprout from the roof beams, and his flower is visible out of the kitchen window. Tanaka's kotatsu-sized, irregular black lacquer bowl rests on the three tatami-mat sleeping loft above the kitchen. In the brilliant final word, Nakamura's house transcends both domesticity and sculpture, becoming the ultimate empty container for useless objects—a gallery.

The Life/Art '02 exhibition was held Dec 2002-Jan 2003 at Shiseido Gallery in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan.

©2006 John McGee

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