I can tell group photos of the CCA artists are going to get pretty boring - there are only 7 of us, which does not really make for endless interesting permutations for the camera. So today other things…
A mikan. Takako gave me one, as you can see it is green on the outside and orange in the inside. It tastes like a slightly tart mandarine. Mikans are grown on Kyushu, they are delicious.
And some Daikon drying in the sun. The project I have started at the CCA is called ‘portable ends, portable beginnings’ or maybe just portable ends. I will be making several sculptures out of rope, string and seeds and skins of fruit, BUT currently the most interesting part of the project is the pickling. I am making several quite complicated Tsukemono- japanese pickles. The first of these is a Daikon pickle which needs to sun dry for 20 days and then be pickled in Rice Bran.
The idea is i guess to suggest portable time.
Fridays seem to have become the CCA artists’ swimming day. This Friday I suggested (and then had to orchestrate) a bit of an ambitious project - a visit to the Sugao Taki(waterfall). To get there we had to take a train to Kokura and then a bus out of the city, and then a taxi to the falls. The closest town is the tiny Dobaru, perhaps 100 houses if that. To get back we hitched to the bus stop. All this envolved me using a LOT of my extremely basic Japanese, but I was so proud of us for getting there and being able to ask so many charming and helpful people. The waterfall is in heavily forested and mountainous valley, the floor of which is covered in tiny rice and vegetable farms. It was extremely beautiful being out in the countryside, the rice harvest is happening now, and sheaves of rice were hung over wooden hurdles to dry, the stubble was smouldering in some areas, woodsmoke over the valley and green plumes of bamboo on the mountain.
There is a very large monastery next to the taki, and literally hundreds of stone buddas and shinto gods line the approach and surround the falls. The figures all wear clothes - either a bib like garment (often actual children’s bibs- hello kitty) or elaborate robes. The bibs were all a bit mouldy and the surrounding buildings were falling into decay, Quite Kwai, spooky.
At first we felt somewhat apprehensive about swimming, but then soon got into the swing of things. The water was freezing, but it is still so hot here the chance to feel cold was lovely.
I have just realised I haven’t been reporting on the most important thing about my travels - well to some people. appologies to Graham who has already read this.
i ate some of my friend’s natto and didnt throw up.
i ate okonomiake cooked by a tiny old woman in her teeny old shop lined with sagging bookshelves of manga. She was a beautiful old woman that has been running her shop for 40 years (but she still cooks a mean pancake).
i ate really reallly good 6 course chicken dinner, with homemade tofu, perfect mackeral sashimi salad, chicken soup, fried and toriyaki chicken (aparently from the neck - which is a kyushu speciality) delicious soba and kyushu style fried rice.
I ate handmade Udon in rich broth from a place that would be a truck stop in Australia.
I ate upscale version of japanese antipasto in a beautiful traditional bar.
I ate at the best soba place in Kitakyushu (so say the CCA staff).
I ate a delicious tea ceremony sweet with foamy Matcha.
I ate many many takoyaki.
i have also been eating a lot of food cooked by the other 6 artists in our big studio kitchen. AND of course much beer, sake and shochu.
friday night a few of the CCA artists went to the beach, it took us two trains and a bus to get there, but it was worth it to swim in the cold water and watch a storm building over mountainous islands.
here is Adam and Carl sitting on the shore.
We had a sandy and boozey picnic, and decided to go into Kokura (downtown part of the city), looking pretty disheveled and sandy. We ended up at a quasi punk/hardcore gig, and watched a crazy lycra and makeup clad Japanese cock rock band. The final band Electric Eel Shock were pretty good, and had been to Australia touring with Mach Pelican and Grinspoon - they were kind of like that too, bit generic fast, punky rock. The most fetching thing about them was the drummer who was naked apart from three socks, one of them very very long. They were all really nice though and took us to an all you can eat/drink for 2000 yen, kareoke bar.
and this is Adam rolling around on the bar floor after trying to chat up girls - he is American so gets more Gaijen fever than the rest of us - or he may just be slightly drunk all the time? who can tell.
This is Karen and Tamara at the Kareoke bar…
due to popular demand here are some pictures of my teeny apartment. At night I unfold my futon on the floor. Probably the most strange part is the bathroom, the whole room is a ‘wet area’ with a glass door to seal it off from the corridor, its like a little plastic brightly lit bubble. When i brush my teeth I stand in the shower. I also have a deep but short, japanese style bath. And yes I do have a crazy electrified toilet.
I bought some really nice bright red magnet dots, and brought them home excitedly thinking I could put up some maps and images etc, unfortunately nothing at all in my whole apartment, (excepting the sink) is magnetic! thats right no steel, iron or any other ferrous alloy. This in the home of All Nippon Steel.
dogs for sale at the homecentre, called ‘Two One style’.
We went on a trip to Kokura and chanced upon a hip-hop dance contest for kids. It was a very serious event, with judges and a voting card for the audience.
i think i should say a little something about the CCA, that is the Centre for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu. It is a strange serious institution, founded by two independant curators, and mainly hosting international residencies and producing artist books. There is a link to their excellent site in my blogroll.
Along side 6 other artists from Canada, Denmark, Japan, Greece, America and Sweden, I will be working here for 7 months. I have two studios, both large and airy with a shared kitchen and relaxing area.
I have now been in Kitakyushu for a week now, finally I am starting to have my apartment inhabitable and to find a sort-of structure for life here. Kitakyushu literally translates as northern Kyushu - which is the large southern island making up Japan. The city is a drawn out conglomerate of five towns, the most ‘downtown’ being Kokura, the CCA is based in Yahata-higashi, the home of All Nippon steel works and Space World amusement park. The CCA is at the base of a large mountain, and in general it is a mountainous city with a lot of forests and wild parts mixed in with the largely decaying industry and tiny wooden houses.
I climed the mountain with two of the other artists here, it was precipitous and hard going but the view was amazing.
The forest is largely made up of pine like trees and hugely tall thickets of bamboo. The only creature we saw apart from the omnipresent mosquitoes was a large swollen bright blue worm.
