Thomas Demand had a show in the CCA gallery just before the research program ended, coinciding with the Open Studios. In the CCA there were absolutely gigantic floor wall length photographs of a reproduction building in Kokura, the ‘Black Label’ bar. The bar is a tiny ‘mama’ style bar in a seven sided three story building. The building stands alone on a strange gravel patch on an island formed by 3 roads. The strange shape of the bar is accounted for by the fact that a developer recreated the bar in a new location in order to secure it’s previous site for development. A small neatly framed photograph or a reproduction of the CCA gallery hangs in the ‘Black Label’.
The CCA kids went by to see the work, invaded the 6 seater bar to the amusement of the regulars and were fed til bursting point. This was taken by my friend Kyoko, it was about one day before I left for home.
Well, finally I can get photobucket to work again, and so am putting up some posts about the last part of my stay in Japan.
At the end of the CCA residency we showed our work inside the studios. I made two works for the show, the more successful work was a pickle making sculpture, called ‘portable ends (things under pressure)’ , the work is a wood and concrete structure that applys pressure onto the vegetable contents of various vessels making tsukemono.
The CCA also published a sort of collective artist book as an exhibition publication.
Two of the CCA artists, the glamourous, Tamara and Carl organised a Dice party at number 502. A special table and chandelier were constructed, along with special green baize boxes to roll in and hand made die. The good (and terribly cute) bartender of Bar 107, came to mix some of his sensational cocktails for the impossibly louche crowd. The colour scheme was a minty turquoise and black, the lights low, and the Gin strong.
Tamara and Carl with the cocktail maestro.
Martini
I donned a black crepe frock with grey screenprinted flower, grey fishnets, gold glitter shoes and false eyelashes. Little did I know the truth that a stray flash photograph revealed, Tamachan and I looking like 16 year old dressed up to get into a bar.
yes I turn 29 this year.
Sorry for the long hiatus, the weather is getting colder and colder here, which makes me want to stay lazy. I have just pulled down a small group exhibition of CCA participants at the Maeda community centre in Kitakyushu. I showed a sculpture made out of seeds from fruit, a cast metal sculpture and two watercolour drawings. The work is part of a series I am working on in Japan called ‘portable ends’, dealing with time, preservation, decay and errr pickles. In addition to these works I made Amazake (a fermented rice drink) and served it at the opening night along with tsukemono (japanese pickles) made by Mrs Nomoto-san a very sweet lady I met at the Maeda centre.
Portable Ends (heavy necklace), seeds from fruit, thread and varnish
a detail of Portable Ends (heavy necklace)
Portable Ends (ending), Cast Sterling silver
On friday the lovely staff at the CCA and the artists had a japanese style BBQ. It was fun and delicious. Us westerners are not all that adapted to Konjak yet though, and barbecued slabs of it is kind of difficult to eat, but also to refuse. Then we all got a little roudy and insisted the music be at least the same volume as people talking, which worried the staff, as they have much experience of noise complaints. Sometimes it is hard to remember that the Japanese have such an obedient and considerate culture, around public/private space.
Tonight I went out to dinner with Takako. We were both tired from going to see KTL, a noise band, with Peter Rehburg and Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))). We were out til 6am last night and I had three hours sleep before going into the studio. I took the cable car up Mt Sarakura and sat watching the beautiful panoramic view for a few hours.
anyway… back to dinner, we went to a small restaurant, one woman (the owner) doing all the cooking. It was really traditional Mama style japanese food. We ate rice, miso shiru with two types of tofu, tsukemono, pickled herring with onion (which reminded me of thai barramundi with green mango), a beef tendon stew, grilled sama (an oily deep sea fish), grilled sewers of pork, leek and a type of acorn, and a green salad. Oishi desu ne?!
The total bill came to ni-sen-en (2000 yen) or around 21 aust$, so really 10 bucks each. plus the woman was so nice and chatted to us from behind the bar.
On the way home we stumbled into an old grocery store and met Ryoko San, a lovely woman who let us explore behind her shop, into a forgotten world of a deserted food market - gone for 50 years. The stalls borded up and decaying, a wobbly cobwebbed christmas tree lurking next to a shinto shrine at the back. Ryoko san gave us three pottery statues of the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” Monkeys, a bamboo pail and an old hand dyed apron (which Takako collects). We washed the dusty monkeys and now they watch over the studio fridge.
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.
