Chikako Yamashiro, Courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates September 9 (Fri) - October 15 (Sat), 2016 Venue Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku Park Grace Shinjuku Bldg., 206, 4-32-6 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023 Chikako Yamashiro The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/ A Child Dancing Figure Drawing with Takao Kawaguchi September 10 (Sat) 14:00 16:30 *Advance booking required Talk Event: September 10 (Sat) 18:00 19:00 *Advance booking required Chikako Yamashiro & Takao Kawaguchi & Ryudai Takano Reception Party: September 10 (Sat) 19:00 20:30 Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku is pleased to present from September 9, 2016, a solo exhibition The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/ A Child by Chikako Yamashiro. Chikako Yamashiro has continued working up to now, inheriting records and memories of the Okinawa Battle as well as facing with the complex circumstances Okinawa has had such as environmental disruption caused by the US military base and a violation of woman's rights. Her works do not show messages explicitly. But, using a high-level metaphor, they were produced as videos in a gap between reality and fiction. Then, they have inspired viewers to make various interpretations. In The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child presented in the exhibition, Yamashiro closely covered a process of Takao Kawaguchi, the dancer and former Dumb Type member, who "reenacts" the legendary stage by the late butoh performer Mr. Kazuo Ohno. The record of Kawaguchi's performance to take another person (Ohno) into his own body does not remain just as a documentary, but is shown with a mysterious bared body in front of the viewers. The intense space will be presented, which only Yamashiro could shoot, who has kept working with a consistent theme, "to contact with other people and to inherit it" through Okinawa. This exhibition will screen The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child as a main feature. Also, the other video meant to be supplementary and those stills from The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child will be shown.
Artist Statement Before I started working on The Butcher Woman, I visited a poultry farm run by my relatives in Kumejima Island. It was a big farm one can see from the time chicks hatch from eggs till they are processed as meat served at a table. There were some lucky chickens which were kept to lay eggs so that they did not to have to be eaten as meat, and other old chickens were too late for meat processing, having finished the egg-laying season. Those old chickens were not fed with special ones for them, but a heap of bitter gourds. It was unusual, funny and interesting as an image. Bursting out laughing in spite of myself, I was rolling the camera. I needed to shoot a process where a living chicken turns to meat usually seen in a supermarket. Although I took my time to pursue every process, 90% of the resource I shot could not be used as a result. However, I was fully satisfied as I had a desire to look at the chickens carefully and shoot them as a lead to start the main story. I wanted to capture the lump of chicken as the feel of my body, which is cool, jellylike, and soft, and will come out when the skin is ripped off. There is a scene a little girl saw the lump of meat by accident at the beach, which came from the bottom of the sea. When I was putting the scenes together for editing, I had an irresistible thought that the next shot must be the hordes of chicks. The lump of wet and moist meat secretly hiding in the grass of the sands reminds me of a calf or a lamb recently born in the world. The meat has managed to arrive at this world; it is unsteady as its legs are too weak to stand or walk. Then there were the hordes of chicks in the next shot, cramming the dim light of the poultry farm. The story has just started, I thought. This scene convinced me the whole story will be constructed. Also in The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/ A Child, a bird is perceived at the moment something is coming into the world. Takao Kawaguchi is making a sketch. Drawing minutely a still picture captured from the video, he lets the scene go forward, and turning the page of the sketch book, he still keeps drawing. It seems an extraordinary repetition but each scene moves on carefully and slowly. Meanwhile, he stands up. His body starts looking for the movement in the still picture, connecting the scenes. His breathing makes his body swell and shrink, and the sound by the sole of his foot rubs the floor. Then the sound of turning pages of a sketch book combines with the scratching sound with a pencil. I could hear unexpectedly all of these sounds like a bird flapping the wings. Ah, it s a bird. Just born. I do not know why, but I felt that a bird has something to do with creation of the above two works. Takao Kawaguchi, who looks up the sky, seems a chic opening its wet and trembling body and imitating flapping of the wings. Chikako Yamashiro August 23, 2016 Dancing Figure Drawing Takao Kawabuchi SLOW BODY - Brain does not have sensation vol. 26 There is no time but now when it is necessary to watch closely a human body. Stare hard at the body in the face! It is a try at looking at the body in front of you and make the senses directly connect to your body. Mr. Takao Kawaguchi will dance in the nude and participants will sketch his body. There will be a get-together after the drawing with Mr. Kawaguchi and the participants, showing the sketch mutually.
Performer: Takao Kawaguchi (Human Body), Tsubasa Wada (Sound?) September 10 (Sat), 2016, 14:00-16:30 (Doors open at 13:45), Venue: Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku Entry fee: 2,000 (including one drink) Applicants: 15, Booking required *For booking, send an email with your name, address, and telephone number to event@ycassociates.co.jp *Please bring your drawing materials and sketch book. Takao Kawaguchi (Performer) Kawaguchi joined the Japanese multimedia performance collective Dumb Type from 1996 to 2008. Then, since 2000, he has been exploring the fertile field of live performance in the intersection of theater, dance, visual image and fine arts, mainly through solo works and collaborations with artists of different disciplines. From 2008 he started the solo performance series a perfect life. The 6 th series, from Okinawa to Tokyo, was presented at the 5 th Yesbisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2013). More recent works include: About Kazuo Ohno - Reliving the Butoh Diva s Masterpieces (Kazuo Ohno Festival 2013, currently touring around the world ) and TOUCH OF THE OTHER (ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angels, 2015, and Spiral Hall in Tokyo, 2016). Talk Event September 10 (Sat) 18:00 19:00 Venue: Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku Chikako Yamashiro & Takao Kawaguchi & Ryudai Takano *Advance booking required, Free of charge *For booking, send an email with your name, address, and telephone number to event@ycassociates.co.jp Ryudai Takano Photographer, Born 1963 in Fukui. Received the 31st Kimura Ihei Commemorative Photography Award in 2006. Recent exhibitions include: Our Beloved World (2015, The Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art), Photography Will Be (2014, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art), In the order corresponding to shooting from January 2014 to recent date (2014, Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku), Face Value: Portraits from The Kinsey Institute (2013,The Kinsey Institute Gallery), etc. Recent publications include: String and Coke (2014, Seidosha) and Manazashi ni Fureru (2014, Suiseisha, co-written with Ikuo Shinjo, Literary Researcher). Other Information Chikako Yamashiro is participating in 2016 Aichi Triennale, being held presently in various places, Aichi Prefecture. 2016 Aichi Triennale http://aichitriennale.jp/artist/yamashirochikako.html August 11 (Thurs) - October 23 (Sun), 2016 Venue for Yamashiro s work: The former Meiji-ya Sakae Building, Sakae Site (Naka-ku, Nagoya) Artist Profile Chikako Yamashiro 1976 Born in Okinawa 2005 Award for Excellence, awarded at Kurashiki Contemporary Art Biennial West Selected Solo Exhibitions 2012-2013 MAM Project 018:Chikako Yamashiro, Mori Art Museum Gallery 1, Tokyo 2012 The Body of Condonement, Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku, Tokyo 2010-2011 Choros of a Song,Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku, Tokyo
2008 Virtual Inheritance, gallery rougheryet, Okinawa 2007 Garden Talk, KANDADA, Tokyo 2005 Anyway, gallery rougheryet, Okinawa 2004 OKINAWA TOURIST, Maejima Art Center, Okinawa 2002 Woman at Graveyard, Maejima Art Center, Okinawa Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 2016 Aichi Triennale, The former Meiji-ya Sakae Building, Nagoya/Japan 2015-2016 The 1st Asia Biennial/The 5th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art Guangzhou/China 2015-2016 The 8th Asian Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery /Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane/Australia 2015 Local Prospects: Time, space and the sea, Mitsubishi-jisho ARTIUM, Fukuoka/Japan 2015 East Asia Feminism: FANTasia, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul/Korea 2015 MOMAT Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Tokyo/Japan 2015 "Beyond Hiroshima: The Return of the Repressed Wartime Memory, Performativity and the Documentary in Contemporary Japanese Photography and Video Art, The Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv/Israel 2014 The Spiritual World Collection Exhibition 2014, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo/Japan 2012-2013 "Women In between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka/Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum Okinawa/Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi/Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mie (touring in Japan) 2012 "ARTLINE KASHIWA2012 "Kashiwa City Jack" - Asia Pacific Contemporary Media Arts from Daisuke Miyatsu Collection - Kara de Ganal, Chiba/Japan 2012 Art, Performance and Activism in Contemporary Japan, PUMPHOUSE GALLERY, London, UK 2011 Invisibleness is Visibleness, MOCA TAIPEI, Taipei/Taiwan 2011 Sightseeing - A Journey Into Okinawan Art, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum 2011 Body Talks? SYMPOSIA Roppongi AXIS Building, Tokyo/Japan 2011 Okinawa Art Action! Video & Performance, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Goza Z Space, 2010-2011 Radiant Moments, The New Snapshot, Contemporary Japanese Photography, vol.9,tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo/Japan 2010 Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions: Searching Songs, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo/Japan 2010 When I Love You and When I Hate You, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum 2009 Into the Circumstances, SAKATA Kiyoko and YAMASHIRO Chikako Exhibition, Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, 2009 Hiroshima Art Document 2009,Old Factory of Army Clothes, Hiroshima/Japan 2009 Into the Atomic Sunshine in Sakima, Sakima Art Museum, 2009 Into the Atomic Sunshine in Okinawa,Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum Okinawa, 2008 OKINAWA PRISMED 1872-2008, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo/Japan 2008 Hiroshima Art Document 2008, Former Hiroshima Branch of Nippon Ginko, Hiroshima/Tokyo 2008 To-Lo video screening: Tokyo-London artists exchange,the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London/England
2007 The Tracks of Okinawan Culture,1872-2007, Okinawa Prefectural Museum &Art Museum 2007 0 year of Photograph,Citizens Gallery PALLET, 2007 VOCA 2007 - the vision of cotemporary art 2007, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo/Japan 2005 Crossovers & Rewrits: BORDERS over ASIA, World Social Forum 2005, Museum of Contemporary Art Porte Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil 2005 Kurashiki Contemporary Art Biennial Exhibition West, KAKE MUSEUM of ART, Okayama/Japan 2004 Asahi Art Festival, Okinawa Cafe Kanasan Rice+, Tokyo/Japan Selected Film Festivals/Screenings 2016 Aomori Museum of Art 10th Anniversary Art Film Encounters, July 30-31, AOMORI MUSEUM OF ART THEATRE, Aomori/Japan 2016 AAS in ASIA 2016 HORIZONS OF HOPE" Film Screenings Islands - Across And Between", June 26, Doshisha University, Kyoto/Japan 2016 Event Celebrating the Publication of Circulating World The Art of Chikako Yamashiro, June 4, D & DEPARTMENT OKINAWA by OKINAWA STANDARD, 2016 Artists' Film Biennial: Next Year I Will Be Somewhere Else selected by artist Ming Wong, May 29, 2016 30th Image Forum Festival, May 14 - July 18, Theatre Image Forum, Shibuya, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Fukuoka City Public Library, Fukuoka, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, Yokohama Art Museum, Kanagawa/Japan 2016 "TEGAMI - Japanese Art - Tomoko Inagaki "Video evening: Melting Point", FRISE, Hamburg/Germany 2015 20th Aichi Art Film Festival, November 29 - December 6, Aichi Arts Center, Aichi/Japan 2015 Hiroshima Peace Festival 2015-16, Artist Talk Chikako Yamashiro & Katsuya Okuma / Screening of New Film, January 27, Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima/Japan 2014 Lecture by Chikako Yamashiro - Screening & Commentary on Her Work November 1, U-cala, Hokkaido/Japan 2014 10th Anniversary Screening Event for Film Production, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, 2013 Roppongi Art Night 2013 Special Screenings of Chikako Yamashiro s Film Work, March 23-24, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo/Japan 2012 Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012 Video Feature Week October 4-8, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka/Japan 2005 43rd Okayama Art Festival, Okayama Film Festival 2005 Eiga no Kioku [Memory of Films], Okayama Oriental Museum, Okayama/Japan Collection Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery Shuri Jokamachi Clinic, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Mori Art Museum, and more. For further information or images, please contact Yumiko Chiba Associates. E-mail: info@ycassociates.co.jp Tel. +81-3-6276-6731 Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku URL:http//www.ycassociates.co.jp Park Grace Shinjuku Bldg. 316, 4-32-6, Nishi-Shinjuku Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023 Japan. Opening Hours: 12:00-19:00 (Closed on Sundays, Mondays, National Holidays)