Art Space Tokyo - Blog: Archives

It is a haunting visualization of the 2053 atomic explosions that occurred on this planet, from the “Trinity” test at Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1945, to the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests of 1998.

Using different sounds and colors to denote explosions—by the United States, the USSR, Britain, China, France, India and Pakistan—over 53 years, it is a haunting piece of minimal music that also visualizes the half-century of the nuclear arms race.

It is well worth watching the entire 14 minutes. As it says on the host site, it sounds eerily like a conversation.

Another video by Hashimoto, Overkilled, shows a hand dropping a single ball bearing to represent the Hiroshima bombing, which killed more than 140,000 people. A second ball bearing represents the death of 70,000 people from the Nagasaki bombing.

The remaining minute of the video shows a cascade of 20,590 ball bearings, representing total global nuclear weapons stockpiles (in June 2004).

Categories: Japan Art News

ART iT Relaunches Online

Posted by Ashley on Sunday, June 21st 2009

Back in April, Japan’s bilingual quarterly art magazine ART iT announced that it was suspending its print publication to move entirely online, and with a revamped website.

The new site isn’t yet complete, but it has launched with reports on the Venice Biennale. In addition to magazine-style coverage it has section of blogs by numerous artists and art figures in Japan, and a Facebook/Mixi-style social networking service.

One thing to note is that the URL has changed from www.art-it.jp to www.art-it.asia and unfortunately it seems the former site’s archives of exhibition reviews, interviews and features have not been transferred to the new site. Whatever happens, I hope all this material doesn’t get lost.

Categories: Japan Art News

Setouchi International Art Festival – Call For Submissions

Posted by Ashley on Monday, June 15th 2009

Since the early 1990s, a cluster of islands in the Seto Inland Sea have been developing into one of Japan’s major sites of contemporary art. Naoshima was the first, starting with its world-class, iconic museums Bennesse House and Chichu Art Museum, both designed by Tadao Ando.

The Art House Project has renovated old houses into site-specific installations by renowned artists including Rei Naito, James Turrell, Tatsuo Miyajima and Hiroshi Sugimoto. In recent years, nearby islands of Inushima and Teshima have become homes to a variety of art installations.

In 2010, the region will host the inaugural Seto International Art Festival, taking place from July 19 to October 31. The festival’s organizers are currently calling submissions, open until August 31.

Details are available on their homepage.

Categories: Japan Art News

DECEMBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP

Posted by Ashley on Wednesday, January 7th 2009

Tokyo Art Beat’s of the month was “Towards an Open Source Urbanism”, Dominick Chen’s examination of how the virtual urban environment relates to the physical city in Tokyo.

On Tokyo Art Beat, I published the first part of “The Year in Art 2008”, my round up of the key exhibitions and events that shaped the Tokyo art scene this year.

Similarly, RealTokyo offers its highlights of 2008.

In December, the Japan Times published an article questioning whether or not the Chinese art bubble has burst and how this may be shifting more attention onto Japanese contemporary art.

Unfortunately, one bubble that burst in December was PingMag, which fell victim to the global economic downturn and has suspended its activities for the forseeable future. Its last article was an interview
with artist Ryu Itadani.