The school of things: Simon Lee's Five Decades exhibition addresses Japanese post-modernity
In 1965 the artist Tatsuo Kawaguchi brought together nine artists to dig a hole by the Nagara River in Kobe, Japan. 'Hole' was one of the first 'happenings' in the Far East and one of only six works by the collaborative group that called itself 'i'. By the end of the performance, the group would fill the hole back up making it indistinguishable from its earlier state. The process was key, the work ephemeral, leaving only a memory in the mind of the viewers - not that there were many.
Kawaguchi went on to become a proto-figure of the postmodern Mono-ha movement, a moment in Japanese art history lasting only three years. Because Mono-ha constituted only a brief flash of productivity, from 1968 to 1971, the London gallerist Simon Lee has called in works from five decades surrounding it, illustrating the movement's origins and influence. This he's done with input from Taka Ishi Gallery in Tokyo.
Only four artists appear in 'Five Decades: Sculpture and Works on Paper', but they offer a decent primer on the School of Things, as the name translates. Each in his own way, the figures depict a fraught period in the country's history, post-Hiroshima, pre-boom, during a time of rapid urbanisation and alienation from traditional forms of art, culture and domesticity.
Kawaguchi encapsulates the legacy of Mono-ha with works that investigates modern materials that escape their brutal purpose. In his 1989 work Stone and Light No.4, he pierces an organic stone form with an industrial neon tube. More elegant are the monochrome 'wall sculptures' of Noriyuki Haraguchi: industrial polyurethane taken from a hospital floor. One perfect square is a rustic green that is, of course, the very antithesis of natural. His layers of rusted iron ('Untitled', 2003) display the effects of weather on a precise, machine-cut block.
Noboru Takayama, who arrived at the Mayfair gallery this week to help with the installation, shows the latest and most affecting work. 'Fallen Wing - Headless Scenery' (2015) encompasses 25 wood railway ties stained with creosote and piled in a pick-up sticks formation. They recall the soot-stained casualties of the Japanese railway but also allude to the bodies the artist witnessed being pulled from a collapsed mine in his youth. Suitably buried in the basement gallery, they are requiems for the sacrificial human pillars of Japanese modernisation and perhaps a lament for the ever-distant 'i'.
ADDRESS
12 Berkeley Street
London W1J 8DT
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
The Brazilian Forest House injects art into a modernist-inspired, contemporary design
The Brazilian Forest House, designed in upstate São Paulo by FGMF, brings together nature and art
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Waiting room inspo: Inside Studioutte’s cinematic Sala D’Attesa at Milan Design Week
Studioutte’s Sala D’Attesa, staged in Nolo during Milan Design Week 2024, was a scenographic interior merging different design sensibilities
By Laura May Todd Published
-
Bang & Olufsen’s Recreated Classics series continues with a CD player revival
Bang & Olufsen’s Beosystem 9000c music system brings the original digital compact disc format back to life and pairs it with the latest in speaker design
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Olafur Eliasson inaugurates Azabudai Hills Gallery in Tokyo
Olafur Eliasson marks launch of Azabudai Hills Gallery, in Tokyo’s major new district, with a show of elemental strength
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Photographer David Abrahams captures quiet moments in Japan for his new London show
‘Kyushu’ is a new show from photographer David Abrahams that documents his trip to a town on the Japanese island
By Mary Cleary Published
-
Hiroshi Sugimoto: ‘The deeper I explore Shinto and Buddhist art, the more it reveals the shallowness of contemporary art’
‘Hiroshi Sugimoto – The Descent of the Kasuga Spirit’, at the Kasuga-Taisha shrine in Nara, Japan, sees the acclaimed photographer draw on Japan’s spiritual past and present
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
Artist’s Palate: Chiharu Shiota’s recipe for okonomiyaki
Get tangled up in Chiharu Shiota’s recipe for okonomiyaki, from our January 2023 issue’s Artist’s Palate feature, a Wallpaper* homage to our favourite contemporary art
By TF Chan Published
-
‘East Meets West’: artists Samiro Yunoki and Kori Girard unite at Ace Hotel Kyoto
Art exhibition, ‘East Meets West’ at Ace Hotel Kyoto marks Japanese artist Samiro Yunoki’s 100th birthday, in dialogue with new works by American artist Kori Girard
By Pei-Ru Keh Last updated
-
teamLab: how a Tokyo art collective pioneered an immersive art boom
With an operatic intervention and a show at Pace Geneva, teamLab, the now-700-strong Tokyo-based collective that blazed a trail for experiential, tech-fuelled art, continues to value ‘physical interaction in physical space’
By Nick Compton Last updated
-
Tanabe Chikuunsai IV wraps Casa Loewe Barcelona in 6,000 strips of tiger bamboo
Inside the newly revamped Casa Loewe Barcelona, Japanese artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV reflects on family traditions and environmental destruction with a staggering bamboo installation
By Malaika Byng Last updated
-
Botanical sculptor Azuma Makoto creates a sculptural ecosystem at Mexico’s SFER IK
Japanese artist Azuma Makoto’s largest flower sculpture to date responds to SFER IK’s unique biophilic design and the surrounding wilderness
By Pei-Ru Keh Last updated