Art Bin Participation at Yokohama Museum of Art

By appointment, I got my chance to throw my bad bit of art into Michael Landy’s Art Bin installation located inside the Yokohama Museum of Art. An interesting western idea being executed in a most Japanese way.

Mentioned in an earlier post, I created a large black snowflake that turned out to look like a disgusting spider. The Art Bin installation was perfect timing for me to purge my studio of this really bad idea.

 In typical Japanese fashion, I needed to apply, pick a date and hope they contacted me that my art would be acceptable. A week later they replied by email to let me know what time I was allowed to stop by on my chosen date. 

This is a Bring Your Own Party event! There was no one else there to throw their art into the bin! Despite the Yokohama Triennale happening, it wasn’t very busy at the museum and I’m glad a friend was able to join me. I thought they would at least group a couple of artists together to toss work in but, sadly, there was just me.

 I made the lonely 2 story climb to the top of the bin, waved to my friend, and tossed in my piece. It fell like a creepy dead spider and plopped to the bottom never breaking from it’s dead spider character to the end. 

It was all very anti-climactic. Hearing the story behind work other artists tossed would have been a nice experience. Maybe a once per week time for artists to come by, line up and toss a piece in would have been nice. A good way to connect with other artists is completely squashed with the Japanese system of requiring specific appointments.

 The whole Yokohama Triennale turned out to be a disappointing experience. Nothing really made my friend or I say, “Wow!” Too many pieces by artists that are seen over and over and over again. Various artwork that was crammed into areas too small and other work that clearly was placed in an area way too large.

Very few pieces were new work! So much of it was already presented at other venues for the past 10, 20, 30 years! There are just too many amazing installation artists out there for them to have just played it safe. Especially in a city that boasts how international it is.

Thankfully I had great company in my friend so it was still a fun Art Play Day! A big THANK YOU to her for taking photographs, also :)