My friend Michelle Z & I agree, this year is much better than the 2014 exhibition. Much, much better! Here are the works that impressed me most, culminating in my favorite artist, who turned out to not be a part of the Yokohama Triennale!
The show starts big with the work of Ai Wei Wei on the facade which addresses the European refugee crisis. This is one piece I hope makes people think. Seeing the capacity of the boats, the quantity of life jackets included in this installation and I remember that Japan has only accepted 27 Syrian refugees in 2015, 28 in 2016.
Tatiana Trouve created what looked like homeless shelters of cardboard but were actually pieces of cast copper and bronze, painted to look exactly like cardboard. Interesting concept referencing the Italian architect Ugo La Pietra, “To inhabit is to be at home everywhere.”
The idea of painting Lenin’s face melded with Leonardo DiCaprio’s characters from his various movies was quite lost on me, but as I read the tag the pieces included embroidery. I couldn’t find it until Michelle pointed out that it was the hair! In every one of the paintings, maybe six or so, the hair was immaculately embroidered! For some reason this artist is not included in the guidebook so I am unable to properly credit the artist.
From rakes to washers, Malaysian artist Anne Samat, takes the mundane every day objects and creates gorgeous, colorful work embodying traditional Malaysian textiles and gender roles.
Fighting back however they can, as safe as Japan can seem, it isn’t. Not for the young women who ride the trains to & from school. Kazama Sachiko utilizes the traditional ukiyo-e woodcuts to convey the ever present message young women in Japan must always be alert.
Polar bears covered in brightly colored feathers! I did return a second time and found that the bears were behind a big line of tape with signs for parents to hang on to their children’s hand :)
We took the free shuttle bus to Koganecho area but found most of the studio spaces won’t be open until Sept 15. Many of the spaces that were open, were just, ‘meh.’ Only one of the four photographs above is part of an installation…can you guess which one?
We did happen upon an artist working in her studio space and I was totally wowed by her work! She wasn’t part of the official Yokohama Triennale but probably should be! Using anodized aluminum sheeting, she was hand stamping letters into it:
Check out the work of Kaneko Miya, who recently rec’d her Doctorate from Tama Art University. There is another artist, Katie Paterson, who has a laser cut piece of black anodized aluminum in the Yokohama Trienniale. One can really see the difference between the work of these two artists and how important process is to the final pieces. I’m looking forward to seeing more from Kaneko Miya in the future! My fav artist of the day :)
Part II of my Yokohama Triennale adventures comes as an enjoyable surprise…HERE