Circling backJulie Curtiss （Youkobo Residency Artist 2019）
This past fall, I had the privilege of returning to Youkobo Art Space as part of their Returnee
Residency Program. I had previously been in residency at Youkobo more than ten years
prior, in 2008, and both tenures proved to be formative artistic experiences, each in theirown way.
When I first arrived as a Youkobo resident ten years ago, I was just beginning my career as
an artist and, fresh from school, feeling somewhat isolated as I sought to connect with anartistic community with which I could exchange knowledge and ideas. Youkobo not only
linked me with an international brain trust of artists and provided me with a platform thatenabled me to push myself and my practice, but, most importantly, showed me what a
supportive, encouraging, and compassionate art community looks like.
My initial time at Youkobo helped lay the foundation for the work I am doing now. During that visit, I was drawn tothe elaborate beauty regimens that are marketed to Japanese women and illustrated in almost perturbing detail in
instructional pamphlets, which I collected along with local fashion magazines and adapted into drawings using Sumi
ink. This body of work, presented in a two-person show with Clinton King titled “Split Ends,” addressed themes ofartifice and nature, beauty and the uncanny, cultural norms and the body—themes that continue to inform mypractice.
On my most recent visit to Youkobo, I returned eager to pursue a new body of work focused on a phenomenon,
unique to Japan, that has long fascinated me: food sampuru, the hyper-realistic, strangely-beautiful plastic foodsamples that restaurants use to entice visitors. Food has become a recurring theme in my work, often as a way toexplore the porousness between the seductive and the repulsive, as well as to investigate the surrealist elements ofmodern life, in which our corporeal appetites are titillated with the extravagant, abnormal, and bizarre. Thanks to myresidency, I was able to create an entirely new series of sculptures, using materials I would not otherwise have hadaccess to, and surrounded by sources of inspiration that deeply enriched the work. I also used the residency as anopportunity to return to painting in black and white—this time in gouache—and to lay the foundation for future work.
During my time in Japan, I traveled to see Shinto shrines, ukiyo-e prints, Buddhist temples, and other forms of
traditional Japanese art that have left me invigorated with new directions, ideas, and questions I am keen to tackle in
my practice. For example, seeing the iconography, use of space, and painting techniques used in painted panels attemples and shrines has inspired me to embark on a new series of prints that will draw heavily from this firsthandexperience.
The unique community fostered at the Youkobo Art Space continues to be a defining part of the residency, andsomething for which I am deeply grateful. Both during the organized talk event in which I participated and via more
informal channels, I was able to engage in rich dialogue with the fellow residents, which I believe left each of us witha more nuanced and more global perspective on the art world. From hearing from fellow resident Yang Chen about
the differences between Japanese museums compared and their overseas counterparts, to sharing my perspective as aNew York resident on the relationship between politics and art, these conversations offered important opportunities
for cross-cultural exchange . I was gratified to share my work with the local community through Youkobo’s “Trolls inthe Park” festival and my two-person exhibition, “Tandem,” with Clinton King. In both instances, I was delighted tosee how my sampuru-inspired sculptures provoked people to think differently about a familiar phenomenon. It wasclear from viewers’ reactions that the series had shifted their perception of these sampuru—highlighting, perhaps, theartistry in these everyday objects, while also probing the uncanniness of objects that both repel and attract. Iwelcomed the conversations I was able to have about craft and process—discussions that are different from those I’ve
had with viewers of the work in other contexts.
As Youkobo Art Space celebrates its third decade of existence, and more than a decade of shaping me personally, I
can’t help but look back with deep gratitude on an organization that has provided me with the space, community, andresources to travel beyond the familiar and tap into invaluable wellsprings of inspiration. Though the residency hascome to an end, Youkobo’s influence on my practice will continue for many years to come.