Yu Araki: Recent Projects (2019-2020)

ニッポンノミヤゲ | LE SOUVENIR DU JAPON (solo exhibition)
2019 / Multi-media installation
On the occasion of 100th Anniversary of Shiseido Gallery
Exhibition period: April 3rd - June 23rd, 2019
Curator: Keiko Toyoda
Commissioned by Shiseido Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Japan

Product Placement IV (Red Carpet)
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo

Product Placement IV (Red Carpet), Product Placement II (Chandelier), Product Placement III (Mirror))
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo

Product Placement I (Kwaidan-dansu)
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo

Product Placement III (Mirror))
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo

Product Placement II (Chandelier)Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo

Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken KatoThe Last Ball
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken KatoThe Last Ball
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken Kato

THE LAST BALL
2019 / 3-channel video installation / 10’34 + 31’44”
Link to the trailer of the single-channel version: https://youtu.be/Jv85447Dnqw

Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken Kato

Transcreation Trilogy
Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken Kato

Transcreation Trilogy
2019 / HDV / Color / Silent / 05’12”, 18’10”, 18’37” / Japanese & English subtitles
For links to full ﬁlms, please contact the artist: yuaraki@gmail.com

Installation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken Kato

Shinzo Fukuhara, House of Lafcadio Hearn (from The Old Town of Matsue), 1936, PhotographInstallation view at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo; Photo: Ken Kato

銀座の目抜き通りを歩く人々が、しきりにiPhoneを翳している。
その先に何を見ているのか、私も見上げる。
「目をみて話しなさい」とはいわれるが、はたして相手の両目をいっぺんにみることは可能なのだろうか。
私には出来ない。
なので、目をみる振りをして、眉間のあたりをみることにしている。
そうすれば、相手は両目をみられていると錯覚する。
二つのことを、ひとつの視点から両方一度にみることがはたして可能なのだろうか。
少なくとも、相互の視点が重なり、その間を行き来し、アクティベートされることによって画自体が豊かになる。
この視覚効果が示唆する意味についてはまだわからないが、視点は一点に集中するものではなく、交換可能であり、重なりそして混ざり合うことによって活き活きとし、移ろいゆくものであると私は考える。
その揺らぎがないと、やはり寂しく感じる。
荒木 悠People walk along the main street of Ginza, tirelessly brandishing their iPhones.
I look up too, to see what they are gazing at.
People tell me to look them in the eye when I speak, but is it actually possible to look into both of a person’s eyes at the same time?
I certainly can’t do it.
So I pretend to look them in the eyes, while actually looking between their brows.
The other person is then deluded into thinking I am looking into both their eyes.
Is it actually possible to see two things at once from a single perspective?
At the very least, the mutual perspectives will overlap, and the picture itself will acquire richness by moving between the two,and becoming activated.
I do not yet know what this visual effect suggests, but do think that rather than concentrating on a single point, perspectives can be switched,overlapping and mixing, growing vital and dynamic in the process.
Without that oscillation, for me there is something missing.
Yu Araki

A short text for the exhibition

密月旅行 | HONEYMOON
Installation version, 2020
HDV presented with punctured screen / 1.78:1 / Color / Stereo / 29’31” / Japanese with English subtitles
Link to the trailer: https://vimeo.com/562089544
On the occasion of CONNECTIONS: 150 Years of Modern Art in Japan and France
Exhibition period: November 14th, 2020 - April 4th, 2021
Curators: Nami Yamabana, Yoko Iwasaki
Commissioned by Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan

HONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone; Photo: Ken KatoHONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone; Photo: Ken KatoHONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone; Photo: Ken Kato

Synopsis:
Set in a fictitious lunar base Nagasaki, HONEYMOON is the Japanese
director Yu Araki’s take on Japonisme. He re-examines and re-interprets
the wedding scene from Madame Butterfly (dir. Carmine Gallone, 1954),
where B.F. Pinkerton sits in seiza (正座), which is the Japanese term used
for the proper, formal traditional way of sitting by kneeling on the floor
and have legs folded underneath the thighs. Although seiza-style is widely
known as “correct” and "traditional", it didn’t permeate until after Japan
opened up to the Occident, that is, after the culture of the “chair” hadtaken hold, hence the formality of what the Japanese thought had long
history was only a modern, arbitrary construct. Inspired by this historicalfact, Araki connects seiza with another element to contemplate thearbitrariness of humanity: constellation, which, incidentally, is ahomonym with seiza (星座) in the Japanese language.
In addition, the aforementioned film Madame Butterfly has been known
as one of the most iconic collaborations between Italy and Japan, with astrong intention from the Japanese production side to “correct” thetwisted imagery of Japanese depiction. However, Araki critically poses thequestion of what does it mean to understand another culture “correctly”.
In Araki’s version, B.F. Pinkerton is replaced by a real-life photographer
Adolf de Meyer (1868 - 1946), and the matchmaker with an anthropologist
Frederick Starr (1858 - 1933), and having Suzuki and Dr. Tatsukichi Irisawa(1865 - 1938), who was known for his essay “On the Japanese Way ofSitting” (1921), joining in as broadcast commentator to describe thesituation from a distance. The loose, gossipy dialogue between the off-site
personnel ranges from fashion to spies, interweaving various elements
while the performers patiently wait in perseverance until their legs fallasleep.
Adolf de Meyer
Self-Portrait, Adolf de Meyer in Japanese housegelatin silver print, 1900
©The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Image source: Art Resource, NYHONEYMOONInstallation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone; Photo: Ken KatoHONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone; Photo: Ken KatoHONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone

HONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone

HONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone

HONEYMOON
Installation view at Pola Museum of Art, Hakone