Curated by art critic Midori Matsui, a new exhibition explores the"Micropop" imagination in contemporary Japanese art and is beingintroduced to Vietnamese audience.
Winter Garden features 35 works by 14 young Japanese artists born between the late 1960s and early 1980s.
The artists use banal everyday objects and outmoded fashion in aplayful way to create new situations and stories through a style ofexpression Matsui calls "Micropop".
Winter Garden containstwo opposite meanings. On the one hand, it literally means a desolategarden in the wintertime. But it can also be understood as an idiomaticexpression referring to a hothouse.
According to Matsui,the first meaning alludes to the difficulties of contemporary lifebrought on as the result of globalisation, including worldwide economicdepression and the disappearance of local cultures and the other is thatthe image of a hothouse suggests a space that nurtures variousorganisms.
The exhibition consists of three categories. The first one presents drawings, video and sound installations inspiredby seemingly insignificant details of daily life.
Thesecond category demonstrates the creative use of contemporary Japanesesubcultures such as manga (comics), anime (cartoons), science fiction,computer games and slapstick comedies.
The third category includes works that incorporate the basic structures of self-generation among plants, animals and minerals.
In Vinyl of Lyota Yagi, the artist uses videos and records in anidiosyncratic way. It took him three years to create the work, in whichhe froze water in a silicon mold that reproduces the grooves of an audiorecord on ice. As the disk is played, heat generated by friction causesthe grooves to melt and the melody to gradually disintegrate into arepetition of mere sound.
The exhibition also includesthree video works by Koki Tanaka, the representative artist for theJapan pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition in Italy ,which runs from June 1 to November 28.
This is the first timeMicropop, a new concept of Japanese art, has been introduced inVietnam . We hope that visitors will understand the insights andperspectives of the artists, said Inami Kazumi, director of the JapanFoundation Centre for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam , the organiser ofthe exhibition.
The exhibition, which marks theJapan-Vietnam Friendship Year, will be at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum,66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hanoi, until June 23 and at the ExhibitionHouse at Ho Chi Minh City Workers Culture Palace at 55B Nguyen Thi MinhKhai Street in HCM City until June 21.-VNA
Winter Garden features 35 works by 14 young Japanese artists born between the late 1960s and early 1980s.
The artists use banal everyday objects and outmoded fashion in aplayful way to create new situations and stories through a style ofexpression Matsui calls "Micropop".
Winter Garden containstwo opposite meanings. On the one hand, it literally means a desolategarden in the wintertime. But it can also be understood as an idiomaticexpression referring to a hothouse.
According to Matsui,the first meaning alludes to the difficulties of contemporary lifebrought on as the result of globalisation, including worldwide economicdepression and the disappearance of local cultures and the other is thatthe image of a hothouse suggests a space that nurtures variousorganisms.
The exhibition consists of three categories. The first one presents drawings, video and sound installations inspiredby seemingly insignificant details of daily life.
Thesecond category demonstrates the creative use of contemporary Japanesesubcultures such as manga (comics), anime (cartoons), science fiction,computer games and slapstick comedies.
The third category includes works that incorporate the basic structures of self-generation among plants, animals and minerals.
In Vinyl of Lyota Yagi, the artist uses videos and records in anidiosyncratic way. It took him three years to create the work, in whichhe froze water in a silicon mold that reproduces the grooves of an audiorecord on ice. As the disk is played, heat generated by friction causesthe grooves to melt and the melody to gradually disintegrate into arepetition of mere sound.
The exhibition also includesthree video works by Koki Tanaka, the representative artist for theJapan pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition in Italy ,which runs from June 1 to November 28.
This is the first timeMicropop, a new concept of Japanese art, has been introduced inVietnam . We hope that visitors will understand the insights andperspectives of the artists, said Inami Kazumi, director of the JapanFoundation Centre for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam , the organiser ofthe exhibition.
The exhibition, which marks theJapan-Vietnam Friendship Year, will be at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum,66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hanoi, until June 23 and at the ExhibitionHouse at Ho Chi Minh City Workers Culture Palace at 55B Nguyen Thi MinhKhai Street in HCM City until June 21.-VNA
