Lust for panel discussions
Jan. 19th, 2006 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusAfter a trip out to the beautiful Hara Museum in Shinagawa to see some Olafur Eliasson installations yesterday afternoon, Hisae and I headed to well-heeled Ginza (willow branches, fine coffee, hostesses in kimonos) to attend a Motion Graphics conference featuring the likes of TGB, Katsuki Tanaka and Groovisions.
There were DVDs being projected, of course (the highlights for me were an amazing 45° elevation animation by Groovisions of a man chasing a runaway horse through a generic city where everyone was dancing in time with each other -- even a dog watching his master peeing against a wall -- and a Katsuki Tanaka piece consisting of an endless zooming out through worlds within worlds). But, this being Japan -- and despite the predominantly visual nature of the subject at hand -- the whole thing culminated in words, and, more precisely, a panel discussion.
The format was classic: four men, eminent in their field, in relaxed mode, as if they were sitting together in an izakaya, full of solidarity with each other, holding microphones, being asked (very long) questions by a "charismatic" host (in this case, a guy with straggly peroxide hair poking out of a baseball cap). Because so many kids had come to see this, we had to sit on stools behind a sheet of glass in an overspill area, and I found myself swivelling between the actual artists and the image of them being relayed to a TV nearby.
The television framing felt a lot more natural than the real-life one, which made me think that this panel format mimics the variety comedy shows that dominate Japanese TV in the evenings, when a bunch of talento comedians blether away "spontaneously" for hours or play party games of one sort or another. Japanese TV is boring for me because I don't speak Japanese well, and these panel events are boring for the same reason. (I have just enough Japanese to tell you that these men were recounting how their careers began in the 90s thanks to commissions from musicians like Konishi, Cornelius and Towa Tei.) But as a result of my inadequacy I focus on body language; for instance, I admire Hiroshi Ito's good looks, or watch whether the audience is laughing when the panel cracks up. (In this case the answer is no; the audience sat stony-faced, which actually made the whole thing feel more like TV than ever.)
But my boredom at this sort of inevitable Japanese panel event (even if it's Makoto Aida at Nadiff or something) is mixed with a total admiration at the Japanese for making their artists much more visible than we do in the West. You quickly get to know the faces of famous artists here, and they even reach a wide public thanks to popular TV shows like Takeshi-no Daredemo Picasso, Takeshi Kitano's "Everyone is Picasso", which often features people like Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami. You even see the faces of Western artists in Japan much more than you do in the West, and see them talk on panels
about their work. For instance, in Japan I've seen German artists like Karsten Nicolai and Beate Gutschow doing presentations on their work, yet I never saw that in their hometown of Berlin. And that makes Japan seem admirable, and the West seem weird.
The weird, warped and occluded ways that artists appear in media in the West forms the basis for a very interesting booklet (you can download it in pdf format here, 3.7MB) by Temporary Services. It's called "Framing the Artists". After watching hundreds of hours of tapes of Western film and television in which artists and art appear (even very briefly), Temporary Services submitted their notes in the form of this booklet. It gives amusing examples of art in popular media, from Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh in Lust For Life to jokes in sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. "Many depictions center on artists’ unusual behavior, love affairs, or self-destruction through drugs and alcohol," they conclude. (Certainly true of The Observer's weirdly hostile and defensive "psychoanalysis" of Tracey Emin last Sunday.) "Jokes about not being able to understand modern art are endless. Very few biographies of actual or fictive artists seriously attempt to consider the artist’s creative process in a nuanced way."
No matter how boring and wordy I find these Japanese artist panel discussions (and it's mostly my fault; I need to learn Japanese), they are, if nothing else, "serious attempts to consider the artist's creative process in a nuanced way". And for that, a Christian hallelujah!
(If you have your own examples of silly or strange portrayals of artists in the Western media, Temporary Services want to hear from you. E-mail them at servers@temporaryservices.org.)
There were DVDs being projected, of course (the highlights for me were an amazing 45° elevation animation by Groovisions of a man chasing a runaway horse through a generic city where everyone was dancing in time with each other -- even a dog watching his master peeing against a wall -- and a Katsuki Tanaka piece consisting of an endless zooming out through worlds within worlds). But, this being Japan -- and despite the predominantly visual nature of the subject at hand -- the whole thing culminated in words, and, more precisely, a panel discussion.
The format was classic: four men, eminent in their field, in relaxed mode, as if they were sitting together in an izakaya, full of solidarity with each other, holding microphones, being asked (very long) questions by a "charismatic" host (in this case, a guy with straggly peroxide hair poking out of a baseball cap). Because so many kids had come to see this, we had to sit on stools behind a sheet of glass in an overspill area, and I found myself swivelling between the actual artists and the image of them being relayed to a TV nearby.The television framing felt a lot more natural than the real-life one, which made me think that this panel format mimics the variety comedy shows that dominate Japanese TV in the evenings, when a bunch of talento comedians blether away "spontaneously" for hours or play party games of one sort or another. Japanese TV is boring for me because I don't speak Japanese well, and these panel events are boring for the same reason. (I have just enough Japanese to tell you that these men were recounting how their careers began in the 90s thanks to commissions from musicians like Konishi, Cornelius and Towa Tei.) But as a result of my inadequacy I focus on body language; for instance, I admire Hiroshi Ito's good looks, or watch whether the audience is laughing when the panel cracks up. (In this case the answer is no; the audience sat stony-faced, which actually made the whole thing feel more like TV than ever.)
But my boredom at this sort of inevitable Japanese panel event (even if it's Makoto Aida at Nadiff or something) is mixed with a total admiration at the Japanese for making their artists much more visible than we do in the West. You quickly get to know the faces of famous artists here, and they even reach a wide public thanks to popular TV shows like Takeshi-no Daredemo Picasso, Takeshi Kitano's "Everyone is Picasso", which often features people like Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami. You even see the faces of Western artists in Japan much more than you do in the West, and see them talk on panels
about their work. For instance, in Japan I've seen German artists like Karsten Nicolai and Beate Gutschow doing presentations on their work, yet I never saw that in their hometown of Berlin. And that makes Japan seem admirable, and the West seem weird.The weird, warped and occluded ways that artists appear in media in the West forms the basis for a very interesting booklet (you can download it in pdf format here, 3.7MB) by Temporary Services. It's called "Framing the Artists". After watching hundreds of hours of tapes of Western film and television in which artists and art appear (even very briefly), Temporary Services submitted their notes in the form of this booklet. It gives amusing examples of art in popular media, from Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh in Lust For Life to jokes in sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. "Many depictions center on artists’ unusual behavior, love affairs, or self-destruction through drugs and alcohol," they conclude. (Certainly true of The Observer's weirdly hostile and defensive "psychoanalysis" of Tracey Emin last Sunday.) "Jokes about not being able to understand modern art are endless. Very few biographies of actual or fictive artists seriously attempt to consider the artist’s creative process in a nuanced way."
No matter how boring and wordy I find these Japanese artist panel discussions (and it's mostly my fault; I need to learn Japanese), they are, if nothing else, "serious attempts to consider the artist's creative process in a nuanced way". And for that, a Christian hallelujah!(If you have your own examples of silly or strange portrayals of artists in the Western media, Temporary Services want to hear from you. E-mail them at servers@temporaryservices.org.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 03:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 03:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 04:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 05:28 am (UTC)Of course, the true reality is that the artist would more likely have his head shaved all but for a 5 foot-long mane of hair sprouting right out the middle.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 07:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 09:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 10:19 am (UTC)Driven by rivalry
Consumed by passion
Straight to video (http://www.modiglianithemovie.com)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 10:58 am (UTC)I used to watch a very good art show on NHK 2, channel 3, that aired on Sunday mornings (not sure if it's still on). I used it as a sort of guide because it had a nice coverage of current exhibitions at Mito, Hara, Yokohama Triennale, Watarium, etc.
They even did a whole show on Carsten Nicolai once.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 04:44 pm (UTC)Joseph
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-19 10:37 pm (UTC)皆の言ってることが分かっても面白くないかもしれないよ、僕は日本語学習に夢中になり、２年間以上を日本の教育制度の中で過ごしたのに、大体こういう改まった集まりになると完全に理解するというのは完全に寝ちゃうことと変わらないね（また転寝のことか？！）。以上に提示されているように、話しの内容より「方」じゃないか？これは日本でいつもビックリさせることの一つ：漢語や敬語はこんなに多くて微妙な使い方があっても、日本より言葉を崩して虚像の美だけに集中する国って存在してないような気がする。言葉は思い。夢は軽い。楽しく遊びましょう。ゆっくりと４５度のお辞儀を。いつも完璧に！体操が始まりま〜す！
oh and while you're at it!
Date: 2006-01-19 10:50 pm (UTC)Omega Point
東京都世田谷区池尻１ー１１ー６パークサイドマンション２０６
open Monday & Wednesday 2-9 p.m.
...it's above a tropical fish store.
Vega Pop
Date: 2006-01-20 09:16 am (UTC)