ART as a Communication Tool

For me, Art represents an individual attitude in society, an attempt to understand and question the relationship and stance towards the social.  When people gather together, the idea of 'another' is produced, and this relationship between others introduces this concept of the 'social'.  My art activities are between you and me, and function as a communication tool. 

 

The Epoch of the Globalization

Contemporary social relations are bound up with the empirical transformative conditions of globalization. In modern society, all of our social interactions, customs, experiences, politics, economics and environment are engaged in this reciprocal complex relationship. In this hyper-connected globalized society, I am interested in the artistic effort of reaching a local context, beyond a particular piece's aesthetic or medium.

 

Practice: Cultural Sketch

By placing myself in unfamiliar environments, such as foreign countries with different cultures, histories, or fields of knowledge that are unknown to me, my work is initiated by a very personal speculation or idea that is complementary to the lack of information that comes during a process of adaptation.

I trust that the most banal, routine and seemingly meaningless practices of everyday life contain the integral essence of the culture. I focus on daily feelings when I am in an untranslatable situation, and I purposely attempt to distort this local, common scene by an intuitive process of reconstruction. 

This is a creative protocol that to observe clearer the differences between a socio-cultural signs and what they are signified for me. "Sinifiant" will not "sinifié" anything if you do not share the domain knowledges. Moreover, the signes that are highly symbolized by the culture will be invalidated.

Today, our societies are highly observant of the actions and reactions of international communities. There are subsequently many misunderstandings and wrong translations in the meeting of cultures.

My site-specific work will introduce an aspect of a certain culture. However, my artistic interest is not to promote cultural identity that approved already. The persistence of misunderstandings can lead our reality to more imaginative and creative avenues for thought. Error sometimes creates something not otherwise expected or arrived at. Therefore, my artistic interest is not to correct them. Rather, by focusing on very personal speculation or assumptions, I am trying to cultivate the field of "differance".

The work mainly takes the form of installation, but not the installation of works already completed in the studio. By adding minimum transformation to the (most usual) peculiarity, I am seeking to shift an unconscious image into a concrete vision. To precisely pursue pure impressions of the subject, I do not begin with a predetermined method and my works do not exhibit obvious connections in terms of materials or completed forms, but by taking into account conditions on the ground I seek to represent my very personal impressions as simply as possible. It is similar to an unusual interpretation of a usual sensation, somewhat like a cultural-specific-art work.

 

Statement

Observations of local cultural activities can be seen as observations of a globalising society. One of issues that our age is facing is what we might call "over-communication", the situation of informational explosion without culture. By practical trans-cultural experiences, I am exploring further possibility in the realm of site-specific creation. It is not just a counter idea for indoor creation, nor an adaptation of geographical restrictions, but it means rather an anthropologic interest that is focused on the local culture, customs and any other involuntary differences.

By not just exhibiting artworks unilaterally, I try to focus on the more usual, and more unusual, cultural diversity.  I seek to broaden my perceptions of culture and cultivate a degree of awareness via this intercultural creative process.  This individual self-cultural practice is the core of my art.  And this is my personal attitude in contemporary globalised society. 

 

 

Revision at 2015.09. Jun'ichiro ISHII

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