When a human being is born, the first thing they do is look for their mother’s white breast milk. When we die, we expel black stool from our bodies to cleanse our bodies before we breathe our last. For humans, the time towards the end of life may be the process of returning to the mother’s body.
Recently, Hanae Utamura became a mother and Kyoko Ebata has lost her father.
For two months, Ebata stared at her father, who was only suffering in living hell even though he was definitely on his way to death. In ancient times, she would have had to kill him to stop the suffering of her beloved father, but because she loved him, she wanted him to be there, and she just kept shedding tears.
When Ebata’s father was in very pain, he said “mom”. She was not sure if he was referring to his mother or his wife, but she, who had never been a mother, was shaken by the idea of a mother, and now, confronting her own mother, with whom she had been at odds for a long time. She feels a strange sense of change in their relationship, frightened of her mother’s death, frightened of being alone, and trying to rebuild connections with others.
Alongside Utamura’s own mother is supporting her father, she who has become a “mother” experiences pure love, pleasure and pain for her child, and struggles with the codependency of pain and healing, in which she devotes herself to the other person and supports the other person’s body, while being thrown around by the contradictions of modern society, which continues to polarize, repeat, and self-propagate the individual.
The beginning of life and the experience of death, which a person experiences once in a lifetime, is a world that has no memory and can only be perceived from the outside. While there must be countless stories, it seems that there are very few opportunities to talk about this today.
In the field of life and death, there are families and people who care for them. With the development of science and medicine, humans seem to be becoming more and more free, and the choices we have seem to be getting more and more confusing. And with the overflow of information, we seem to be more and more divided.
The United Nations issued a report on “human security,” reporting that although humanity has become economically prosperous, six out of seven people are insecure. And in the midst of the corona disaster, war has started again. What was it that we had built up?
Ebata and Utamura, now living in Japan and the US, are at a turning point in their lives. They make works about these issues while deepening their dialogues, examining the history of societies and countries from personal family relationships, reviewing the values and knowledge systems that modernization has promoted, and trying to rethink what the heck it means to live as human beings on this earth.
House of Ebata happily presents the group show ‘Green’. The focus of the show is painting and especially the problem of how to start a painting. House of Ebata strictly specifies that all works in the exhibition will be green. The choice of green may be arbitrary. And the starting point of a painting may also be arbitrary.
“[As in the example of Duchamp’s Pharmacy] painting at its most elemental and elementary was a colour decision. But the implications of any colour decision – given due weight – are emotionally and ontologically intense.” (John Chilver)
If green is a decision, the exhibition asks what kind of decision it can be: as the determinant of the mood, feel, image, symbol, chemical and associations. Is green a unity or an infinite subdivision? Is the monochrome the ghosted polychrome? Is green sacred or salted? Proper primary or sneezing secondary? Is green there to calm our nerves? Or to get tuned up for an afterimage that will follow that we’ll say is red?
‘Green’ combines works by experienced painters (John Chilver, Rie Iwatake, Simon Willems and Diana Zrnic) with a novice painter (Kyoko Ebata).
Special Thanks: 岡本大河｜Taiga Okamoto, 中島 ふみえ| Fumie Nakashima, John Tran
<Artists>
John Chilver｜ジョン・チルバー
Emily Rosamond Teaching the Remedial Class in Political Economy and Algorithm Studies,2017,John Chilver, oil on canvas, 30.5 × 25.4 cm
Starting a painting is no harder and no easier than starting any other kind of artwork: it begins with a sense of something lacking, which provokes a desire for something to be made and seen. This making doesn’t resolve the lack in any real way, but – if things go well – it alters its pressure.
In ‘Pharmacy’, Duchamp tried to reduce painting to a pure decision: just get any vaguely romantic landscape image and add 2 coloured dots. This was a negation of sorts. But it still feels like an affirmation. It’s a decision but interestingly for Duchamp it was still a decision about color.
Colour is transorganic, meaning it is of the mind and simultaneously of the world. It is also radically contingent and radically discontinuous. For example, we see brown as a colour, yet brown is nowhere to be found in the rainbow. In scientific terms, brown is a corrupted orange. But in the visual world we see brown and orange as equals.
Duchamp’s lesson in ‘Pharmacy’ was perhaps that painting at its most elemental and elementary was a colour decision. But the implications of any colour decision – given due attention – are emotionally and ontologically intense.
John Chilver is an artist and writer. His work orbits around painting, understood as a stage for scenes of agency and dispute, and styles of subjectivity. He invokes image-making as an unstable site of inquiry. Since the late 1990s he has exhibited and published widely. He studied philosophy at the University of Reading and art at Goldsmiths College, London. He lives and works in London.
Recent solo exhibitions have included Xero Kline and Coma, London, 2018; The Near Abroads, Atlas House, Ipswich, 2019; and The Scene of Instruction, Coleman Projects, London, 2021.
アーティスト／作家。レディング大学で哲学を、ゴールドスミスカレッジ（ロンドン）で美術を学んだ後、1990年代後半から、幅広く展示や出版を行い、ロンドンを拠点に活動している。作品は、主体性や争いの場面、主観性のスタイルの舞台として理解されている絵画を中心に展開され、イメージの制作を不安定な探究の場として様々なアプローチを試みている。近年の個展に「Xero Kline and Coma」（ロンドン、2018）、「The Near Abroads」（アトラスハウス、イプスウィッチ、2019）、「The Scene of Instruction」（コールマン・プロジェクト、ロンドン、2021）など。
江幡京子｜Kyoko Ebata
Exploiting a friendship from John Chilver, <<Oak and Air>> 2012-2017, oil on panel, 40 × 40 cm, 2022, Kyoko Ebata (work in progress)
The Case of T&S 2020; Good Bye My Father, 2021~, Kyoko Ebata, digital video 11:41 and stillpictures
When I was very young, I had made some paintings, and looking back they were selfies and also copying a sight which I see on photographs, so I would say I was taking pictures or performing rather than painting.
I enjoy looking at paintings very much and I would like to look into the world of painting at least once in my life. However, when I wanted to paint, I didn’t know where to start. I drew a red circle on paper, but then I had to decide what to do next. I felt it was too much responsibility. Usually when I make a piece of work, I have an image or a concept in my head, or it just appears in front of me, and I feel a pang. Then it usually becomes a work of art.
So I have decided to start by ‘exploiting’ the sincere friendship of the participant, John Chilver, as I always do in other works. I had once seen a piece of his work on a mobile and thought it was wonderful, without realizing that it was only part of the work. This time, I’m going to try to enter the world of painting by copying the part of that painting.
I tried to draw a bit, but unlike photography, it’s very hard to exploit. The wet-on-wet approach is similar to a way of life. I think it is also similar to housework. In housekeeping, you have your own standard, “this place should be kept like this”, and you always work to maintain it. In painting, you have to work at a certain time and in a certain way in order to match your image of what the painting should look like. If I wait until I’m in the mood, the paint will harden. I can’t wait until I feel motivated. You have to move even if you don’t feel like it. In a way, it’s like a habit to live a healthy life. It’s contradictory to my way of making things, which reacts to external stimuli.
アーティスト。東京出身、ロンドン大学ゴールドスミス校卒業。グローバル社会、大都市での生活、戦争と平和、デザインとタブー、記憶と場所、高齢者社会、東日本大震災、環境問題、家族、愛情などをテーマに生活者の目線から時代を表現する。現在は国立市の庭付古民家をプロジェクトスペースに、制作やキュレーションを行いつつ、国内外で発表している。主な展覧会・賞与に「横浜トリエンナーレ2020」、「Volcana Brainstorm; 江幡京子展」、「The Perfect Day to Fly」（ギャラリー・ハシモト、2018）、「あいちトリエンナーレ2010」、「現代美術展企画コンペ」、「現代美術地中海ビエンナーレ2010）、「カルチャー・オブ・フィアー」、「Halle 14」（2006）、「MEDIARENA：日本の現代美術」（the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery、2004）、「ヤング・ビデオ・アーティスト・イニシアティブス」受賞（森美術館準備室、2002）がある。
Kyoko Ebata is a Tokyo based artist, studied in Geneva and Oxford for schools, and graduated from Goldsmiths’ College. Ebata works on diverse projects in various mediums around her everyday life including global society, life in metropolis, war and peace, design and taboo, memory and place, aging society, the Great East Japan Earthquake, environmental issues, family and love. Currently, Ebata runs a project space at an old Japanese house in Tokyo showing a contemporary international programme. She has exhibited widely and received prizes as an artist. Key exhibitions include: Volcana Brainstorm, Yokohama Triannual 2020; The Perfect Day to Fly, Gallery Hashimoto, 2018,; Aichi Triennale 2010 Curatorial Exhibition Competition, Culture of Fear, Halle 14, 2006; The First Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art, MEDIARENA: contemporary art from Japan, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2004; Young Video Artist Initiatives, Mori Art Museum, 2002
岩竹理恵｜Rie Iwatake
Atopon；No place|場所をもたない,2019, Rie Iwatake, archival pigment print on paper, 75 × 60 cm
The title of the work, Atopon (having no place), is a Greek word meaning a strange thing (moment) between motion and stillness.
By dividing an image of a landscape into sections and changing the size of the print particles in each section, the effect of combining images with different perspectives is created. The point of view is not a fixed point, but represents a fluid visual experience of time and distance.
There is a parallel relationship between the image space and the art material space on the same screen, with the landscape appearing as you move away and reducing to ink and paper as you approach.
To be able to see/to see/to be able/ see, observing and perceiving complement and interfere with each other. In the interlocking flow of seeing and looking, there is a visual experience that only the subject who is looking can see/see.
Rie Iwatake lives and works in Kanagawa, Since graduating from M.A. Art and Design Science, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki in 2006 and B.A. Textiles, Department of Craft, Kanazawa College of Art, Ishikawa, she has traveled to make works in many locations including Peru, Paris, Yokohama and Taiwan. She often works as a unit with Junya Kataoka, combining kinetic and two-dimensional works in a spatial composition that creates a narrative in the encounter of materials and designs, and in which the subject matter of each work is gently echoed.Recent exhibitions include “MOT Annual 2020 Invisible Powers” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo in 2020; Big Two- Hearted River, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, 1F 3331 Gallery, Tokyo in 2019; “BankART U35, Junya Kataoka+Rie Iwatake” BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama, “PyeongChang Biennale 2017” Gangneung, South Korea in 2017.
サイモン・ウィレムス｜Simon Willems
‘Untitled (Dance/Work) 1, 25 x 40cm, Oil on Linen 2021‘Untitled (Dance/Work) 2, 25 x 40cm, Oil on Linen 2021
Green (Expand Monochrome)
Cast your eye to the left and the colour hovers between snooker table felt and AstroTurf, a brief entry of artifice that shouldn’t really work. Rebelling in the lower region of the painting, the riverbank in Morning Mist at Anderlys is a curious proposition: pitching green against green. It’s not just the colour, willing itself towards neon that appeals, when the cartoon graphics so characteristic of Felix Vallotton elsewhere (anticipating Hopper and Katz), accentuate this tension. Move to the right and the surface fogs – like Whistler’s Nocturnes – Green Earth and White stilling the river through a yellowing glaze. Except there’s a bluing in the mix, a mineral effect, and it’s hard to discern whether Oxide of Chromium or Pthalo are to blame. Either way, lime holds sway (Cinnabar Green, to be precise), marshalling the trees in the mid-distance.
<<Morning Mist at Anderlys>>の下の方にある川岸は、緑と緑をぶつけ合うような不思議な試みをしている。このネオンに向かって進んでいく色彩だけが魅力なのではなく、フェリックス・ヴァロットンの特徴である（ホッパーやカッツを先取りした）漫画のようなグラフィックが、この緊張感を際立たせているのである。
Nocturne in Blue And Silver, 1875-80, James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Morning Mist at Anderlys, 1917, Felix Vallotton
Afterthought: Picasso’s Blue Period strikes a chord not so much because blue is the signature, as to how this is achieved. Whether you’re looking at The Old Guitarist, Two Women at a Bar, or The Blue Room, what is primary is not the idea of monochrome as a point of singularity, so much as a space of difference, fuelled by the possibility that blue is a range as much as a given pigment. All hues are up for grabs, that is the point: monochrome doesn’t have to mean Gerhard Richter or Mark Tansey. Navigate the surface of any one piece and you’ll find Cerulean, Prussian and Cobalt, not to mention complementary earths, in all manner of applications.
Simon Willems is a London-based artist. He is currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Reading (UK), where he completed a practice-based PhD in Fine Art in 2019, having graduated from the Painting School at the Royal College of Art in 2000. He has shown widely in both solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe and North America, including solo exhibitions at Torrance Art Museum (Los Angeles), FRAC Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand), Elephant West (London), Galerie Polaris (Paris) and Wallspace (New York) His work has featured and been reviewed in Flash Art, Art Review and Elephant Magazine amongst other publications, and was included in the survey painting publication, A Brush with the Real:Figurative Painting Today (Laurence King Publishing). Willems has written and published articles in the Journal of Contemporary Painting, the Journal of Organizational Aesthetics and the painting journal Turps Banana.
ロンドンを拠点に活動するアーティスト。2000年にロイヤル・カレッジ・オブ・アートのペインティングスクールを卒業し、現在はレディング大学（イギリス）のブリティッシュ・アカデミー博士研究員として、2019年にファインアートにおける実践ベースの博士課程を修了。トーランス美術館（ロサンゼルス）、FRAC Auvergne（クレルモンフェラン）、Elephant West（ロンドン）、Galerie Polaris（パリ）、Wallspace（ニューヨーク）での個展をはじめ、ヨーロッパと北米の各地で発表している。作品は『Flash Art』『Art Review』『Elephant Magazine』などの出版物で紹介され、絵画の研究書『A Brush with the Real: Figurative Painting Today』 (Laurence King Publishing) で紹介された。また、『Journal of Contemporary Painting』、『Journal of Organizational Aesthetics』、絵画専門誌『Turps Banana』に執筆している。
Diana Zrnic｜ダイアナ・ズルニク
Time Does That, 2022, Diana Zrnic, 80 X 70 cm, Oil on canvas
Is painting an overly chewed bubble gum that lost its flavour? It became almost radical to push the pigment over the flat surface in the last few decades, criticized as old-fashioned, commodifying, or irrelevant. The fact that painting is in its most usual form flat like the screens in our pockets and on our tables makes one wonder whether the oldest art form, questioned to the point of crucifixion unlike any other, is in fact the most relevant in relation to the context of vast digital networks. Often contrasted rather than compared for the obvious physical/digital differences, paintings and screens are, all in all, both portals offering the clashing of realities in the strong illusory conjunction between real and projected spaces.
Simultaneously shrinking and stretching space of the mind and the surroundings, painting and the Internet pose a question of where we see things being real. In constant search for bits of that real, even in the unreal, we are looking for something that resonates or vaguely resembles our sense of existence, genuineness, relevance, and importance.
While offering spaces we cannot touch or step into, paintings and screens are still excellent hosts. Although physically fragile, they have the strength to put up with any content we lay on them. Resilient to stories, figures, crazy ideas, good or bad antithesis, they testify to there being no actual or absolute truths by offering a variety of possibilities.
With painting, the key notion is that of the frame and what fits inside. Constraints are essential to the very existence of painting as it depends on the limits of the object it inhabits and the architecture it becomes a part of. Contemporary painting means pushing against some constraints while working along with others. While a rejection of the weight of painting in the 80s was an inspection of what painting is and what taking pleasure in the paint is, today, it is not so much about rejection as it is about arriving and departing in different directions.
Although always present, stripped of its prominence by consciously holding onto its own materiality, painting is coming back, and the world is flat once again!
Diana Zrnic, born in 1995 in Zagreb, is an emerging artist living and working in the UK. She completed her postgraduate degree MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2021 after graduating from the Academy of Fine Art in Zagreb in 2018. Zrnic attended three residency programs; in Barcelona, Berlin, and Lapua, which resulted in group and solo exhibitions. Most recent shows include Grads Now at Saatchi gallery in London and the 6th Biennial of Painting at HDLU in Zagreb. Mainly working with paintings and sculptures, her latest work explores notions of hybridity, simultaneity, and displacements of our lives and world. Imagery seen in her work deploys experiences of disparate forces, the reality of being implicated in an excessive number of processes at various scales and how, in a material sense, the body is the co-processor of digital information.
1995年ザグレブ（クロアチア）生まれ。2018年ザグレブの美術アカデミーを卒業後、2021年ロンドン大学ゴールドスミス校の大学院MFAファインアート課程修了。イギリスを拠点に、主に絵画と彫刻を制作している。最新作では私たちの生活や世界の混成性、同時性、変位といった概念を探求している。作品に見られるイメージは、異質な力の経験、様々なスケールで過剰な数のプロセスに関与している現実、そして物質的な意味で、身体がデジタル情報の共同処理者であることを表現している。近年の展覧会に「Grads Now」（サーチ・ギャラリー、ロンドン）、「第6回Biennial of Painting」（HDLU、ザグレブ）など。
Contact info(a)kyokoebata.com for direction to House of Ebata and appointments.
House of Ebataへのアクセス、予約についてはinfo(a)kyokoebata.comにお問合せ下さい。
<<The Case of T&S; Good Bye Father>> was shown as a result of works shop which I was invited as a guest work shop a guest workshop leader on martial arts to investigate a relation between love and violence through working with martial art groups in Dili.
I was not sure what I could show next to the performance of violence by people from Timor-Leste. Only violence I can think of is that our family decided to watch my father’s death at home last year, and he suffered so much at the end of his life.Living in Japan, I don’t really see real violence in everyday life, rather violence does not take physical form anymore. For some people violence is a form of communication and entertainment, or we talk about harassment all the time. Japan is more or less in a peaceful state but I feel how we humans are helpless. We need to keep making new friends and learn from each other.
A Photography Exhibition’7,610-kilometer Distance: Finally, We’ve Met One Another’byREKREATIF photographers from Timor-LesteFine art students from Silpakorn Universityand Kyoko Ebata, a guest artist from Japan1-24 AprilPSG Art GallerySilapakorn University, Bangkok
About the new video work in progress
Currently, Ebata is working on a documentary about her father’s end-of-life care and a film about life and death based on her research of folk traditions passed down from generation to generation, centering on the old well in the house where her father grew up.
Exhibition opening Wednesday 31 March 2021, 15:00, PSG Art Gallery Faculty of Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, Exhibition period1-24 April 2021 10:00 – 18:00, Closed on Sundays, Mondays and Public Holidays
“The virtue of all-in wrestling is that it is the spectacle of excess. Here we find a grandiloquence which must have been that of ancient theaters. And in fact wrestling is an open-air spectacle, for what makes the circus or the arena what they are is not the sky (a romantic value suited rather to fashionable occasions), it is the drenching and vertical quality of the flood of light. Even hidden in the most squalid Parisian halls, wrestling partakes of the nature of the great solar spectacles, Greek drama and bullfights: in both, a light without shadow generates an emotion without reserve.” ― R. Barthes, Analysis of wrestling from “Mythologies”
Goal: Understanding the culture of the participants with critical thinking and appreciate beauty and humanity
Definisaun: saida mak Arte Marsiais? / What is Martial Arts?
Historia: halo referensi ba realidade iha Timor / Reality in Timor-Leste
To study love and violence in human nature, REKREATIF, a collective of young Timorese photographers will study forms of martial arts and document the movement each other as central players of the free practices and spectators of the practices. https://www.facebook.com/groups/rekreatifmedia
“There is a miracle in every new beginning.” Hermann Hesse
Because of the Covid 19, we had to find a way to do the workshop remotely. I wanted to take this challenge into a chance to do something that I don’t usually do. Every work of mine always has my strong ego as a female Japanese artist. 10 out of 11 participants in the workshop are men. I thought this is a chance for me to do something that only boys can do.
I never really had a problem being a woman, but sometimes I felt I can’t join the boy’s club, like pro-wrestling in school (Yes, it was the 80’s). I couldn’t help myself to stop them and I was called Eba-police, which comes from a children’s TV show combined with my surname Ebata. I envied the boys talking about their secret base. They seem to warm friendship through pain as a sign of accepting each other.So I wanted to propose a project that only boys can do.
Learning about The 1999 East Timorese crisis, it seems to be appropriate to do something about violence , not to celebrate and as a disaster tourism, but to understand what is violence. A primitive violence can be a tool of communication and the physical power has been celebrated throughout human history. A love towards beauty, power usually encourages desire of possession and leads to violence. But love can survive as a noble mind.
It is great to have peace, in Japan physicality including violence becomes more like a fantasy rather than reality. But there is a downside of higher suiside rate and lower childbirth rate. To not have real space and real small violence, things can go crazy.
The sad history of the East Timorese crisis can be strong aura of the identity of the artists, and to think through physicality is very important part of martial arts, to have harmony in mind and body, which all of us feel strongly during the Covid 19 where everybody has to stay at home at the moment.
When I proposed the idea to the participants, they were shocked, saying it was dangerous. Apparently the martial arts groups are a hot issue in East Timor at the moment. It was a kind of miracle that I pointed out the important issue.
Near the end of his last book Chaosmosis (1993), Félix Guattari asks: ‘how do you bring a classroom to life as if it were a work of art?’ For Guattari, art is an endlessly renewable source of vitalist energy and creation, a constant force of mutation and subversion. He lays out a tripartite schema of art’s development, arguing that we are on the brink of a new paradigm in which art is no longer beholden to Capital. In this new state of affairs, which he names the ‘ethico- aesthetic paradigm’, art should claim ‘a key position of transversality with respect to other Universes of value’, bringing about mutant forms of subjectivity and rehumanising disciplinary institutions. Transversality, for Guattari, denotes a ‘militant, social, undisciplined creativity’; it is a line rather than a point, a bridge or a movement, motored by group Eros.
In other words, I would like to investigate love and violence in human nature with REKREATIF studying physicality and emotion through forms of martial arts. Although I need more research I could somehow understand this martial arts movement needing to protect themselves among different political powers and after the crisis, and low employment rate of course. However I hear that there are positive sides of this group that they are uniting the community. Young people are full of energy. After all an martial arts suppose to unite body and soul. The energy of people is so attractive.
I don’t consider workshop as a form of education, for me it is just making a project together as usual. But after I spent time talking to each participant and learnt a lot, it reminded of the do famous Paulo Freire’s education as a practice of freedom (educacao compo praticia) a little and made me like the idea of workshop. I am excited to see from this beautiful island East Timor.
– Kyoko Ebata, Tokyo, 17 February 2021
In the End
Through the Covid 19, I made a lot of good friends without meeting in person from a country where the sun rises and in same time zone as Japan but in completely different season. I feel I know them and I can trust them. What an interesting world. Although in terms of violence, I didn’t learn anything, I think. I only learned through conversation, book and photographies. I even admire them looking at the pictures that the participants took. I am not sure how I would feel I were there in Timor-Leste. I guess there are things that we cannot learn without being there.
Through the workshop, we tried martial arts performance in a kind of mockumentary, and even invented one dancing like technique which I would like to call REKREATIF Dancing Puch (please collect me if is not cool) if no one object. One of the REKREATIF member succeeded invite a person from different martial art group, which seems to be quite a difficult thing. I see this is as a kind of symbolic gesture of friendship of mart art groups in dispute, and very proud of them.
Other discovery was that there are ao many strong women in Timor-Leste. The women there are so beautiful and healthy. The recent trend of plus size fashion models, they really should use the women from Timor-Leste, they look happy, beautiful proud and strong. Maybe this is another fantasy I build up from the pictures and not from the reality by not being there. I see so many possibility here where a democracy has just starting to grow and makes me excited..
But if they are interested, perhaps the performance can be developed into Capoeira, Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music. Or if there are next time for me to visit Timor-Leste, I would like to do something about dance that I like, exchanging denser representatives from each tribes and learn another style from different tribe and have a dance festival.
In the show we could only show a few works, I tired to show different emotions in the model, passion, pain, excitement, concentration, cares and affection. So pictures with similar expression were turned down, but it does not mean they are not good picture. REKREATIF produced many good pictures in very short time. And without the members like Janicia and Binsar who helped for translation and solved communication problems, we could not do this workshop. Also in the first one on one interviews with all the members of the participants, I feel very welcomed especially there was one who brought his family support our challenging project. I learned about the history between Timor-Leste and Japan too. I am so glad that nobody got injured in the end and I would remember all the words and smiles that we exchanged.
Thank you very much Ms. Toeingam Guptabutra, Faculty of Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, The Royal Photographic Society of Thailand, The Japan Foundation Asia Centre for giving me wonderful opportunity.
An eye for the details With help from mentors, budding photography students from Thailand and Timor-Leste came together to capture life amid a pandemic
As students of photography, Somboon Unpracha and Thanaboom Pobumrung were pitted against a relatively unknown bunch of budding photographers from Timor-Leste. However, it proved to be a lesson in collaboration because the inaugural photography workshop they attended would conclude with an online exhibition of their work.
The one-month workshop dealt with themes such as “Diary Of A Pandemic” in Timor-Leste and Thailand in which students from both countries took part. Meanwhile, “REKREATIF”, a photography club where amateurs from Timor-Leste come together to share their passion, covered topics such as martial arts performance photography and how to cope with being human.
Six East Timorese and 18 fine arts students from Silpakorn University participated in the workshop.
The resulting online exhibition, which features around 200 stunning photos from both camps, is titled “7,610-kilometre Distance: Finally, We’ve Met One Another!” and is currently taking place after a successful offline event in late April.
After having the likes of top photography experts Dow Wasiksiri, Wannapong Surarochprajak, Ornin Ruangwattanasuk, Subkun Sarunpueti and Taweewit Kijtanasoonthorn mentor and lead workshops covering topics such as travel, fashion, culture and documentary photography, the students went out to explore the vicinity of Silpakorn University’s Nakhon Pathom campus and Bangkok to capture their subject matter.
Each spent hours searching and interviewing before actually conducting a photoshoot.
“My desire was to capture the hardship of Thai SME businesses that have been barely existing since the pandemic began,” said Somboon, 23. “My theme was ‘Vendors: Faith And Hope’. Prior to documenting their daily life, I spent time gaining their trust and understanding their life and business by chatting with them. In some instances, I had to come the next day to actually capture their candid moments.
“This type of photography is time-consuming and challenging because people usually shy away from the presence of a camera. The question was how can I take photos which seem to capture the essence of a subject I’ve just met? It is never easy but I am happy with the results of my hard work.”
Thanaboom, 21, had his work cut out when he decided to focus on businesses that have been most impacted by Covid-19. After countless hours on the road, he remarked: “It was only when I was exploring the topic that I realised just how many establishments have been hit by the pandemic. Some that come to mind include gaming centres, grocery stores and community libraries.
“My theme was ‘Fading’. One photo that was chosen for the exhibition was that of a shop selling used books. Even though I had just gotten to know the owner, he opened up to me about his business and the emotional stress of living through this pandemic.”
Prof Toeingam Guptabutra of Silpakorn University — the brainchild behind the project — who has worked with the two students in the past, said that after seeing the artists’ potential as photographers, it was her desire to bridge the gap by offering them the know-how to take their passion to the next level. That is when the idea of a workshop and exhibition came to life, and was executed in early March.
“This has also benefited aspiring photographers from East Timor where there is a lot of raw talent in need of guidance and mentoring. This experience has equipped them with photography skills and concepts needed for their fine art and commercial art careers,” said Toeingam.
Toeingam said Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, The Royal Photography Society of Thailand and Japan Foundation Asia Center, all played a pivotal role in the success of the project.
One of the biggest impediments she faced in organising the photography workshop in Bangkok was Covid-19.
“The pandemic took us all by surprise. The East Timorese students were supposed to fly to Bangkok for the workshop and since we could not cancel the event, it was decided that we would have it online instead,” said Toeingam.
“That in itself created a number of challenges but with the support of a talented and determined team, we managed to not just have a successful virtual workshop, which was held in February and March this year, but also have an online exhibition of the photos that were taken by both students. Their work will be up for sale.”
In retrospect, Toeingam said one of the highlights of the workshop was the ability to get two street gangs who were on opposing sides to give a martial arts performance for photographer Nuu’udar Uma, who conducted a photoshoot on the theme “How Do You Cope With Being A human?”.
“Street gangs are a social problem in Timor-Leste, so it was Kyoko Ebata — a Japanese artist and mentor — who wanted to see this documented because it speaks volumes about the failure of the education system of the country,” said the project director, who teaches media and sound art. “Kyoko felt this gesture was a form of peacemaking effort between both gangs and when you see the resulting photos, this becomes apparent. The emotions these photos reveal are raw and genuine.
“I have a desire to work with these talented photographers in the future. They have so much talent and are thirsty to learn to improve their skills in photography. Through these photos, I hope one day Timor-Leste can become a country people will desire to visit and eventually, fingers crossed, become part of Asean.”
Toeingam said due to the pandemic Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, was in lockdown during the online workshop. This made it next to impossible for the six participants, three of whom are journalists, to collect the quota of photos they had been assigned to send their workshop leaders.
She encapsulated the month-long experience by saying that it took blood, sweat and tears to document their work in the most candid manner. Both sets of students had their share of challenges to face before being able to put together what the audience sees online.
“What makes this photo exhibition special is just the number of obstacles everyone had to overcome. It was trial and error for most of the part and this makes the outcome all the more significant. It should tug on the heartstrings of the audience because there is a lot of emotion behind each photo. Relating to a story via photos takes more than the click of the camera. Photographers have to study their subject before they can put the plot of their story into one frame. As an amateur photographer, the work put in was all the more.
“Despite having a good knowledge of gender inequality in Timor-Leste, I was shocked by the number of homeless women documented on the streets. Acacio, who is a journalist, took some thought-provoking photos. One of them was of a woman who had become mentally ill after having lost her baby and was now living in an old used car on her own. Other photos also show women living on the streets with their children in the most precarious environment one would desire to be in during this pandemic.
“You see that there is an acute shortage of face masks. Either we see them without a mask or wearing one that should be discarded. This showed the reality of what East Timorese women face. While this is well-documented in print, we don’t get to see it much in photos to visualise its severity. It was my desire from the start to offer a well-balanced side of Timor-Leste. That is why the audience gets to see degradation and the flip side which showcases its rich culture, traditions and people.”
Now that the foundation has been laid, she hopes others with photography expertise will offer a helping hand.
“To help them reach their potential, they require further professional skills. This will help them to showcase their country’s culture, traditions and lifestyle through their photos.”
Eyestalk Ablation
by Tim Byrnes and Kyoko Ebata
for Volcana Brainstorm or, How to Make Shrimp Feel Sexy
by Elena Knox (Yokohama Triennale 2020 edition) http://www.elenaknox.com/volcana.html,
Ladies 2F, PLOT48, Yokohama Triennale 2020 https://www.yokohamatriennale.jp/english/2020/
会場： 横浜トリエンナーレ ２０２０ PLOT48, 2F 婦人トイレ https://www.yokohamatriennale.jp/2020/
An ecosphere is closed, self-regulating system containing ecosystem. There is a problem, even though the system is balanced, shrimps stop making offsprings.
“Keep your species alive in the sphere by making offspring!” This is an assignment given from a workshop, Volcana Brainstorm organised by Elna Knox.
Tim Byrnes and Kyoko Ebata have applied eyestalk ablation which is used frequently in in aqua farming to encourage reproduction, to Halocaridina rubra Holthuis, a small Hawaiian shrimp of approx. 2 mm in length, and placed to an ecosphere made of uranium glass carafe.
A baby shrimp may be born during the Triannual and the regendry problem since 60s may be solved.
Here is a question, do females have to have a scar to reproduce in the closed system= the earth? Do we reproduce if a female is scared?
DIY operation tools| DIY手術道具cubicle 1 REALITY cubicle 2 TEQUNIQUEcubicle 3 LOVE/PAINcubicle 3 LOVE/PAINcubicle 4 FUTURE or CULT?cubicle 4 FUTURE or CULT?cubicle 4 FUTURE or CULT?cubicle 4 FUTURE or CULT?
Eyestalk ablation is the removal of one or both eyestalks from a crustacean. It is routinely practiced on female shrimps in almost every marine shrimp maturation or reproduction facility in the world, both research and commercial.
The aim of ablation under these circumstances is to stimulate the female shrimp to develop mature ovaries and spawn. Most captive conditions for shrimp cause inhibitions in females that prevent them from developing mature ovaries. Even in conditions where a given species will develop ovaries and spawn in captivity, use of eyestalk ablation increases total egg production and increases the percentage of females in a given population that will participate in reproduction. Once females have been subjected to eyestalk ablation, complete ovarian development often ensues within as little as 3 to 10 days.
Halocaridina rubra, the Hawaiian red shrimp or volcano shrimp is a small red shrimp (less than 15 mm) of the family Atyidae, with the common Hawaiian name ‘Opae’ula. Halocaridina rubra is endemic to the Hawaiian islands, and most commonly found in anchialine pools in fresh lava substrates. They are very strong and commonly used in demonstrations of completely closed self-sustaining ecological systems.
An ecosphere is materially closed ecological systems which are self-sustaining over a period of years. At room temperature, and with only low inputs of light, the algae produce oxygen which supports the shrimp and bacteria. Bacteria break down the shrimps’ wastes. The breakdown products provide nutrients to the algae and bacteria upon which the shrimp feed. The manufacturer states that shrimp live in the EcoSphere for an average of 2 to 3 years, and are known to live over 10 years.
Such systems are not indefinitely sustainable in the sense that the reproductive capability of the shrimp is highly suppressed and the ecosystem perishes after a single generation. For a truly self-sustaining closed system one therefore must demand that the participating species have the ability to reproduce. As one of the most common techniques employed to enhance the reproductive ability of crustaceans in aquaculture, eyestalk ablation is a prime candidate for realizing a truly self-sustaining ecological system.
For the work <<Eyestalk Ablation>> Tim Byrnes and Kyoko Ebata performed DIY eyestalk ablation on Halocaridina rubra Holthuis and placed in a carafe made from uranium glass. Following their work<< Nutopia 2011>>, where they created a biotope containing a nuclear powered energy source after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the uranium carafe is a symbol of the toxified environment of the modern world.
If we, as humans, interpret that the violent ablation constitutes a significant individual threat, can we assume that the shrimp farm females need to be in crisis in order to “feel like” reproductive sex? Moreover, might physical safety and bodily autonomy even prevent child-bearing in closed environments?
Do females have to have a scar to reproduce in the ecosphere= the earth? Ebata and Byrnes seek for a solution of the declining birthrate.
you walk around me like a dog I order myself to be still in love and at the same time to be no longer in love.
The sense of belonging and collective mind brings the group of people to stability. When a modern person realises his/her independence, the desire for love becomes deeper.
In the contemporary world, where not only female but also male are excluded from labour; there everybody wishes to be beautiful and loved
We kept on killing the sacrificed shrimp. Because we found a fictional story and cannot go back before we found it. Moreover, we believe that to keep on doing this is the freedom of choice and gives us reason to live.
I don’t need porno, I just want to give what a man want. In fact all the porno actress are my enemies who steal my man.
We might have lost our ability to tolerate confusion, doubts and contradictions.
We regard abnegation as something to keep within the enclosure of our my Image-repertoire.
The lover who loves me the most is the other who harts me the most
わたしたちは混乱や疑いや矛盾に耐える能力を失ってしまったのかもしれない。
いまだにわたしたちは、自分の自己犠牲を自分の想像界の囲いの中にとどめている
わたしをもっとも愛する人はわたしをもっとも傷つける人である
cubicle 4 FUTURE or CULT?
We’re going home
Show me whom to desire
We should get pregnant when we are young and stupid, and beautiful and biologically at the height of the physical strength.. And we, the society should look after like the wise elephants do. Japan may sank after the next large earthquake or nuclear power station accidents.
Japanese would wonder around the world like the old time Jewish people who lost their country. The key to unite Japanese together would be food as a religion.
Special Thanks; Elea Himmelsbach, Tomoaki Asano, Taiga Okamoto, my father and many others.
<<Nutopia 2011 >> by Tim Byrnes and Kyoko Ebata for Volcana Brainstorm or, How to Make Shrimp Feel Sexy by Elena Knox (Yokohama Triennale 2020 edition)
Artist Kyoko Ebata and physicist Tim Byrnes have been working on a series of experiments and studies, Nutopia, including making sealed bottle environments, simple power plants – eventually towards making a simple nuclear powered device to illuminate a small quasi-natural scene, Ebata has also been inventing ceremonies. These activities are recorded as photographs. Their activities work as ways of making of the invisible consequences of Fukushima something quite immediate, something that can be engaged with to understand the world.
Nutopia 2011 is a collaboration project between a physicist Tim Byrnes and an artist Kyoko Ebata, started after the Fukushima incident in Japan. Ebata and Byrnes made a hypothesis to make a nuclear energy power plant in model scale just to the illumination of a small biotope (a sealed environment in a bottle). The purpose of the experiments is to try gain a relation to how we live in the world, making simple power generators and bottle gardens, sometimes inventing ceremonies in the process, documented in photography. The thematic starting point of the project w as to think about the way we live in a world with the aid of energy at the same time referring to romanticised landscape. After the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011, there was a sense that the landscape of Japan couldn’t be perceived without reference to radioactive material. The energy issue is a very complicated one, and Byrnes and Ebata thought that it might be valuable to think about the energy issue on a smaller scale to see what it offers to a wider understanding of the context of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster – a process with both subject and objective elements, and an engagement between Ebata’s fearful opposition and Byrnes’s belief in the potential of new energy. As the project develops, the discussion between the scientist and the artist itself has come to symbolise relations in the wider world, the process of experimentation itself was emotionally loaded with the aura of the disaster, and as the process developed, ceremonies were added that reflect a willfully subjective approach to human life. Through, their approach trying to conduct the experiment in a “right” way ethically and legally, they try to understand the reality alongside re-acknowledging the difference in the value system and the fact that no right way exists. While Byrnes tries a scientific way, Ebata takes romantic attitude, and calls a impromptu funeral Shrimp Funeral and conducts another one, Melting in Seas of Tears by melting the frozen tears of her own together with the dead shrimp. In July 2013, “How we Dance in the Wind”, a one day show of three artists concerned with how, in the way we relate to them, we can deal with what is troubling about the unknown, undetermined or unseen, was held in a private garden of Ebata in Tokyo curated by Ebata Alasdair Duncan and Ebata, invited Tatsuo Majima. Prototype PROTOTYPE III (ii): HEAT PACK, and PROTOTYPE IV (ii): GLOW STICK were shown together with the photographs was exhibited
http://kyokoebata.com/2013/06/how-we-dance-in-the-wind/ http://www.garden-projects.info/home/garden-projects-1 In August, following the garden show in Tokyo, another group show “Gardening” at a garden of Duncan in London was held with different curation and artist. For this show, “Prototype V: Three devices of class B Radioactive source” were exhibited. Prototype V, in Garden Projects #2 uses light from tritium, a radioactive isotope, sandwiched between solar panels to create electricity which powers several LED lights. We have succeeded to complete the task of setting up a semipermanent device powered by radioactive substance and set up in a sealed environment which represent the earth.
The radioactive substances regulation laws differ in each country. In order to conduct whole process by law, the tritium sticks were purchased in Holland and sent to UK. The device was assembled accordance to “Guidance on the scope of and exemptions from the radioactive substances legislation the UK”, September 2011, Version 1.0 (*1), tritium light sticks used here are categorized as class B which is target of exemption if it is under 1X10(12) bq (non-mobile).
The process of making the project – planning and making devices and environments, undertaking ceremonies, and documenting these – is one of building close-at-hand meta- phors which we can relate to as stand-ins. By making a metaphoric things to stand in for that which we cannot know, we are able to suture, to stitch up, to close, some of the discomfort of that not-knowing. In the place of the mere gap of the unknown, is placed a sign for that unknown as some- thing knowable as unknown.
1) Place the deceased shrimp in the glass 2) Place the glass together with other empty glasses to form a cocktail tower. 3) Poor alcohol to empty glasses 4) Place candles, incense and flowers 5) Light up the candles and incense 6) Pray 7) Sing any kind of religious song (in my case Ave Maria) 8) Drink alcohol 9) Cremate the shrimps 10) Dig a hole by a tree and place the cremated shrimps 11) Drink alcohol Funeral I I (Melted in the Sea of Tears)
Collected tears (the ice above contains the tears of the artist) I kept on making experiments and kept on failing them. So it was quite natural that I had to hold another ceremony. I was easy to cry those days and sometime I cried so much because there were quite a few sad events happened including my mother’s hospitalisation. I thought if I cry so much I should be able to keep the tears in a container to make ice. I think I was influenced by a story on radio that a radio announcer collected his sweat to make salt at home. その後も沢山の実験や失敗を繰り返し、またお葬式をしなければいけなかった。最近は涙もろくなっていたし、たまたま親が入院したり悲しいことが沢山あった時期で号泣することが多々あり、こんなに泣くなら、涙を溜められるかなと思った。ラジオで自分の汗を塩の結晶にしたアナウンサーの話を聞いたので影響を受けたのかもしれない。
Ceremony II I. Collect tears into the container when ever tear drops 涙を流すたびに、涙を容器に溜める II. Add the collected tears to the ice cube maker together with the deceased shrimps 製氷皿に溜めた涙と死んだエビを入れる III. Freeze the ice cube maker 製氷皿を冷蔵庫で凍らせる IV. Take the ice out and place in the glasses グラスに凍らせた氷を入れる V. Place the glasses together with candles, incense and flowers ロウソクとお香と花と共にグラスを並べる VI. Light up the candles and incense ロウソクとお香に火を灯す VII. Pray 祈りを捧げる VIII. Sing any kind of religious song 宗教風の歌を歌う IX. Drink alcohol while the ice is melting 氷が溶ける間、アルコールを飲む Exhibition View in Tokyo
<Researches> Brazil nuts are radioactive; needs 10 billion kilograms. 投稿日:01/13/2013 作成者: KyokoTim wrote; http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110925040324AA4K04R brazil nuts 1,000 to 7,000 pCi/kg of radon-226 and 5,600pCi/kg of potassium-40 bananas 1 pCi/kg of radon-226 and 3,520 pCi/kg of potassium-40 potatoes 1 to 2.5 pCi/kg of radon-226 and 3,400 pCi/kg of potassium-40 DIY Nuclear reactor in US and Sweden 投稿日:01/13/2013 作成者: Kyoko
“Radioactive Boy Scout” 1994 David Charles Hahn (born October 30, 1976), also called the “Radioactive Boy Scout” or the “Nuclear Boy Scout“, is an American who attempted to build a homemade breeder nuclear reactor in 1994, at age 17. A scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother’s house in Commerce Township, Michigan. While his reactor never reached critical mass, Hahn attracted the attention of local police who found radioactive materials in the trunk of his car. His mother’s property was cleaned up by the Environmental Protection Agency ten months later as a Superfund cleanup site. Hahn attained Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts of America shortly after his reactor was dismantled.[1] While the incident was not widely publicized initially, it became better known following a 1998 Harper’s article by journalist Ken Silverstein. Hahn is also the eponymous subject of Silverstein’s 2004 book, The Radioactive Boy Scout. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn http://www.hulu.jp/watch/288526#x-0,vepisode,1,1 Swedish man arrested for building nuclear reactor in kitchen, 2011 A Swedish man who kept a blog chronicling his attempts to build a homemade nuclear reactor in his apartment has shut down the project after being arrested by police and held under suspicion of breaching radioactive material safety laws. If convicted of an offence, he faces heavy fines or up to two years in jail. http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3295333/swedish-man-arrested-for-building-nuclear-reactor-in-kitchen/ http://richardsreactor.blogspot.jp/
↑The bottle of chewing gum sold in 2011 says words of Madam Curie: There is nothing that you should be scared of in your life. All should be understood. ：Th
Tried heating up nails to get the heat and it stank a lot!
Changed to BQ style with cole which seems o all right, at least less smelly.
The power up electronic circuits!
投稿日:01/20/2013 作成者: Kyoko 電子回路パワーアップ！ Now working with a heat pack (ホッカイロ) with an aid of powered up electronic circuits.The lights has been on for half a day now… I wonder how long it is going to go. I have managed to break it by spilling water when I carried.
A Shrimp Couple and a Tanishi Family ヤマトヌマエビ的エビのカップルとタニシの家族 投稿日:01/27/2013 作成者: Kyoko It was full of life and death this weekend. 目まぐるしい週末だった。生と死が入り乱れていた。
We have started to try out with the biotope to go with the nuclear power station and went to buy stuff from a pet shop in Kabukicho. その日は原発を入れるビオトープを作るべく、ティムと歌舞伎町の地下にあるペットショップに向かった。
There were beautiful waterweed and all these beautiful fish in tank. But it was rather strange to see fish and weed from Brazil or Africa. A bit of a flesh trade that was, like what is going on upstairs in Kabukicho, the biggest red light district in Asia. 美しい水草の間を涼やかに泳ぐ色とりどりの美しい魚たちが、遠くブラジルやアフリカから来ていることを思うと、地上で行われている華やかな人身売買が思い起こされた。
In the end we bought a pair of shrimp which was next to Amano shrimp around 2 cm which we were going to buy initially. The Amano shrimp was bigger than we expected. They all come in a beautiful plastic bags separately, beautifully brown up in a round shape. 結局、最初買おうと思っていたアマノエビの隣の2センチ程のエビのカップルを買うことになった。アマノエビは想像していたよりも大きかったからだ。彼らは美しく丸い形に膨らませた美しいビニール袋に入れられた。
We brought back a couple of Amano shrimp- alike, a couple of shell (Tanishi) and waterweed home: The shrimp and shell happen to be originated in Japan and we were proud of our choice. As soon as we got home, we have added stone from garden and water from the store and little animals to the glass jar. 新宿からアマノエビ的なエビのカップルと、タニシのカップル、それに水草を持ち帰った私たちは、エビとタニシが日本原産であることを発見し、いい買い物をしたと悦に入った。家に帰るとすぐに庭から手頃な石を拾ってきてガラスの瓶に入れ、ペットショップのビニール袋に入っていた水と小さな動物たちを入れた。
We watched for a while and discovered that there are man and woman in these spices. Couldn’t tell which one is which but it was so nice to imagine that the shrimp and shell are on date. しばらく眺めているうちに、動物たちに性別があることがわかった。どちらが女の子でどちらが男の子かわからなかったけれども、エビとタニシがデートしているところを想像するのは楽しかった。
After a while we have made another discovery that there were baby shells. Apparently, if a shell get pregnant, she keeps her babies inside herself until hard shells are formed and then she releases the babies into water. So the shell was pregnant when we bought her and she was in labour while we were having a drink. それから瓶の中にタニシの赤ちゃんがいることに気づいた。調べてみると、タニシのお母さんは産後赤ちゃんの殻が固くなるまで自分の殻の中に赤ちゃんを入れておくそうだ。タニシを買った時、お母さんは妊娠中で、私たちがビールを飲んでいる間にお産をしていたということらしい。
It was looking good for a while but after the dinner, we noticed that the shrimp was upside down and moving only a little and the shell was also not climbing the glass as it suppose to be. And the shrimp sunk into the bottom of the jar and hardly moved. そんな感じで、しばらくはいい感じだったのだが、夕食の後エビが逆さまになって浮いていて、ほんの少ししか動いていず、タニシはタニシでガラスの壁を登ることをやめていた。そのうち、エビは瓶の底に沈んで動くのをやめた。
It might be the stones from my garden, we suspected. The red brick stones in my garden were bought via internet, a pretty ones but cheap. I bought the stones via Internet and we don’t know where the stones come from. Even if it is from Japan, no, if it is from Japan, then might have radioactive stuff (still hard to understand how to say this right) on them, or nobody checks what is going on at the actual site. We don’t know how it was treated to make them look clean. It should be better if it is toxic, it means less weeds. I rescued the shrimp which was alive with a spoon in a hurry and thinking it would also heart him/her, but better than being in the toxic water. パニックした私が思いついた原因は庭の石だった。庭の赤い軽石はインターネットで買ったものだった。かわいらしかったけれども安いもので輸入元は不明だ。いや、よくよく考えたら、日本産の石の方がよっぽど、というか非常に怪しいではないか。放射能がついているかもしれないし（難しくていまだに正確な言い方ができない）、手順を現場任せにしているかもしれない。見た目をきれいにしようと何を混ぜたかわかったものじゃない。それこそ、毒性があった方が雑草が生えなくていいではないか。急いでスプーンでエビをすくった。スプーンでエビを傷つけるかもしれないと思ったけれども、毒の水よりはいいだろう。
The shrimp and the shells were the first pet I ever paid money for. I had a cat and birds when I was a child. But the birds flew in from the sky and stood on my arm, and the cat came with my father on a rainy day. I was responsible to look after a bird. One day I forgot to take the birdcage back on winter night. The next morning, the bird was dead, lying on the bottom of golden cage. It was a white Java sparrow with red eyes. The closed eyelids were greyish pink. Since then I swore myself never to keep a pet if I cannot look after. The first pets ever since then were reproduced and was dead soon after in few hours. エビとタニシはお金を出して買った初めてのペットだった。子供の頃、鳥と猫を飼っていたことがあった。鳥は空から飛んできてわたしの手に乗り、猫は雨の日に父についてきた猫だった。鳥の面倒を見るのは私の担当だった。冬のある日の夜、外気に充てるため外に出しておいた鳥を家の中に入れるのを忘れ、次の日の朝起きてみると、鳥は金色のカゴの下に横たわって死んでいた。白くて赤い目の文鳥だった。閉じたまぶたはネズミがかったピンク色だった。それからちゃんと面倒を見られないなら、ペットを飼わないことにした。エビはその出来事以来の初めてのペットだったのだが、わたしの元に移って数時間で子供を産み、それから死んだ。
On the following day, the other shrimp was dead. We researched the courses and I went to get freshwater from the local shrine, it supposes to be better to use water which has many bacterias. After placing everything back, the shrimp in better condition and the shell family is happy sticking on the glass wall. I am wondering if I should add a new shrimp to make a couple, it might be too crowded in there. 次の日、もう一匹のエビも死んだ。 また色々調べ、今度は近所の神社の境内の池から水を汲んできた。微生物が入っている自然の水の方が良いそうだ。家に帰り、また全てを入れ直した。生き残りのエビはどうやら少しは居心地がいいらしく、タニシの家族もガラスの内側にへばりついて幸せそうに見えた。エビに新しい連れ合いを買ってこようか。それとも瓶の中が混雑してしまうからやめた方がいいか。 Shrimp #5 エビ5号 投稿日:01/29/2013 作成者: Kyoko
In the end, I bought another shrimp. I asked the shopkeeper about the shrimp. The shop keeper said “shrimp is sensitive with water and not good at lack of oxygen. It would be difficult to keep it without air pump. It would be better to keep killifish (medaka) .” But, the how-to for a biotope with shrimps says it is possible. So I have decided to follow the textbook. I placed the duck weed in a separate bucket for a week and changed water a few times hoping that it would wash away the pesticide by now. But I am not sure any more. I bought the shrimp by knowing that I might kill it. 結局もう一匹エビを買うことにした。お店の人に聞いてみると、エビは水質にとても敏感で、酸素がないと育てるのが難しく、ポンプがないとダメだろうとのことで、代わりにメダカを勧められた。でも、ビオトープの作り方にはエビで大丈夫、むしろエビにしなさいとあったので、とりあえず教科書の方を優先することにした。水草も別のバケツに入れて、水も何回も取り替えてあるので、農薬も流れているだろう。でも、もうあまり自信がない。もしかしたら、また殺してしまうかもと思いながら、エビを連れ帰った。 Came home and of course 家に帰ったら 投稿日:01/30/2013 作成者: Kyoko I think a shrimp is dying. It’s neck is turning into red. I am so so so sorry… 一匹のエビが死にかけていると思う。首のところが赤くなってきている。本当に、本当にごめんなさい。 Oh, no. ああ、申し訳ないです 投稿日:01/31/2013 作成者: Kyoko Yesterday morning, I thought, one of the shrimp was dead. In the end it was lying on the bottom of the jar not moving at all. I was very sad. I was thinking to give a name for a grave. Then I remembered a saying that a scientist does not give a name to an animal for experiments. I now know why. 昨日の朝弱っていると思ったエビは、最後には瓶の底に横たわって、全然動いていなかった。とても悲しかった。お墓を作ってあげるのに、墓石に書く名前が必要だと思った。それから科学者は実験用の動物に名前をつけないという話を思い出した。それがなぜか今ならわかる。
When I got back home, I tried to get the dead shrimp out from the jar but I was too tired so I added the new couple without weeds to the jar so that they won’t die of hunger, and then went to bed. 家に帰り、瓶から死んだエビを取り出そうと思ったが、ひどく疲れていたので、水草なしで別の瓶に入れていたエビのカップルを移した。そうすればとりあえず飢え死にすることはないだろうと。それから寝に行った。
This morning, I checked the jar. Then I couldn’t find the dead shrimp, but instead, I found a shrimp with reddish neck. I am totally puzzled. I called the pet shop, found out the name of the shrimp next to the Numaebi (Amano shrimp), it was mimami numaebi (Southern Amano Shrimp). According to the shopkeeper, Amano Shrimp does change its color into the blue or red. If a shrimp is sick, it also change the color into red. 朝起きてみると、瓶の中には死んだはずのエビがいず、代わりに赤い首のエビが一匹いた。訳がわからなかったので、ペットショップに問い合わせてみた。すると、ヌマエビ（アマノエビのこと）の横のエビはミナミヌマエビという種類だそうだ。ヌマエビは青や赤に変わることがあるという。エビが病気なら赤くなるそうだ。
Oh, no. He/she is suffering. I should hurry and rescue my poor shrimp. やっぱり、彼、もしくは彼女は苦しんでいたんだ。早く助けないと。
The 2nd Tanishi タニシ2号 投稿日:02/23/2013 作成者: Kyoko
The 2nd tanishi now has children. Quite a few of them, I think. The condition of the glass is not that good. Strange web like thing is growing in there. タニシ２号には子供ができたようだ。結構沢山いる。 だが瓶の環境はあまり良くないようだ。中で蜘蛛の巣状の変なものが育っている。
Shrimp Funeral a la cocktail シュリンプのお葬式（カクテル風） All the shrimps were dead again. I am afraid it sounds a bit weird but I wanted to do a little funeral for the shrimps. I realised that I had so much variety for the funeral, Buddhism, Christian, Voodoo, and so many others, as well as Burial or Cremation. Though, I didn’t have enough time to prepare much for this because the shrimps were getting rotten. Decided to improvise with things I could find around my house.. 結局エビたちは死んでしまった。ちょっと変だが、ささやかなお葬式をしてあげたくなった。どんなお葬式にするか考えてみると、仏式、キリスト教式、ブードゥーなど知っているだけでも沢山ある。土葬にするか火葬にするかも決めなければならない。でもそのそばからエビはどんどん腐っていくので、早くしなければならなかった。とりあえず、その辺にあるもので何かやってみようかと思った。 It was unusually warm day for February. I set up a trey with incenses, candles, flowers, alcohol. The one glass contained duckweed, the other one contained Campari soda, three glass in the middle contained Sake, and on the top 3 shrimps lied with flower. It represents this life, the next life and purification (oh, I sound mad). Frankly, the incense was necessary, because the “body” smelled. Only religious song I could sing was a catholic song in Latin which I remember from school. I felt very strange but it was necessary and beautiful in a way. And the ritual was in Buddhism I guess because only funeral I attended was Buddhism for my grandparents. I have to admit that it is a bit sick that in the end it turned out as a shrimp cocktail. ２月だというのに暖かい日だった。お香とキャンドル、花とお酒とカクテルグラスをお盆の上に用意した。一つのグラスには水草を、もう一つにはカンパリソーダ、真ん中の３つのグラスには三匹のエビを花と日本酒を一緒に入れた。それらはこの世とあの世と浄化を意味しているつもりだ（キチガイみたいだ）。エビの死体は匂いがきつく、お香は必要だった。それから空で覚えていた宗教的な歌は学校で習ったカソリックのラテン語の歌だったので、とりあえずそれを歌った。なんだか変な感じだったが、それは必要で、美しかった。手順は仏式に近かったと思う。出席したことのあるお葬式は祖父母のものだけだったからだ。シュリンプカクテル式にしてしまったのは流石に悪趣味であることは認める。
The next step was a cremation. I found a leftover charcoal from BBQ so I put the shrimps on top and burned it in the garden. Soon, they smelled rather yummy. I could have eaten as a part of ceremony but I am not that brave or crazy, so I continued to burn them until they were black and to the ash. I have buried them and poured sake over. And the ritual was finished. I was very drank by the end of it. I thought the idea was completely kitschy and damn but it was not too bad in the end. I guess it was the power of rituals. それから火葬をすることにした。バーベキューの残りの炭があったのでその上にエビをのせ、庭で焼いた。なんだかおいしい匂いがした。葬式の形式として食べることもできるかなと思ったが、そこまでの勇気もなく、狂うこともできなかった。そこでエビが真っ黒になり灰になるまで焼きづづけた。灰を埋め、その上から日本酒を注いだ。儀式が終わった。その頃にはベロベロに酔っ払っていたが、儀式は結構うまくいったと思った。悪趣味でバカバカしかったけれども。儀式の力みたいなものなのかもしれない。
A group exhibition in Ebata’s garden in Tokyo
In London. Alasdair Duncan is developing the Nutopia
Later in Tokyo, the plants are growing and change through the season.
Core fellows Charlie Levine, Katsushi Goto, Rose Van Mierlo and Vishwa Shroff will be returning with 2020 invitees Adam Nathaniel Furman, Kyoko Ebata, Ana Čavić and Veeranganakumari Solanki.
The aims for this second Laboratory are similar to the first – to examine the domestic through drawing while encouraging dialogue around creative practices and processes across disciplines. We continue with a new series of Play Projects that explore curatorial methods, the dolls house and (fictional) narratives.
２０２０年１月１２日（日）１９時～ Talk w/ Daisuke Awata 19:00-21:00 JPT Sun 12 Jan Performance w/ 奥誠之他 Masayuki Oku +: Sat 11 Jan
Questions and comments from Awata-san’ on James’s work
“Confession of pain” from your video is interesting that pain from physical disorder is common but from mental disorder is not studied very much yet. Confession was area for religions in old time and we don’t know what to do with it.
Medium: Awata-san got impression that your project is like Ustream, rather than Youtube because YouTube has idea of currency earning from obtaining “Like it!” , although you are asking for “like it”, your do not look like you are seeking it.
“Repetition” which Warhol used a lot indicating change of physicality and anxiety from media change (introduction of TV culture at that time) . He also reminded of “Super Size Me (2004)”.
Do animals and alien have emotions? e.g. when an elephant is captured (*1), it cries. Are they trying to emphasize in group? e.g. bee
Do tattoos indicate anxieties? Is it like “Hoichi the Earless”, by having magical texts on body you can avoid bad things? Why is it in fashion?
CPR is a kind of physical ritual and it works. Repetition is a way to get rid of anxieties like many sport players do without questioning, and it works.
Generalization and Individualization; Medicine tend to generalize individuality to cure. Whereas anxieties tend to be quite individual. Are you trying to generalize your individual problem via YouTube?
Can we generalize or share subjective view, feeling or anxiety?
In 19th Century, recording and visualizing emotions started to be possible including archiving heartbeat. Taking individual data is a form of power.
There is needs/desires to share emotions, the genre of hanky movie (touching movie). The genre also indicate that people feel cleansed and enjoy by crying physically with tears.
Shared behaviour (*3) of a language-game (言語ゲーム) by Wittgenstein: the idea of beauty or delicious can only been understand by mutual agreement but never really be shared.
In UK, Edmund Burke defined a notion of sublime which is also related to anxiety and fear. There are also notable literatures including Lewis Carroll and history of witches. In 19C, many inventions including photography made it possible to visualize unseen.
Japanese horror movie Ring and Rasen got ideas from ghost experiments in UK. Do you think there is something particular about UK culture?
House of Ebata presents the new series “Anxiety Plus” by James Howard. After sharing a series of written confessions on this website, luckyluckydice.com, about the truth of living with anxiety, Howard became a YouTuber. In his videos he talks to his audience how he deals with anxiety, a dark matter of our universe which he has been exploring throughout his works. A set of Howard’s videos will be presented in the show along with new YouTube videos and paintings created in collaboration with artists in Tokyo, in Howard’s absence.
While looking through Howard’s videos, we wonder if he is being completely serious and trying to be productive as an artist, or if he is toying with us. Whichever it is, we eventually get swamped in our own paranoia. Meanwhile, he keeps uploading videos and asks us nicely to “like”them.
Nowadays, the issue of anxiety is becoming more serious and widespread. Almost everyone is aware of their own anxiety and becoming more conscious about it than everbefore. Is anxiety a sign of humans who cannot deal with peace? Is it just giving name to states which have always existed? Or is it a new issue that has emerged with the internet era?
Howard says in his videos that he hit the “rock bottom” of his life while he was living in Japan. Like the famous James Joyce, there is a long tradition of romantic understanding of the relationship between art and disease amongst Japanese writers and artists, including Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Morio Kita, Ramo Nakajima and Hideo Azuma. Yu Takita, a manga writer who depicted the everyday life of an alcoholic writer, used to live in Kunitachi where the House of Ebata project space is located.
Compared to those literary figures, former hacker Howard’s approach to the “anxiety hack” looks more like brain science delivered as a set of how-tos. Or even cult teachings which we are more familiar with these days. In fact, there are similar videos on YouTube that come under fire for being inauthentic. In this era when the Pope tries a digital rosary, we look forward to seeing the outcome of Howard’s reinterpretation of the darkest times in his life in the Far East and beyond, from a safe sofa in London.
Kyoko Ebata
ジェームズ・ハワード
ロイヤル・アカデミー・スクール卒、ロンドン在住。3年間金沢に滞在、体中に入れ墨を入れて帰国した。
2007年の卒業制作展でチャールズ・サーチの目に留まり、サーチギャラリーのグループ展に度々選ばれる。本年度は『BLACK MIRROR: ART AS SOCIAL SATIRE』に参加。その他国内外で精力的に作品を発表している。
Howard graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London, and now lives and works in London. Howard lived in Kanazawa (Japan) for three years where he covered his body in tattoos before going back home.
In 2007, Saatchi became interested in Howard’s work from his graduation show. Howard has since participated in several group shows at the Saatchi Gallery including “BLACK MIRROR: ART AS SOCIAL SATIRE” this year. His works are also shown internationally.
Howard works with conceptual materials that appear hidden but actually exist everywhere in everyday life, such as spam, digital currencies and anxieties, overall giving us a familiar but disturbing impression.
In an interview with Guardian, Howard said “The (internet) systems we have now are still part of the wild west of the internet, (… my) process of manipulating digital materials (is) to open up new ways of thinking. Social norms are turned inside-out, leading to a tangle of surreal juxtapositions which expose all the energy of what it means to be living right now in the universe.”
粟田大輔 Daisuke Awata. Art critic, member of Art Think-tank.
美術批評、芸術学（美術解剖学）、基礎芸術 Contemporary Art Think-tank。論考に第13回『BT／美術手帖』芸術評論募集佳作『榎倉康二における出来事性と層の構成』，『書き換えられるシステム』『金縛りと夢』『顔徴』などがある。
奥 誠之 Masayuki Oku, artist
アーティスト。絵描きとして活動しつつ、周りの人を幸せにするためにさまざまなコレクティブの活動に参加。精力的にイベント企画などに関わる。2018年東京藝術大学大学院美術研究科卒業、2014年武蔵野美術大学卒業制作展優秀賞 受賞。2016年石橋財団国際交流油画奨学制度助成。主な展覧会に『引込線2017』、『Assistants (OTA FINE ARTS）』などがある。https://www.okuart.com/
Exploiting a friendship from John Chilver, <<Oak and Air>> 2012-2017, oil on panel, 40 × 40 cm, 2022, Kyoko Ebata (work in progress)
