XENOplastic is delighted to welcome back Kyoko Ebata for her second exhibition at the Wong Chuk Hang project space following her 2017 debut ‘Method for the Surveyor’. Ebata’s exhibition and performance entitled ‘Washing Hinomaru in Hong Kong’ will involve washing and drying the Japanese flag repeatedly at a local Hong Kong launderette in the form of a ceremony. This act has been performed several times before in Japan and Europe with each location offering a shift in perspective and meaning.
The Hinomaru is the national flag of Japan and the performance originates from a line of ceremonial works that Ebata had been engaged in which seem to employ or explore the ways ceremonial liminal force might work. Here, Ebata is interested in confronting the power of the flag and it’s meaning – although this may not be immediately obvious for those who encountered the work. When asked about the meaning of what is being done, while acknowledging that’s it’s art, Ebata offers more or less oblique responses such as saying that she thinks ‘the flag needs to be washed’.
Such statements echo the structure of the ceremony itself in that they work as ‘oracular’ speech – speech which, like that of an oracle, is ambiguous but pregnant with meaning. Speech which calls for interpretation, drawing out interpretations that are proper to the recipient of the speech or the ceremony, and not the ceremony itself.
Method for the Surveyor will take place on March 29 from 10am – 8pm and by appointment until April 6. For appointments and enquiries please email xenoplastichk@gmail.com
XENOplastic
Unit 1, F/12
Genesis Building
33-35 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Hong Kong
XENOplastic はウォンチョクハンプロジェクトスペースで2017年に開催された江幡京子の展覧会「Method for the Surveyor」に引き続き、第2回目の展覧会「日の丸の洗濯(香港」を開催いたします。この展覧会は「日の丸の洗濯(香港」というタイトルで儀式として香港の地元のランドリーで日章旗を繰り返し洗い、乾かします。この行為は日本やヨーロッパで数回行われましたが、場所を変えるごとにその意味が変わって行きました。
この日章旗のパフォーマンスは儀式的行為が何らかの境界において力を発すると考えて制作した作品から発展したものです。江幡の作品を見た人はすぐに気付かないかもしれませんが、ここで江幡は旗の持つ力とその意味に対峙しています。パフォーマンスの最中に何をしているか尋ねられると、江幡はアート作品であることを認めつつも、「旗を洗わなければならない気分なんです」と曖昧な答え方をします。
このような発言により、儀式が曖昧かつ示唆に富んだ「予言」の様な体を成します。これは見る人の確固たる解釈を生み出し、儀式自体は意味を失うことになります。
「Method for the Surveyor」は3月29日 10am – 8pmに開催され、
それ以降は予約制にて4月6日まで開催されます。
予約先は xenoplastichk@gmail.com までお願いいたします。
XENOplastic
Unit 1, F/12
Genesis Building
33-35 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Hong Kong
Password:Hinomaru
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