Workshop for Young Timorese Photographers

Martial art performance photography

Workshop: Nu’udar Ema; How do you cope with being a human?

REKREATIF and KYOKO EBATA 

22-26 February 2021 

Online/Timor Leste and Japan https://grant-fellowship-db.jfac.jp/ja/grant/cc1935/

Online/Timor Leste and Japan

www.timorthaiphoto.com

Catalogue

workshop reference

©︎Silvestre Rudiyanto Soares

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

先日、ゲストワークショップリーダーとして、東ティモールで若い写真家のためのワークショップを行いました。コロナ禍のため遠隔地で行う方法を見つけなければなりませんでしたので、普段はやらないことをすることにしました。普段の私の作品には日本の女性アーティストとしての強い自我がうるさいぐらいに見え隠れしているので、今回は男性にしかできないことをするチャンスだと思いました。

そこで、最初はプロレスをしながら写真を撮ることを提案しました。東ティモール危機の悲しい歴史は、アーティストのアイデンティティーの強いオーラとなるでしょうし、身体性を通して考えることは、心と身体の調和を図るという武道の重要な部分であり、今は誰もが家に閉じこもっていなければならないコロナ禍の中で、誰もが強く感じていることです。

それが、現在東ティモールでは失業者が多いこともあり、マーシャルアートがストリートギャング化し社会問題となっていたのです。しかし、彼らに愛と暴力の関係を考えるためのワークショップであることを説明し、最後にはREKREATIFsが、対立する2つのグループの武術家同士で、撮影のために戦いを演じてもらうにいたりました。これはギャング同士の和解の一歩であると同時に、写真には、危機後に政治権力から身を守りつつ、社会の結束を求める人間の姿が映し出されているように感じます。

©︎Hipolito Da Silva Baptista

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17MVHB1h7faC_ZLwtrDYwN1_5zNs10Ky8/view?usp=sharing

“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

Solusaun: Dame/ Peace and  Unity

Workshop Reference https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1C03bGlKP-yFfV8C1OMPfqomtZKphOqbcX5dLZjgSmWY/edit#slide=id.p 

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

https://www.sfcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Report-Art-Martial-for-Policy-Briefing-.pdf

ASK YOURSELF…

Make something NEW

that only a contemporary Timor-leste can make.

Why there is the issue with martial arts groups in Timor-Leste?

A tradition is often created to unite a group of people. 

What is tradition to you?   

Investigate your feeling while the performance.

Do you also feel affection as well as excitement and anger?

War is there because of love, 

you love somebody so you protect him/her. 

That is the beginning.

We need to control the violence in ourselves,

that is why we made society and institutions.

How can we love our neighbour? 

©︎
Acacio Pinto

Silvestre Rudiyanto Soares

Hipolito Da Silva Baptista

Silvestre Pires Castro

Rofino Leandro Ferreira

Background

“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.

Obrigada,

– Kyoko Ebata, Tokyo,  25 March  2021

https://www.timorthaiphoto.com/general-2

Eyestalk Ablation, Yokohama

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/ 

海藻、バクテリア、エビなどを水槽に入れた循環システム「エコスフィア」は太陽光があれば自己完結的に生態系が存続するという。しかし、その中のエビたちは、すべての生態系バランスが取れているにも関わらず、なぜか繁殖することを止めてしまうという。

エレナ・ノックスの参加型プロジェクト《ヴォルカノ・ブレインストーム》では、エビのための「ポルノグラフィー」を創ることにより、閉ざされた生態圏における官能性と生存について探る。(ウェブ版美術手帖より引用)

ノックスの課題に答えたティム ・バーンズと江幡京子は、一般的に繁殖を促すために養殖のエビに施されている眼柄除去の技術をハロカリディナ・ルブラ(ハワイ原産の体長2ミリ程のエビ)に施こし、ウランガラスでできたエコスフィアに放した。

トリエンナーレの会期中にバーンズと江幡が作ったエコスフィアにハロカリディナ・ルブラが繁殖する可能性はある。60年代から様々な分野でたびたび話題になってきた持続的閉鎖生命システムに関する難問題が解決されてしまうかもしれない。

しかし、そのことはメスのエビ=女性は閉じられたエコスフィアの中=地球では、傷がなければ生殖することができないことを意味するのか?女性が弱い立場であれば生殖するのか?

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
TEQUNIQUE
cubicle 3
LOVE/PAIN
cubicle 3
LOVE/PAIN
cubicle 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.

————

Eyestalk ablation とは甲殻類の目がついている細い棒状の部分である眼柄 除去のことで、リサーチ、商用等の目的に関わらず、世界中ほぼ全ての海洋性のエビの成熟・繁殖施設で、日常的にメスのエビに対して行われている。 

エビが捕獲捕されて飼育される状態はメスが成熟した卵巣を形成することを阻害するが、眼柄除去を行うことによって、メスのエビの卵巣を成熟化と抱卵が促される。また、メスのエビの卵巣が発達し放卵が可能な環境においても、眼柄除去は全体の産卵数、繁殖をするメスの数を増加させる。メスに眼柄除去を行なった後は、3日から10日で卵巣が成熟する。 

ハロカリディナ・ルブラはヌマエビ科の小さなエビで、ハワイの固有種である。 その体長は最大1.5cmに満たない。原産地のハワイではオパエウラと呼ばれ、 溶岩が流れ出ているアンキアライン池に生息する。他に多くの名前があり、ハ ワイアンレッドシュリンプ、スカーレットシュリンプ、ピクシーシュリンプ、ホロホ ロシュリプなどがある。ハロカリディナ・ルブラは非常に強いことから、完全に密閉されたエコシステムの実演に使われることが多い。 

しかし、この密閉されたエコシステムではハロカリディナ・ルブラが産卵がしないので、本当の意味で持続可能なエコシステムとは言えない。密閉された環境ではエビの生殖能力が抑圧され、一世代のみしか生き延びることがないからだ。真に種の継続が可能な密閉されたエコシステムを作り出すために、一般的に最もよく行われている生殖を促す技術である眼柄除去をハロカリディナ・ル ブラにも施すことは、不妊問題の解決の有力な候補であると言えよう。 

<<Eyestalk Ablation>> において、ティム ・バーンズと江幡京子はハロカリディナ・ルブラにDIYで眼柄除去を施し、更にエビをウランガラスでできた水差しに放した。

ウラングラスはごく少量のウランを含有していて、紫外線で光る特質がある。バーンズと江幡が福島第一発電所事故の後に作った作品<<Nutopia 2011>>で、原子力を利用したエネルギー源をビオトープに設置したように、ビオトープを現代の世界と見立て、ウランの水差しを毒されてしまった環境の象徴とした。

そしてこの暴力的な眼柄除去を人間個人の問題として解釈してみると、生殖のための性交を行うには女性は危機的状況にある必要があるのだろうか?

メスのエビ=女性は閉じられたエコシステムの中=地球では、傷がなければ生殖することができないのか、傷つけられ、 弱い立場であれば生殖するのか?バーンズと江幡は種としての人類の生存について問う。

Texts on the walls

entrancebut we are not shrimpだけどわたしたちエビじゃないし
mirrorAre you happy now?
cubicle 1
REALITY
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


ずっと恋をしながら、もう恋をしていないようになりたいの
近代人が自立と孤独を自覚したとき、恋愛への渇きは深まる。
女性だけでなく男性も労働から除外されつつある現代では、みなが美しくありたがり、愛されることに貪欲になっている。
cubicle 2
TEQUNIQUE
you hum like a monkey

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.
この個室のテーマは「テクニック」、エビの目をつぶす技術=相手に子供を産んでもらう技術です。オブジェは物置から見つけた作家の父親の子供時代のもの(想像)で、ろうそく立てと小さなナイフや栓抜きなどの入ったピクニック用ツールで、これで女の子とデートに行っていたのではないかと思っています。

わたしたちは生贄のエビを殺し続けた。それは、虚構の物語を見つけてしまい、後戻りすることができなくなったからだ。それをすることが、個人の自由な選択で、人生に意味を与えると信じ込んでいる。
cubicle 3
LOVE/PAIN
you giggle like a cat

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. 

Objects: the memory of a date of my father
この個室のテーマは「未来」です。みんなで楽しく生活しつつ、子供も産む、産みたい人はって、思っていたらいつのまにか中年になってしまいました。もしかしたら、昔のように10代で子供を産んで、できる人が子育てするのが、一番効率がいいのではと思ったりしています。

誰を欲すべきか教えて下さい。

賢い象みたいに、十代で子供を産んで、できる人が面倒を見るべき。

女性も一人の部屋と年に500ポンドのお金を手に入れることができる今、女性も異質だが対等の関係として男性の前に純粋な欲望として立つと当然のように葛藤が生まれてくる。安定した社会を保つために、グループのサポートが必要になってくるのは当然と言えよう。

近い将来日本は沈没するかもしれない。その時日本人は古のユダヤの民ように世界中を放浪するかもしれない。その時日本人をつなぎとめるのは、宗教としての食だろう。

オブジェ:作家の父の物?海辺でのデートの思い出(想像)
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.

アーティストの江幡京子と物理学者のティム・バーンズは、福島の原発事故後に始めた実験的プロジェクト「Nutopia」を発表。小さなビオトープを照らすためだけの原子力発電の開発、という目標のもと、密閉容器に自然環境を閉じ込めた模型制作や簡単な発電装置の実験、その過程で発生するセレモニーといったプロセスを通して、この世界を探ろうとする様子を収めた写真を展示した。

at Volcana Brainstorm by Elena Knox, Yokohama Trianual 2020

Failed Planets from Nutopia 2011, ティム・バーンズ x 江幡京子、プロット48、出品年. 2020年

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).

http://www.garden-projects.info/home
http://kyokoebata.com/2013/08/garden-projects-2-31-aug-2013-london/

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
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69357/pb13624-rsl-guidance-110914.pdf

Prototype I

Prototype II

Prototype III

Prototype IV

Funeral I (Shrimp Cocktail)

















































 Ceremony I

    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

About the showhttp://kyokoebata.com/2013/06/how-we-dance-in-the-wind/
Collaboration with Tasuo Majima and Alasdair Duncan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7XTBsCOD5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8g01wmZf9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7JEVuhu_0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HaAwtNvkXcExhibition View in London

Prototype V

The tritium light sticks are actually generating the LED.

http://kyokoebata.com/2013/08/garden-projects-2-31-aug-2013-london/

<First Plan>

<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. 

SqW: Lab 2020, India

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.

from “Tender Buttons

Anxiety+ トーク 粟田大輔 

トーク 粟田大輔 

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?

References

*1 痛みと感情のイギリス史 (日本語) 単行本 – 2017/3/31 伊東 剛史 (著, 編集), 後藤 はる美 (著, 編集)より「Ⅵ 観察 ダーウィンとゾウの涙(伊東剛史)」

“V Observation: Darwin and tears of elephants” from “Pain and Emotion in British History” by Takashi Itoh and Harumi Goto written in Japanese

http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/03f/denhan/chadwyck/umi/eebotalk.htm

*2 Hoichi the Earless (耳なし芳一)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoichi_the_Earless

*3 ふるまいの一致 shared behaviour

Anxiety Plus 不安障害 + by James Howard ジェームズ・ハワード

pet_resume.jpg
installation view
pass: James

2019年12月15日(日)

~2020年1月19日(土)

House of Ebata w/

引込線/放射線サテライトhttps://hikikomisen-hoshasen.com/satellite.html

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トーク 粟田大輔 

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

問い合わせ kyoko.ebata(a)gmail.com
開場 土・日 13:00~ 19:00 Sat/Sun

および事前予約 and by appointments

会場 House of Ebata 

houseofebata.blogspot.com

アクセス JR中央線国立駅南口徒歩5分 

* 会場アクセス詳細等はお問い合わせください。

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ジェームズ・ハワード(Jamaes Howard)がHouse of Ebata(ハウス・オブ・エバタ)にて最新作『Anxiety Plus(アンキザイエティ・プラス)|不安障害 +』を発表する。『Anxiety Plus|不安障害 +』で、ハワードは自身のウェブサイトluckyluckydice.comにおいて、不安障害を抱えて生きる毎日について告白する。その後ハワードはYouTuberとして、不安感に対処する方法などを動画で解説するに至る。不安感・不安障害はこれまでにハワードが探究してきたテーマ、ネット上のスパムなど世の中の暗黒をまた別の形で表現しているといえるだろう。本展示では、Youtubeの動画から数点を選んで上映、またロンドンからハワードが東京のアーティスト達と遠隔でコラボレーションをし、新作Yutube動画および絵画を制作する予定だ。

Youtubeに次々に上げられていく沢山の動画を見ていると、ハワードが作家として真剣に生産性を上げようともがいているのか、はたまた私たちをあざわらっているのかわからなくなり、パラノイアの底なし沼にズブズブと飲み込まれていくような思いをする。そんな私たちにハワードはさわやかに「いいね!」を求める。

不安障害、不安感の問題は年々深刻な問題になってきている。現代の生活において、口には出さないが誰もが何かしらの不安感に悩まされていることは間違いない。近年、その不安感をさまざまな形で自覚せざるを得ない状況に陥ることが今までになく増えてきたように思う。これは命の危険がない状況において避けられない事態なのか?あるいは、この不安感は今までもずっと存在していたが、その感情に名称がつけられただけなのか?いや、それともネット社会における新しい種類の問題なのだろうか?

ハワードは金沢に滞在したことがあり、そこで人生最低の時期を過ごしたと語る。かの有名なジェームス・ジョイスだけではなく、日本にも芥川龍之介、北 杜夫、中島らも、吾妻ひでおなど、心の病と芸術のロマンチックな関係性を題材とした作家が多く存在する。アルコール中毒者としての作家生活をおもしろおかしく表現した漫画家の滝田ゆうなどは、かつてプロジェクトスペースのある国立に住んでいたことがある。

彼らと比べると、ハワードの「不安ハック」はより最近の健康ブームに則り、ゲーム的で脳科学、自己啓発、カルト宗教などを彷彿とさせ、より現代的である。実際にYouTube上ではMentalist Daigoをはじめ類似する動画にあふれ、その真否が問われて炎上したりしている。ローマ法王も電子ロザリオでデジタルに挑戦する時代に、元ハッカーと逸話を持つハワードがロンドンの安全なソファから、かつての暗黒時代を過ごしてた極東の地で何を表現するか楽しみである。

江幡京子

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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

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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。

ハワードの作品はインターネットスパム、仮想通貨、不安感など、隠されているが、そこらじゅうに存在するコンセプチャルな素材を扱い、よく知っているようで、気味の悪い奇妙な印象を与える。

 『インターネットのシステムは未だ開拓期にある。よってデジタル素材を扱う過程で、新しい考え方に出会えるのではないか。インターネットの世界では社会の規範はあべこべになり、この世で生きている意味である全てのエネルギーが奇妙にからみあった羅列として露出される』(ガーディアン紙のインタビューの本人のコメントより抜粋)

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James Howard

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.”

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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/

江幡京子 Kyoko Ebata, artist

アーティスト。House of Ebata主宰 http://kyokoebata.com

協力

大久保あり、奥誠之、東間嶺、引込線/放射線サテライトチーム、John L Tran, Abi&ARi、池端規恵子、佐賀建、佐野誠 他

撮影:東間嶺

『涙入れ』 “Tears Container” @エビ専(黄金町バザール)

黄金町バザールの『エビ専』に出Nutopia 2011シリーズ『Funeral I I (Melted in the Sea of Tears)』より『涙入れ』を出品

Showing “Tears Container” from “Funeral I I (Melted in the Sea of Tears)” from Nutopia 2011 made with Tim Byrnes at “Volcano Brainstorming” in Koganecho Bazaar.

https://www.koganecho.net/contents/event-exhibition/event-exhibition-2725.html

https://nutopia2011.blogspot.com

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. Oh, no. 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。

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、ブードゥーなど見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。その頃にはすごく酔っていたが、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。

Ceremony II 葬儀手順 その2

Afterwards, 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 hospitalization. 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。

Following is the second funeral evolved version:
以下、第二回の悪ノリ進化系の葬式の手順だ。

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。

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。

UNDER・LINE: An Exhibition in Search for Veins and Fringe

As part of a touring exhibition after Hong Kong and Den Haag, and before Rotterdam and Sydney, three artists from Hong Kong, Jamsen LAW, Julvian HO and LEE Suet Ying will conduct an experimental project for outdoor artworks in the garden of House of Ebata in Tokyo.
Curated by Jamsen LAW

Exhibition Date: 30/6/2019~30/12/2019 (By appointment)
Opening Tea Gathering 15-18h 30/6/2019

More details of the previous Under.Line: http://www.facebook.com/pg/UnderLine-1183086218509161/

The Case of T & S (video)

Password:The Case of T&S

A documentation of my parents.

Shown at:

Do You Love Me?@NICA:Nihonbashi Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tokyo

『The Case of T&S』は作者自身である私と実家の両親の関係をドキュメントしたものである。父は20年近く脳出血の後遺症を抱えており、母はそんな父をサポートして来たのだが、私は子供の頃から母との関係に苦しんでいて、年末年始の挨拶以外にはほとんど実家に寄りついてこなかった。作品のストーリーは年始の挨拶に私がビデオカメラを持って実家を訪れるところから始まり、その後母が入院するところまでが描かれている。

ビデオカメラを持つと不思議なもので、普段は自分自身の理想の母親像を押し付け、恥ずかしいと思っている母の言動も、客観性を持って眺めるようになり「エンターテイメント性に欠ける」「もっとエキセントリックなことをして欲しい」と感じて来るとともに、お互いに愛して欲しい、愛しているのにという思いを上手く表せずにいるギクシャクした関係が少しづつ変化して行き、その場をディレクションしたいという作者の欲求が現れて行く。

“The Case of T&S” is a documentation of my parents. Although my father has been after effects of the stroke more than 20 years and my mother has been supporting him, I hardly visit them since I have been having problem how to deal with my mother. Only time I visit them is new years’ greetings. The story begins with me visiting them and follow them until my mother stays in hospital for her cancer treatment. 

As you can imagine, all her language and behavior that I am ashamed of can be observed with objectivity when I have a camera. And I start to wish her to be more eccentric and ask her to be entertaining for a viewer. The soured relations asking for unconditional love have changed.In the end, my desire to control the scenario surfaces.