After exploring the word 'Re-', I examined artwork from the perspective of 'Re'. It was an eye-opening experience as I hadn't looked at the artwork this way before.
Here is some artwork I looked at from the 'Re-' lens.
Reimagine
Roger Hiorns' site-specific installation, Seizure transformed an empty council flat into a space by filling it with blue copper sulphate crystals. Hiorns turned the flat space into a planetarium filled with deep blue and sparkles of crystal-reflecting lights. I am attracted to this work because of the artist's approach to letting Nature do its work, in this case, the formation of crystals. This resonates with my belief and relationships with Nature. I grew up in Japan, where natural disasters, such as earthquakes, typhoons and floods, are common, so culturally, the Japanese respect Nature and approach it to work with it rather than manipulating or controlling it, which is a more common approach in Western culture. Secondly, Hiorns saw the visitors as contaminants, and they contributed to changing the crystal formation in the flat. I feel that his view of people and the participatory aspect of this artwork reflect our current relationship with Nature. Lastly, I was intrigued by how he envisioned the end-of-life flat space as an art object. The post-war council flats are generally seen as dull and characterless, and we don't see them as interesting or attractive. Yet, the artist reimagined such space and transformed the small council flat into a dreamy and expansive space.
Recently, I have become interested in the relationship between space and objects and how one object changes the mood, impressions, and atmosphere of the space.
What would the past residents of this flat think and feel in this reimagined space? Does it change their perceptions and relationships to the flat?
Remix
Mike Kelley's Day is Done is a performance/video consisting of 365 tapes, one for every day of the year. The recordings are based on typical American performance types, such as school plays, children's performances, Halloween, and dress-up day at work. Kelley reconfigured them through the tropes of history, like the avant-garde, with a different kind of soundtrack to decontextualise the performance.
I saw some of this work at his recent exhibition at Tate Modern, and his work made me uncomfortable and tired because it involved loud sounds, flashing lights, and noisy colours. As I often see in American movies, the actors' performances were overemphasised.
I think this is the intention of the artist to criticise pop culture by reconfiguring and recontextualising it so that we can see how it looks strange when you are out of under the influence of pop culture. This reminded me of the 'Kawaii' culture, which I disliked, widespread in Japan. Many products and services that primarily target girls and females are designed and decorated with Kawaii aesthetics, so I had trouble finding products not influenced by Kawaii aesthetics when I was in Japan. Mascotts and Anime characters are everywhere in Japan, generating big businesses. This led me to think that we are exposed to various forms and styles of pop culture depending on where we grew up and live, and it shapes our norms and preferences, which could be used to influence us in some ways.
Then, I recall the texts I saw at Tate Modern.
'Popular culture's really invisible, people are oblivious to it, but that's the culture I live in, and that's the culture people speak.
My interest in popular forms wasn't to glorify them, because I really dislike them in most of the cases. All you can really do now is work with the dominant culture, flay it, rip it apart, reconfigure it!'
His words got me thinking about how I reconfigure 'Kawaii' culture.
Remake/Repeat
Known as today (1966–2013), On Kawara's Date Paintings record only the date they were made on a canvas. The date was painted white in the language and format of the location where he was on that date. The background colours were grey, red or blue, and each colour was hand-mixed, so the colour was never the same.
Kawara's simple and meditative work intrigued me because it reminded me of Japanese aesthetics and Zen philosophy, which I grew up in Japan. His way of creating Date Paintings was like that of a Japanese monk or craftsman who carried out daily routines quietly and disciplinedly. I didn't know Kawara and his work until I was introduced to his work for this project, so I was curious to learn more about his life.
He grew up in Japan during and after WW2, so he experienced and witnessed the country being burnt down, the atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the brief occupation of WW2 allies led by the US, and then the rapid economic growth from burnt fields. After the war, the Japanese looked up to Western countries and cultures and denied traditional Japanese cultures and values to catch up with them. In the 1960s, the US became the major international art scene, so some Japanese artists like Kawara and Yayoi Kusama moved to the US. I feel that they wanted to escape from Japan, where the society and mood of the country at that time were solely focused on and acknowledged industrial and economic growth and full commitment to work, needing a fresh and open breathing place. Even today, some Japanese, including myself, feel that way.
Luckily, some of his date paintings were exhibited at the David Dwirner Gallery in London, so I visited them.
His paintings were hung on the white wall, and there was plenty of space between each painting as if to respect each painting's personal space. The background was meticulously and consistently painted, and there was hardly any trace of hand-painted signs such as brush marks, shades, or tints of colour. The date was carefully painted as if printed or typed, and each work shows no sign of human work. I felt his stoicism and attempt to vanish his existence from his almost machine-like creation. I wondered if this was his criticism or resistance to Japan's inhuman circumstances.
When I stood in front of each painting, the date got me thinking about the historical events around that time or personal experience when the dates were after my birthday. This experience brought up some memories and emotions from the past, and I developed personal and emotional connections to the date paintings. Some date paintings were painted on a red or blue background, and I was curious to find out why Kawara used different colours for the background. I asked at the gallery and conducted internet research but couldn't find a clear answer. I guess he picked the colour from his impressions, feelings, and emotions of that day. For example, I picked up orange for my work because I saw a lady with a beautiful orange top on the train earlier.
His work reminded me that calendars and dates are human constructs. From Nature's and the universe's point of view, the date doesn't have meaning, and it is a continuum, but we divide the flow of time and associate our experience and emotions with a fraction of time. The split of time becomes more significant than the rest of time.
I didn't think much about this work initially, but now I see it is very poetic. Kawara has kept all the noise to an absolute minimum, including himself, by not appearing publicly, giving us room to contemplate and experience his work privately.
While examining artworks through the 'Re-' lens, I noticed that I have been looking and referring back to my Japanese heritage. Is this the essence of 'Re-' for me?
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