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Jennifer Purvis
CULTURE / Art
Aug 6, 2000
Untruely, unmadly, shallowly in love
Daisuke Takeya went to New York to study art in 1989 and got thoroughly sick of being told by everybody and anybody that they loved him, in typically free and easy American style. On the other hand, he enjoyed the mispronunciation of his name Daisuke into Daisuki, meaning "I really like you" in Japanese...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2000
Brown as they wanna be -- ganguro phenomenon on film
Katrin Paul is making good use of her time studying photography in Tokyo. Full of intense Germanic energy, Paul observes the social environment of Tokyo from the perspective of an outsider in "Playing Summer," her second exhibition in as many months. A closer look at the Shibuya youth scene, the exhibition...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 23, 2000
Something's in the air, but it isn't very deep
Vacant space is the subject -- and the content. Chie Yasuda's exhibition at Taro Nasu Gallery is a pallid, melancholic affair of photographs of empty, vacant spaces. Quite clearly some of these places -- the three largest photographs were taken inside the desolate, tiled interior of a ruin flooded with...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 16, 2000
Ode to a gentleman and a scholar
When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that when a death occurs "there is sore havoc made in other people's lives, a pin [is] knocked out by which many subsidiary friendships hung together," perhaps he was describing a particularly Western tragedy. In Buddhism, death is viewed differently. The relationship...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 9, 2000
The bright dwelling-place of dreams
French philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) wrote, "The house is one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind. Through dreams, the various dwelling-places in our lives copenetrate and retain the treasures of former days."
CULTURE / Art
Jul 2, 2000
Prime: color and form again the norm
"Prime" at Tokyo Opera City is a magnificent demonstration of color, form and size. Sparse yet well displayed, this exhibition breathes freely and expressively in the high open space, which in Tokyo is a rare and valuable experience. Each artist is chosen to develop various aspects of curator Santo Oshima's...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2000
Bread Man not quite off his loaf
Tatsumi Orimoto, otherwise known as the "Bread Man," has finally cracked the Japanese art scene with "Art Mama + Bread Man," an extraordinary exhibition of photos, videos and live performances at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. Street performance is in the house and Orimoto will nevermore be a "dirty,...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 17, 2000
Sculptures that capture the mysterious rhythms of nature
The press release for the sculptor Susumu Shingu's "Wind Caravan" project opens charmingly with a quote from Christina Rossetti: "Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I, but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is blowing by."
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2000
Blastoff for the outer limits of art
A soft blowup globe projected on a small TV screen, which spins on an axis inside three aluminium rings, and seven 15-cm plastic satellites perched on a white table can be seen at Gallery Side 2, in two exhibits by England's Steven Pippin and Japan's Taro Shinoda.
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2000
Tate residency builds a cultural bridge
Johnnie Walker, a self-declared champion of the avant-garde, has made big strides through the Tokyo art scene. For many years Walker, through his foundation Za Moca, has made it his purpose to support artists in various ways, from monthly parties to celebrate artists exhibiting in Tokyo, through accommodation...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2000
Subverting reality with waste
Sporting longish brown curly hair and a skittish glance, American Tom Sachs bounded into Tokyo for his first Tokyo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery, bringing with him a refreshing whiff of New York art culture.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 23, 2000
Collection shows Warhol's scope
Andy Warhol's death, 13 years ago, was an ignominious one: A man who had access to the best medical care, Warhol died after a routine but botched gall bladder operation.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 9, 2000
Gallery speaks for flip side of reality
Gallery Speak For, located in Tokyo's Daikanyama district, is decidedly not like other galleries.

Longform

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