| Written by Chris Yeager, on 10-16-2007 00:00 |
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Konnichiwa, Philly. This week’s blog centers on the “Independent Residents” show at Philadelphia’s Lineage Gallery, featuring four Japanese-American artists of richly unique appeal. “Bringing together an entirely new set of artists to both the gallery and to the Philadelphia area,” the exhibition presents artists Aiko Nakagawa, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Kenji Hirata, and Mike Ming, who are united by both their bicultural Japanese-American heritage and involvement in rural and urban street art, yet distinguished by their divergent artistic interpretations of these circumstances.
Both members of the Barnstormer collaborative – a collective of artists transforming rural towns into sight specific “urban art” projects – Kenji Hirata and Mike Ming both seem deeply involved in conducting a visual symphony of natural elements. Constructing a complex narrative of water, fire, metal, wood and soil, the precisely engineered, sleek shapes of Hirata’s works suggest a techno-utopian sensibility. Self purportedly aiming to “speak to the childlike part of the viewer that is not jaded and can imagine the right direction for the future with clear vision,” his works present an image of a future that values efficiency and precision without sacrificing aesthetic experience. The stop-motion animation piece found on his website ( www.kenjihirata.com) may remind some viewers of the shorts aired during Sesame Street that always seemed to lend a wondrous sense of optimism to the undeveloped minds facing a new world of daunting complexities.
At times evoking a Mondrian-esque harmony of visual rudiments, Hirata in his own words “attempts to reveal something deep within the spirit of things” and is inspired by the Buddhist idea that emptiness is everything eternal. While Mike Ming may not be guided by the same influence, his paintings often seem similarly focused on an arrangement of the elements and sometimes recall the fantastic contours of natural imagery in Buddhist painting. Finely detailed forms of water, air, clouds, and light swirl about in ambiguous, almost celestial celebrations of natural beauty which are at once grounded through their graffiti textures and placement as large-scale public works. Together with Hirata and the Barnstormer Collabrative, the two have gained much attention in the art community and exposure in the press as a result of their high profile projects and successful gallery exhibitions.
A friend of Hirata, Tomokazu Matsuyama’s work seems similarly influenced by both the austerity of modern graphic design and the rough extravagancy of graffiti. Perhaps the most intriguing and insightful in terms of cultural study, his work is a more conscious and introspective response to the tensions of bicultural experience. An upbringing split between Japan and America spurred the questions of national and individual identity that figure prominently in the style and subject matter of his paintings – attempting to parse the “natural chaos” of our social environment, Matsuyama pushes viewers to confront their conceptions of cultural homogeneity, for example, by presenting archetypical Japanese subject matter, such as cherry blossoms or samurai, in a Western pop/graffiti style that seems to contradict notions of Japaneseness. Discerningly appropriating influences from modern art and Japanese art from the Edo and Meiji eras, Matsuyama’s paintings are an aesthetically exciting and culturally fascinating facet of the “Independent Residents” show.
Lastly, Aiko Nakagawa also pursues a dissection of the same cultural and social cacophony from a different angle, focusing more on a manipulation of familiar pop images that reintroduces them to viewers in new and challenging ways. A decidedly non-aggressive means of suggesting social, political and religious commentary, her method of extracting recognizable forms from their usual context yields a recolored, retextured rearrangement that demands contemplation. The pictured work Kitty could be a self portrait – a visual representation of preexisting cultural and historical shapes that may assemble to form the framework of an individual identity. Colors, textures and compositions customized, the product is neither an original nor a replica – it is a unique refraction of inherited influences that alerts viewers to their own origins.
Presenting a profound and visually stimulating collection of artwork, the Lineage Gallery’s “Independent Residents” assembles a range of artistic talents and influences that provide diverse venues for understanding the relationship between individuality and cultural/national identity. In addition to the artists discussed above, the exhibition also includes works from the prolific American street artist Crash One and Nicaragua native Christian Mendoza. The show will remain open until November 4th -- be sure not to miss it!
Please visit the Lineage Gallery website for more information.
Last update: 06-18-2008 13:06
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