From the “Context” of Craft: Joël Andrianomearisoa First Solo Show in Japan
The show of Joël Andrianomearisoa made me consider the craft context of his oeuvres and its potential to be a new channel bridging contemporary Africa and Japan.
From 18th July to 23rd August, a Japanese galley Standing Pine at Nagoya hosts the first solo show of Joël Andrianomearisoa in Japan. I visited the solo exhibition in Japan with Miwa san from the Taguchi Art Collection, one of the most famous private collections in Japan, and Shiobara san, a counsel of the Nichido Contemporary Art and a representative of the Art Office Shiobara. He has been working as an art advisor of the collection.
Joël is a world-renowned artist and a very representative artist of the country. His installation of the Madagascar Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2019, which was the first participation for the country, was fabulous. His intimate connection with Fondation Zinsou is also interesting.
I’ve seen his works so often at 1–54 or other fairs, and I’m impressed to see his artworks in Japan. I noticed there were already many tags of “sold.” The gallery owner said that his solo show attracts a lot of interest in Japanese collectors. Recent success at the Basel Hong Kong or Sydney Biennale also seems to back up his reputation.
As I’ve been writing in my previous posts on Instagram, especially among the people who are active in the art market, the awareness of the African art scene is increasing in Japan. However, it still lags far behind from the discourse of the international art scene. Many experts in Japan have pointed out that the presence of Japan in the global art scene is shrinking, and behind the situation is the low art literacy of the Japanese public. (*1) I feel people in the Japanese art world show insufficient understandings and awareness of non-western countries, especially African countries, despite the trend of art in the 21st century being globalization and the dissolution of its western-centered hierarchy. (*2)
Miwa-san, as one of the most prominent Japanese collectors of contemporary art, recognizes the urgent need to update information about these areas. She is so eager to learn about the emerging and vivid African contemporary art scene. That is why she invited me to do lectures at her salon and often take me to the show or fairs with her. As I want my research on African studies and art history to contribute to such ongoing practices of “history-telling” through art, I appreciate the activity with her very much.
During our conversation at the gallery, the owner talked about visits of curators from public museums around Nagoya. According to him, they were interested in the works a lot, but the problem is that there isn’t enough “context” to push the decision of public collection. I said, “but there are many types of research that explain his work’s importance, putting his artistic production in the context of art history or culture! My book(*3) can be one of them….” Then, an art dealer Shiobara-san told me, “Besides that point of art historical contextualization, there is a problem of connection to the context of the already-existing collection of these museums.” Embarrassed about being kind of too native, I noticed that I need to prepare various channels of discourse to persuade Japanese public sectors to realize my goal of bridging contemporary Africa and Japan through its visual culture.
In that perspective, Joël’s nomination to the Loewe Craft Prize seems appealing to the Japanese public. This international award, which honors Loewe’s roots of leather craft and promotes the possibility of contemporary art, has nominated many Japanese contemporary ceramic artists. Among them are the famous Kuwata Takuro from Kaikai-kiki by Murakami Takashi, or Michikawa Shozo, an international ceramic artist based on Seto, who I met many times through King’s research. The fact that they are on the same plane of “contemporary ceramics,” which is an academically important subject, may be useful to set up a narrative that links the African contemporary art scene with existing Japanese/regional cultural resources.
Before visiting Joël’s solo show, guided by an artist Sakamoto Kazuya, we paid a visited the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art at Toyota city, a company town of the world-renowned Toyota. The exhibition “Age of Electricity,” a selection from its collection, was terrific. From modern design to contemporary art, the exhibition overviews the last 100 years of our journey with electricity and light through visual arts.
Alongside landscapes, with early days electric lamps by modern Japanese painters, modern design works, which the museum has been energetically collecting, were amazingly curated. It was about products by Peter Behrens, a German architect, and pioneer of product design in the late 19th century. He worked on together with AEG; a company used to be the Egison company. This collection and curation are worthy of the name of a museum in Toyota city.
Just then, the fact that many Japanese car manufacturers, including Toyota, have roots in the spinning industry or automatic looms came to mind. Considering the “link to contexts of museum collections,” which I wrote above, I can never refer too much to the context of the African pagne that it has origin in Indonesian wax print and that these textiles were manufactured in Postwar Japan as export goods.
After leaving the museum where we also saw Hisakado Takesi’s exhibition, we headed to Kenji Taki Gallery, which represents Shiota Chiharu or other intriguing artists, and saw works of Yokoyama Nami. The gallery also has a ceramic branch, which deals with the Japanese ceramics of relatively traditional style. Nagoya is near the famous ceramic centers like Seto or Tokoname.
At the gallery, I could appreciate the warm and noble aesthetic of this traditional pottery and re-discovered the elegance of ash-glazing pottery.
I was also surprised to find works by Tokoname Potter Koie Ryoji, to whom many French ceramic artists I know lookup as a mentor. Though I heard his name many times during my research, I didn’t think this gallery represented him. However, just the next day of this visit, I received the news that he passed away! Researches on contemporary art/culture experiences this kind of significant loss as it proceeds. May he rest in peace.
During the day I visited Joel’s solo show, I encountered incidents that make me think about the relationship between contemporary art and craft/ceramic in Japan so many times. Each time I consider how I can use those links to facilitate visual communication between contemporary Africa and Japan through visual arts. Also, I got a new impression from these experiences to my doctoral research on King Houndekpinkou. In a word, he is engaging a historical trend where the hierarchical concept between “art” and “culture” is changing.
(1) In the Commentary on NHK, the chief curator of Mori Art Museum, Kataoka Mami, comprehensively analysis the situation of the global art scene and the position of Japan in it. (see https://www.nhk.or.jp/kaisetsu-blog/400/420165.html)
(2) In the article about the first solo show of Yinka Shorinare in Japan, a curator of Fukuoka Art Museum, Shoji Sachiko, points out that this world’s top-class prominent artist has had surprisingly few opportunities to show his work in Japan. (See Shoji Michiko. (2020), Column Yinka Shonibare CBE: Flower Power; The First Solo Show in Japan. In: Oussouby Sacko, ed. 2020. Today’s African Contemporary Culture: Seigensha, pp.106–111 /正路佐知子 「Column「Yinka Shonibare CBE: Flower Power」初の日本個展 インカ・ショニバレの姿 」『現代アフリカ文化の今』青幻舎, 106–111p).
(3) A Japanese book on contemporary African culture, a chapter of which I wrote. （Oussouby Sacko, ed. 2020 Today’s African Contemporary Culture: Seigensha）
