Visual Arts

Curated by Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock & Anibal Pella-Woo
Essay by Taro Nettleton
Translations by Akiko Nakamura

On view: November 6 – December 19, 2010

“35minutesmen” brings together a sampling of work from a Tokyo based collective of photographers in the format of a gallery exhibition and accompanying book with essay. The collective existed for just one year, yet they created a tremendous volume of work that was displayed in a series of monthly exhibitions held in their gallery – a now defunct Fuji film 35 minute processing lab.

While I was living in Tokyo in the fall of 2009, Taro Nettleton, a former student from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, introduced me to a small group of photographers that he knew – the “35minutesmen.” I went to a number of monthly openings at their gallery; however, the exhibition space was so small and the crowd was so large that I rarely got into the space to actually see the photographs. Regardless, I knew that the community that these seven photographers were generating was exciting and would be inspirational for students as a model for maintaining production and fostering connections after undergraduate school.

It seemed appropriate in light of the communal nature of their endeavor that the material would need to be organized by more than one person, so Anibal Pella-Woo and I decided to work on this project as co-curators. Our working method of putting this exhibition together was very organic, low fidelity, and do-it-yourself, not unlike the manner that things get accomplished in a collective – which is to say, slowly and on the smallest of budgets. First, a year’s worth of images were sent from the seven photographers in Tokyo via email and edited in New York down to a working group of 60. Then the continuation of the curatorial process took place in emails sent over the course of three months between New York, Italy, and Japan.

Anibal printed out a set of small test prints in New York on an ink jet printer and I printed out the same set at a drugstore while traveling in the south of Japan. Interesting image pairings were arranged on tabletops in New York, taped to hotel walls while teaching in Rome, shuffled, examined, photographed, and exchanged by email once again. Ideas and opinions were discussed and clarified thanks to Gmail. Even the exhibition postcard image of the “35minutesmen” gallery space was acquired by traveling to Japan via Google Earth and utilizing its “street level view.”

In light of Taro Nettleton’s closeness to the “35minutesmen” scene (he grew up in Japan with one of the collective’s members) we decided that he would be best suited to provide a detailed look into the history and working nature of the group. His insightful essay found in the exhibition catalog also bounced its way between Japan, New York, and Rome numerous times before arriving at its present state.

Faced with the challenge of organizing images made over the course of one year by different people with different concerns, an appropriate selection criteria and organizational schema was a necessity. Initially this entailed looking at the photographs with basic formal concerns in mind and centered on creating visual connections within the group of images. We then branched out into looking at the possibilities of contrasting photographic meanings, context, and pacing. To take a year of work from a disparate group of people and distill it into a singular statement seems to go against the grain of the “35minutesmen” spirit, which was what drew us to them in the first place. In fact, the variety of black and white photographs, color photographs, traditional film based photographs, digital photographs, Polaroid photographs, and sizes all testify to the range of styles within this group of “like-minded” individuals. Consequently, the photographs and sequencing of photographs in this show represent but one of the many ways that they could have been organized.

Duplicating the raucous energy of their openings is an impossibility, as is the inclusion of every image generated by the group; nevertheless, the images on display will serve to give some idea of the variety of photographic strategies and interests that are currently in play in a small collective, in a small area of Tokyo called Araiyakushi. The do-it-yourself nature of the “35minutesmen” project, their communal spirit, and energy will hopefully serve as encouragement for young photographers and emerging artists to create their own peer support structure and exhibition opportunities regardless of their divergent interests – in fact, perhaps all the more so because of them.

Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock and Anibal Pella-Woo, 2010

For additional information please see the 35minutesmen website Alternately, email Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock apicellahit@fordham.edu or Anibal Pella-Woo pella@fordham.edu

本「35minutesmen」展は、東京在住の写真家グループによる作品を、展覧会と併せてエッセイを収録したカタログを通して紹介するものである。１年間限定で集まったこのグループは、短期間で膨大な量の作品を制作、そしてそれを月に一度、廃業した35分仕上げのDPEショップで展示していたのだった。

僕が東京に住んでいた2009年秋、ボストンのミュージアム・スクール出身のネトルトン・タロウが紹介してくれた写真家達、それが「35minutesmen」だった。オープニングの日が来るたびに、僕は何度となく彼らのギャラリーへと足を運んだ。ただし、ものすごく狭い展示スペースに訪れる観客はかなりの人数にのぼったため、実際に中に入って写真を見られることは滅多になかった。それでも僕は、この７人の写真家によって生み出されたコミュニティを面白いと思ったし、また学生達にとっては、卒業後いかに制作を継続して繋がっていけるかということの、ひとつの手本になるんじゃないかという気がしていた。

彼らの試みのコミューン的性質を踏まえると、今回の写真展も複数の人間でオーガナイズするのがふさわしいと思い、アニバル・ペラ＝ウーと僕は共同キュレーターとしてこのプロジェクトを進めることにした。展覧会開催にこぎつけるまでの過程はかなり有機的かつローファイかつDIY、これはつまりチームで何かを成し遂げる時の作法とも言えるもので、最小予算内でゆっくりと進んでいった。まず東京にいる７人の写真家達からeメールでニューヨークに送られてきた１年分の写真を、60枚にまで絞った。それからさらに３ヶ月間、eメールによるニューヨーク、イタリア、日本間でのキュレーションに関するやり取りが続いた。

ニューヨークにいるアニバルが、選んだ写真の縮小版をインクジェット・プリンタでプリントアウトし、日本南部を旅行中だった僕も同じものをコンビニでプリントした。ニューヨークでは、それらが興味深いペアの組み写真として机の上に並べられ、僕が講師として滞在したローマのホテルの部屋でも壁にテープで貼られたりしながら、さらにシャッフルされ、吟味され、並べた写真が再度撮影されてeメールで交換された。アイデアや意見を交わしながら整理していく際には、Gメールが役立った。ちなみにこの写真展のDMに使われている35minutesmenの拠点となったギャラリーの画像も、グーグルアースのストリートビューを利用して手に入れたものだ。

ネトルトン・タロウは「35minutesmen」シーンとごく近しい関係にあり（彼は日本育ちでメンバーのひとりとは幼なじみである）、このグループの歴史と本質を洞察するのには、彼が最も適役であるということで僕達の意見は一致した。写真展のカタログに収録された彼の見識あるエッセイもまた、完成までに何度も日本、ニューヨーク、ローマを飛び交ったのだった。

様々な関心を持つ様々な人間が１年間かけて撮った写真をまとめるという難題を抱えた本展覧会には、何らかの選択基準と体系化が必要だった。そういうわけで僕達はまず、ごく基本的なスタイルの問題を念頭に写真を吟味し、そこに視覚的な関係性を見出すという作業を重点的に行なった。そしてそれをさらに発展させて、写真的な意味、文脈、緩急をふまえた対置の可能性を探っていった。それぞれに全く異なる写真家達が撮った１年分の作品をひとつのステイトメントとして提示することは、そもそも僕達が惹かれた本来のもの、つまり「35minutesmen」精神の本質に反するようにも思えた。実際ここに見られる、白黒、カラー、昔ながらのフィルム写真、デジタル写真、ポラロイド、そして大小織り交ぜた様々なサイズといった多様性が、このグループ内のスタイルの幅広さを物語っている。よって最終的に選んだ写真とその配置も、あり得た多くの可能性のうちの、ひとつの見せ方にすぎない。

彼らのオープニングでの喧しいエネルギーをここで再現することは、彼らが生み出した写真を全て見せることと同様に、不可能だ。それでもなお、今回展示された写真からは、東京にある新井薬師という小さな町に集った小さなグループが実践した数々の写真手法とその多様さの、一旦を窺い知ることが出来るだろう。そして僕達は、「35minutesmen」のDIY精神、共同体的性質、そしてそのエネルギーが刺激となって、若手写真家やアーティスト達が、関心は異なれども——いやむしろ異なるからこそ——仲間同士で支え合う仕組みを作り、自ら発表の機会を作り出すようになることを、心から願っている。

スティーブン・アピチェラ＝ヒッチコック／アニバル・ペラ＝ウー, 2010

I came from Japan. I have not been to Japan. I am neither of the above. brings together contemporary artworks from six international artists that display differing relationships with Japan; however, this exhibition makes no singular statement about Japan, or implies that there might even be a cohesive Japan that the artists could speak about. The connections between Japan and this exhibition border on incidental – hence the title, which simply describes the varying levels of association between the artists and the country.

The works in this show are part of a larger exploration into finding a balance between the poles of stating and describing something overtly and leaving something implied, or unsaid. For example, a Scottish computer engineer working for the Toyota company explained to me in a doctor’s waiting room in Tokyo that communication between the East and the West is not unlike an iceberg, where what is discernible, what is above water, only represents a small portion of the iceberg’s actual structure.

Whether this analogy has any relevance to the dynamic of understanding between different cultures is a lengthy and problematic debate. Still, this concept is an excellent framing mechanism to consider the sculptures, films, and photography by Shigeo Arikawa, Ya-chu Kang, Akinali Nishimula, Kazumi Shiho, Eric Van Hove, and Ben Washington. Each artist demonstrates a superb understanding of their craft in realizing their pieces as discreet objects in front of you,  while the conceptual aspects of the works are sufficiently receptive to support a number of interpretations. Maintaining a curious spirit while engaging with the works will allow the emergence of numerous formal connections, overlapping historical concerns, and latent conceptual associations between the pieces.

For additional information please email Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock at: apicellahit@fordham.edu

http://fordhamvisualarts.blogspot.com/
http://www.fordham.edu/visualarts/

北風は明らかに氷山から吹き出す。
A north wind blows, obviously off the icebergs.