Visual Arts

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

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