Machiko
Agano - June
This is the last month
for Anniken. We’ve brought our previous meetings together.
And also made some small trips.
May 29th and June 6th,
We discussed our intentions for this collaborative and our
search for alternatives.
June 6th,
We went to see an abstractive painting, printing, Japanese
painting and batik exhibitions. Hirohiko Nakano’s exhibition
was especially impressive and confirmed the essence of Japanese
culture.
June 7th, 8th,
We went to Kagawa with Kawarabayashi and Ealish. We saw Wolfgang
Laib exhibition at the contemporary museum there. Afterwards,
we moved to Naoshima by boat, where we stayed that night.
We also saw some works by Tadao Ando. It was a wonderful two
days trip.
June 13th,
I showed my latest work to Anniken to consider the possibility
of using it for our collaboration.
June 14th, 15th,
Anniken came to help my solo exhibition in Tokyo. Anniken
seemed to grasp my work when she saw it closely. We confirmed
our collaboration there as well. We also went to the new shops
and some fabric shops in Tokyo.
June 20th,
We aimed to see the whole view of our work and possible collaboration
by combining Anniken’s and my samples. Afterwards, we
did some papermaking.
June 27th ,
This was the last meeting. So we brought everything we achieved
by then. We wanted to decide the final form of our work but
still we couldn’t, so we decided to exchange photos
and samples to continue the discusion.
Machiko Agano
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Anniken
Amundsen - June
My 3 month stay in Japan will soon reach
its end. Machiko and I have arrived at a stage where it is
possible to work separately in Japan and England and keep
in regular contact through e-mail and letters.
Last week I met Machiko in Tokyo to assist
her in hanging her solo show at Wacoal Ginza Art Space. It
was great to see one of Machiko’s sculptural installations
in real life and to be able to participate in the actual installation
and hanging. For my part, I felt it was important and valuable
for our collaboration that I experienced Machiko in an exhibition
situation, to see how she is thinking and working when installing
and creating her work. It was also good for me to get to know
her work physically, experience the strength and qualities
of her structures and materials.
The planning and experimenting of our
collaborative piece is starting to show results and is in
fact also contributing to and clarifying aspects around our
individual pieces as well. We have in the past few weeks started
making, in small scale, parts of our collaborative piece for
the exhibition. At our last meeting before I leave Japan,
we will perform a trial installation of our thought collaborative
sculpture; install it in various possible ways, photograph
and discuss. This test installation will hopefully give us
enough information to enable us to start making each of our
parts of the piece in separate countries. However, we have
decided that I will leave some of my work that I have already
produced for the piece, with Machiko in Japan and that I will
take with me to England some of Machiko’s. In this way,
we both can continue experimenting and try out various thoughts
and ideas, and also aspects we are discussing through e-mail
and letters, for the final installation. It also gives us
a possibility of getting to know each others work physically
which will make it easier for us when we in January 2004 will
meet again to install and merge our work into one joint piece.
It has been 3 very hectic and eventful
months which has provided me with a lot of new knowledge and
experiences. I now look forward to get back to my home surroundings
to be able to let all these new impressions and experiences
sink in, mature and eventually blossom in both my work and
me as a person.
Lastly I want to express a huge thank
you to Tsuneo and Fumiko Yuge who have made my stay so wonderful
and who have been (and still are) so much more to me than
my ‘homestay’ hosts. I would also like to give
a similar big thank you to my mentor Machiko Agano, Gallery
Gallery’s Keiko Kawashima and to Kawashima Textile School.
Anniken Amundsen
Kyoto 25. June 2003
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