1 00:00:07,850 --> 00:00:12,650 Yeah, thank you very much for the kind introduction. 2 00:00:12,650 --> 00:00:22,700 When sign I met for the first time a few days ago, we realised that we have one thing in common, so we both moved to Japan in 1986. 3 00:00:22,700 --> 00:00:32,720 I think Sy already had his compound, his artistic identity. He wanted to go out, leave China and go out into the into the larger art world. 4 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:40,460 I was at the very beginning of my education, going to Japanese kindergarten, so quite different contexts. 5 00:00:40,460 --> 00:00:44,600 But we both had to familiarise ourselves with the Japanese language. 6 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:52,940 And I think that the Japanese culture and Japanese art has basically influenced our lives quite a lot. 7 00:00:52,940 --> 00:01:00,620 Today, I would like to just focus on two wax that we have in the exhibition two small scale works, but very strong, beautiful works. 8 00:01:00,620 --> 00:01:09,140 I think the two gunpowder drawings number eight, twenty five and number eight twenty seven from nineteen eighty eight. 9 00:01:09,140 --> 00:01:15,650 So just there were created two years after, so I had moved to Japan. 10 00:01:15,650 --> 00:01:22,100 They're very dynamic, abstract composition compositions consisting of a dense, 11 00:01:22,100 --> 00:01:34,190 dark brown black centre that seems to be organically spreading, growing basically to continue almost outside of of the borders of the work. 12 00:01:34,190 --> 00:01:47,060 Circular forms and burned holes in the middle kind of almost contrast with the more transparent and soft shadow like features on the site. 13 00:01:47,060 --> 00:01:51,890 The centre conveys a strong sense of explosive, destructive power, 14 00:01:51,890 --> 00:01:59,870 which is complemented by the general impression of the parts of the work that are closer to the to the edges of the drawing. 15 00:01:59,870 --> 00:02:10,130 I think they convey a kind of organic feel. They look almost poetic and they somewhat remind me of something organic like it could be a plant, 16 00:02:10,130 --> 00:02:19,550 or this one almost looks a bit like a sea urchin, I say. The work suggests that they are a trace, an index of an event in the past. 17 00:02:19,550 --> 00:02:24,140 And even if we didn't know the title that features gunpowder in it, 18 00:02:24,140 --> 00:02:31,070 I think the works nevertheless would convey a very kind of explosive, destructive feeling. 19 00:02:31,070 --> 00:02:39,790 On the one hand, while also conveying a kind of melancholic beauty of morality on the other. 20 00:02:39,790 --> 00:02:46,630 So as I mentioned, these works were made two years after I had moved to Japan to Tokyo. 21 00:02:46,630 --> 00:02:53,530 As you all know, by now, he had started making gunpowder drawings in 1984 and after coming to Japan, 22 00:02:53,530 --> 00:02:59,350 he gradually moved away from paint and turned to painting purely with gunpowder. 23 00:02:59,350 --> 00:03:07,390 He first made explosions on canvas, and then, as in these gunpowder drawings, he also used Japanese handmade paper. 24 00:03:07,390 --> 00:03:14,690 And I asked myself how I got hold of gunpowder in Japan at the time, because in the 80s in China, 25 00:03:14,690 --> 00:03:23,680 although the process of getting exhibitions of experimental art was really difficult to get them approved, there was a long bureaucratic process. 26 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,420 But it wasn't as difficult to get hold of gunpowder where it was in Japan. 27 00:03:28,420 --> 00:03:32,590 Of course, it was more difficult to get hold of gunpowder and block with it. 28 00:03:32,590 --> 00:03:42,440 But through a friend, I met the director of the August fireworks factory in Tokyo, who made it possible for him to use gunpowder. 29 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:55,620 And so these two works in our exhibition are part of a whole series of experimental abstract drawings which were all made at the fireworks factory. 30 00:03:55,620 --> 00:04:03,720 This is a much earlier block where he was still using colourful paint together with a gunpowder. 31 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:09,450 This is another work from from the series from 1988. 32 00:04:09,450 --> 00:04:18,270 So those works and those early works in Japan really focus on the material of gunpowder and also the material of paper and form. 33 00:04:18,270 --> 00:04:25,320 And when Takumi Archive, young art critic came to one of his first solo exhibitions, 34 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:30,090 he said that he had discovered the little fan of China, apparently. 35 00:04:30,090 --> 00:04:34,860 And I thought, this is quite quite an interesting comparison. 36 00:04:34,860 --> 00:04:43,530 And I started to think about parallels and differences between his works and the works of the so-called mono ha artists. 37 00:04:43,530 --> 00:04:47,490 So in the 1980s and David already mentioned earlier. 38 00:04:47,490 --> 00:04:52,800 So I think when people now think about art in the 1980s and early 1990s in Japan, 39 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:57,420 you often think about people who are kind of starting to use a manga like language 40 00:04:57,420 --> 00:05:02,550 and the kind of cute language that people like Takashi or Yoshitomo Nara. 41 00:05:02,550 --> 00:05:11,340 But there were also these artists who were already producing works and started to become kind of active in the late 1960s and 1970s, 42 00:05:11,340 --> 00:05:14,590 which were the mono artists of the School of Things. 43 00:05:14,590 --> 00:05:24,630 There were really focussing on the essence of materials, and they were interested in the in the encounter of different materials in works of art. 44 00:05:24,630 --> 00:05:28,920 So Korean Japanese artist Lee was involved in this artistic movement. 45 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:33,180 He basically became the spokesman of the heart. 46 00:05:33,180 --> 00:05:40,350 And in the 1980s and 1990s early 1990s, he was exhibited quite widely and internationally, 47 00:05:40,350 --> 00:05:50,610 with raw and often industrial materials such as steel, iron ore, waste oil and found natural objects such as, for example, stones. 48 00:05:50,610 --> 00:05:59,640 Works by unknown artists are centred on the essential character and presence of their materials and their interconnections, 49 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:07,080 using a reduced form of language that convey a strong aesthetic of materiality and form that kind of minimal 50 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:14,970 works seek to show the spirit of the material that is used and its unique energy and its kind of tourist. 51 00:06:14,970 --> 00:06:19,440 And in that sense, the most beautiful possible way. 52 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:25,110 And I know that. So I met Leo Fun and I'm sure other artists as well. 53 00:06:25,110 --> 00:06:30,660 And a quotation by say about the spirit of gunpowder reminded me of traditional 54 00:06:30,660 --> 00:06:38,280 calligraphy on the one hand and the approach by artists such as Lee Siegel and Window. 55 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:48,000 On the other. I quote say, my sensibilities and that of the material make up the painting's sensuality. 56 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:56,850 Conducting tests on canvas allows the gunpowder to naturally express its sensibility, its capacity for creation. 57 00:06:56,850 --> 00:07:03,030 The results of such a straightforward manifestation of sensibility can be quite enchanting. 58 00:07:03,030 --> 00:07:06,660 But I cannot and do not stop there. 59 00:07:06,660 --> 00:07:15,180 A painting created with gunpowder is seared with my own sensibilities and attempts to capture the core of our time. 60 00:07:15,180 --> 00:07:20,580 I hope that gunpowder can free the spirit of an elevated dimension. 61 00:07:20,580 --> 00:07:27,610 This newly liberated world is determined by the painter's integrity and spiritual attainment. 62 00:07:27,610 --> 00:07:33,580 Gunpowder not only manifests different energies, it is energy. 63 00:07:33,580 --> 00:07:37,480 Each walk is complimented within a short time frame. 64 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:45,430 In those moments, my sensibilities clash and become fused with the materials, natural characteristics. 65 00:07:45,430 --> 00:07:48,700 The surrounding environment. The painter's movements. 66 00:07:48,700 --> 00:07:58,150 State of mind, mind planned or unpremeditated or currencies at the instant of combustion, which creates multidimensional space time. 67 00:07:58,150 --> 00:08:09,040 A state of chaos linking nature. The universe and an intangible world are ultimately imprinted on the two dimensional canvas. 68 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:16,580 And I'm just showing you various mono artists works in the in the background. 69 00:08:16,580 --> 00:08:23,900 And I kind of thought in a in a in a way. Of course, their main difference is and as I said, the artist already had his artistic language. 70 00:08:23,900 --> 00:08:29,030 So I'm not suggesting that all this was a direct influence on his work. 71 00:08:29,030 --> 00:08:36,500 But I think there were there was this feeling, maybe in the ear that might have been inspirational in one way or the other. 72 00:08:36,500 --> 00:08:45,800 And the way that, for example, inside the gunpowder drawings, the gunpowder encounters the handmade paper is is an important part of the work. 73 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:55,230 Just like in video work to iron plates and to natural stones encounter each other to create a work. 74 00:08:55,230 --> 00:09:00,820 So he uses the material of gunpowder in a highly concentrated artistic process. 75 00:09:00,820 --> 00:09:05,650 Similarly, Lee's or Horiguchi Noriyuki Art are rooted in discipline, 76 00:09:05,650 --> 00:09:13,330 meditation and respect for the material rather than any expressive gestural actions. 77 00:09:13,330 --> 00:09:18,010 Lee has stated that his work is accompanied by prayer and reflection, 78 00:09:18,010 --> 00:09:24,400 as is the case with sporting performances, scientific experiment or life in a monastery. 79 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:29,110 This is because creation is an encounter, a cold and an answer. 80 00:09:29,110 --> 00:09:38,740 End of quote. And of course, there are also parallels. If you just look at the the use of unusual industrial material in this case, for example, 81 00:09:38,740 --> 00:09:46,420 when we look at how drug which is what he's using waste oil, which is usually associated with with something dirty with something dangerous. 82 00:09:46,420 --> 00:09:51,490 Gunpowder is also associated with something explosive with something dangerous. 83 00:09:51,490 --> 00:09:57,340 But the artists take advantage of this particular characteristic of the material to turn it into 84 00:09:57,340 --> 00:10:06,560 something different and to convey a strong sense of beauty that's that's linked to mortality. 85 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:16,490 Shortly after making the gunpowder drawings, so I began to attend the University of Scuba for two years and worked with Tatsuo Assistants, 86 00:10:16,490 --> 00:10:21,800 the artist over Tatsuo, which is work since the 1960s, 87 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:31,430 had been concerned with the often hidden and yet crucial relationship between disparate entities such as between man and nature, 88 00:10:31,430 --> 00:10:37,940 or between the visible and the invisible, the past or future and the present. 89 00:10:37,940 --> 00:10:43,730 He had explored these dynamics in a diversity of media and materials ranging 90 00:10:43,730 --> 00:10:49,910 from early happenings to merit sculptures and environmental installations. 91 00:10:49,910 --> 00:10:56,840 According to Kawaguchi quote, art is something that doesn't merely express a private world, 92 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:03,500 but must in some way function universally and shed light on the condition of being human. 93 00:11:03,500 --> 00:11:09,470 In other words, his practise is about something much greater than self-expression, 94 00:11:09,470 --> 00:11:15,060 comparable to the work of many other artists and also comparable to sites like Kawaguchi, 95 00:11:15,060 --> 00:11:22,340 as art seeks to communicate collective truths while reducing subjective emotion. 96 00:11:22,340 --> 00:11:29,390 And so I said that he was influenced by Kawaguchi commitment to this really laborious creative processes, 97 00:11:29,390 --> 00:11:34,780 and I think this interest in the in the universe is also something that they have in common. 98 00:11:34,780 --> 00:11:43,300 And yes, this is a work about the Cosmos work, where you can see a colour which is interest in the in the stars and in the universe, 99 00:11:43,300 --> 00:11:49,450 and into the kind of wider connexion of the of the Earth. And of course, if we think about the 1980s and 90s, 100 00:11:49,450 --> 00:12:07,060 there were also European artists that were exhibited widely in Tokyo here at work by flower that was shown at the Sabre Museum from 1985 to 1986. 101 00:12:07,060 --> 00:12:16,240 Going back to the gun about gunpowder drawing, I quote the artist again when I'm painting from choosing different types of gunpowder to the 102 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:22,360 amounts used or deciding how they are deployed to make lines or how the stencils are cut, 103 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:26,170 even the weight of the stones or their placement on the canvas. 104 00:12:26,170 --> 00:12:37,120 All of these choices reveal contradictions between my dictatorial will as a creator and my attempts to liberate the materials. 105 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:42,520 There is a sense of gratification and release that I enjoy with every explosion, 106 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:48,100 but I'm also anxious about the tension between the gunpowder and myself. 107 00:12:48,100 --> 00:12:54,040 Democracy and autocracy. There is no such perfect dialectical relationship in art. 108 00:12:54,040 --> 00:13:01,050 And I thought that was a very it's a very interesting statement which applies to many works of art. 109 00:13:01,050 --> 00:13:11,080 We've already heard that when I was living in Japan, he also became interested in Stephen Hawking's work, for example, 110 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:20,680 a book that was sold widely at the time and that inspired his interest or influenced his interest into into the universe. 111 00:13:20,680 --> 00:13:29,020 Soon after creating the gunpowder drawings that we have in our exhibition. So he began his iconic series Projects for Extraterrestrials, 112 00:13:29,020 --> 00:13:38,140 which aimed at connecting the seen and unseen worlds and bridging communications amongst men, nature and the cosmos. 113 00:13:38,140 --> 00:13:44,410 So I also realised his first large scale explosion event Human About Project for Extraterrestrials, 114 00:13:44,410 --> 00:13:51,730 number one at the 1989 Tamar River for the outdoor art exhibition So in the in the suburbs of Tokyo. 115 00:13:51,730 --> 00:13:57,580 And here we actually see a work which is currently on display in a gallery in London. 116 00:13:57,580 --> 00:14:05,630 At the Oliver Mahlangu gallery, they have to show up. Well, it's basically about how different works are. 117 00:14:05,630 --> 00:14:10,570 We're about kind of the index fickle nature of different works of art. 118 00:14:10,570 --> 00:14:15,900 And it's a nice coincidence that this is shown there right at the moment. 119 00:14:15,900 --> 00:14:20,070 So in the early 1990s, size work was exhibited more and more. 120 00:14:20,070 --> 00:14:28,350 And then you had this he was included in this exhibition in France, an excellent performance which we already heard about since the month of Yeah, 121 00:14:28,350 --> 00:14:40,180 which was the first time that that Western curators and art critics encountered his work. 122 00:14:40,180 --> 00:14:50,140 In 1993. So I relocated to Iraq, Fukushima on the northeastern coast of Japan, setting up a residence within the city's fishing community. 123 00:14:50,140 --> 00:14:56,440 You worked with local volunteers there to create a large, explosive event, 124 00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:02,920 and he told me that he's going back to Japan but regularly, still about three times a year. 125 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:13,390 And then in a little bit later, his work was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Art in Japan today, 1985 to 1995. 126 00:15:13,390 --> 00:15:19,060 And then following this, the Asian Cultural Council invited him to come to New York. 127 00:15:19,060 --> 00:15:22,890 And basically, ever since then, he has. He has been living in New York. 128 00:15:22,890 --> 00:15:31,600 He was here. We see a photo again of the Hiroshima event in Hiroshima, so size moved to the United States, 129 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:39,100 initiated a shift in his every year as he started to work more consistently with political themes and cultural subject matter, 130 00:15:39,100 --> 00:15:42,700 communicating with the viewer through his works of art. 131 00:15:42,700 --> 00:15:52,420 However, the material of gunpowder remains his main material, and I believe that despite their spectacular nature of his more recent works, 132 00:15:52,420 --> 00:15:59,350 the essence and the spirit of this material, and the way that this material encounters its environment, 133 00:15:59,350 --> 00:16:05,170 be this paper, a canvas or the sky remain at the core of his work. 134 00:16:05,170 --> 00:16:11,410 The early years in Japan probably strengthened strengthened his respect for materials, 135 00:16:11,410 --> 00:16:19,090 and this interest in the essence of material, I believe remains influential precise practise today. 136 00:16:19,090 --> 00:16:28,928 Thank you.