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P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center presents First Steps: Emerging Artists from
Japan, a biennial exhibition established in 1995 by Philip Morris
K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Philip Morris International Inc., as a
vehicle for discovering and supporting emerging Japanese artists and
introducing them to the international art world. The work of ten
prize-winning artists will be on view at P.S.1, a Museum of Modern Art
affiliate.
Open to Japanese residents aged 20-40, the
call-for-submissions attracted more than 1,000 artists working in a range
of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, installation,
animation, video, and film. An exhibition of the work of 57 finalists was
presented at the Tokyo International Forum in Spring 2002. Of these
finalists, jurors selected ten recipients of the Philip Morris K.K. Art
Award in May 2002, seven of whom received a grant of two million yen
(approximately $16,000) and all of whom received an invitation for an
international debut of their work at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.
“Philip Morris K.K. is committed to
creating opportunities for emerging artists living and working in Japan to
contribute to a vibrant cultural life in their own country and gain
recognition in the international art community,” said Paolo Degola,
President of Philip Morris K.K. “Supporting P.S.1 in the development and
presentation of First Steps advances this effort to encourage aesthetic
dialogue and the exchange of ideas across cultural divides.”
The artists featured in First Steps
were selected by a distinguished international jury of art curators and
critics, including Alanna Heiss, Director of P.S.1/MoMA; Gary
Garrels, Chief Curator of Drawings, MoMA; Klaus Biesenbach,
P.S.1 Chief Curator and Artistic Director of KW, Kunst-Werke Berlin, and Susan
Sontag, Writer and Critic. Members of the jury also include David
Thorp, Curator of Contemporary Projects, Henry Moore Foundation,
London; Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator, Kanazawa 21st Century Museum
of Contemporary Art; Christiane Germain, modern art, design, and
architecture critic, France; Hou Hanru, independent curator and
critic, China; and Akira Tatehata, Professor at Tama Art
University, Japan. Kazue Kobata, Professor at Tokyo University of
Fine Arts and adjunct curator for P.S.1, moderated the selection process.
“Exploring truly diverse crosscurrents of
art being created in Japan, this exhibition counters the assumption that
Japanese art is preoccupied with technology and pop culture,” said
Alanna Heiss, Founding Director of P.S.1. “In First Steps,
artists reject or reconsider the globalized world by infusing a deep sense
of the personal, naturally employing a wide range of media but ultimately
allowing content to dictate form.”
Works in the exhibition include Chelin's
installation, Mellow House ver 5 (2003), a room constructed of
cookies sprinkled with sugar, creating a heightened sensory experience. Mika
Funaki’s video installation, What always happens on the very next
day the cat from down stairs visits my room (2003), projects images of
neurotic animals continuously pacing among artificial stones and an
iceberg in the Tokyo zoo. In Fumimasa Hosokawa’s Anonymous
Scapes, Hello, The 20th Century (2001), black and white photographs of
sites where anonymous bodies have been discovered are juxtaposed with
public announcements requesting the identification of the bodies. For each
year of the 20th century, Hosokawa presents an example of anonymous death,
providing an alternative history. Chiharu Shiota's installation, fear
of...(2001), consists of a bed in a web of thread creating physical
and psychological tension. Yasuhiro Suzuki’s installation, inter-reflection,
(2001), displays miniature chairs on a moving turntable, which are also
projected on the wall. The viewer is invited to move the chairs around,
thus transforming both the sculpture and the projection.
TANY's video works, Dedicated to
my ex-lover (2001) and She loves SEX, and she hates SEX (2001),
use violent imagery to address Japanese stereotypes of desirability and
the sex industry. In the video The plastic models break into pieces
(2000), Satoru Tamura strikes plastic models with a baseball bat
and a golf club. Kaori Yamashita’s wriggling (2001)
is a kinetic sculpture consisting of motorized balls, which relentlessly
wind and unwind their fabric coverings. For Utsusemi (2003), Motoi
Yamamoto constructed a self-supporting wall of salt as a ritual of
purification for the deceased. For Yuriko Yamamoto’s Yuriko
Yamamoto + Yukako Okamuro Project – Kyosei muriki jyotai sochi (2001),
participants enter a clear compartment within an isolated constructed
environment, where they strike a lever with a hammer, causing them to fall
through the compartment floor. After completing their own physical
journey, they witness the next unsuspecting participant’s experience.
Special thanks to Philip Morris K.K., a
subsidiary of Philip Morris International Inc., which supports the arts in
Japan in the belief that innovative cultural programs create a richer and
more culturally diverse society. In addition to its support of First
Steps, Philip Morris K.K. has provided P.S.1 with a one-time grant to
advance the institution’s established Asian art program.
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center has long
supported Asian contemporary art: past exhibitions have included Inside
Out: New Chinese Art (1998); Takashi Murakami (2000); and Buzz
Club: News from Japan (2001). In November 2002, P.S.1 Director Alanna
Heiss and chief curator Klaus Biesenbach co-curated the international
sector of the Shanghai Biennial and in February 2003, P.S.1 will also
present works by Chinese artist Chen Zhen.
For more information, please contact
Rachael Dorsey, P.S.1 Press Office, at press@ps1.org
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