ーPlease introduce yourself.
Fujita: My name is Claire Fujita and I’m usually active at Tokyo Base.
Shiraishi: I’m Koichi Shiraishi, and I’m active in Kyoto.
Ishikawa: I’m Takuya Ishikawa, and I’m also active in Kyoto. We first came together at an exhibition last December at a music venue called Metro. I made a piece for that exhibition, and Fujita and Shiraishi also showed pieces. I wanted to make something together, not as a collective, but more as an excursion. We wanted to see if something could come from that connection, and that is how we came to participate here.
ーPlease tell us how you came to make this piece, and the process behind it.
Shiraishi: Sure. At the time when we first started our production for this exhibit, Fujita and I made a lot of kinetic pieces, and that sort of art always comes with an element of maintenance. That’s how I first started thinking about a piece that requires maintenance, not just at the creation stage, but at the viewing stage as well. The first thing we tried while we discussed this was to look at Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” during our stay at BnA in Kyoto. “Modern Times” is quite evocative; in it, Chaplin turned what we now know as a nervous disorder into comedy, but there’s a background of labor exploitation, a reality that is evident in his neurotic performance. He would turn that into comedy, but he also included many scenes that were critical of how human beings were treated like machines. It’s a modern sort of impression, but we found it exceedingly relatable to our daily lives. We wanted to make that feeling kinetic by creating a machine that moves, but there are lots of ways to power a machine, with gears and the like. We thought about bringing that element, that sort of care we perform on machines, about maybe including visitors in that experience, to have them view the piece with an eye for maintenance. We considered how to express that concept within the piece as we worked on it.
ーWhat would you like viewers to look at in particular?
Ishikawa: Right. This goes back to the creation process. Initially, we didn’t expect to work with rocks. We experimented with various automated machines like Roomba cleaners. Of course, when we move in unexpected ways it’s because some part of ourselves forced that movement, and no matter how far we take it, it’s always within the realm of our expectations. I imagine it’s the same for automata or AI constructs, and while we discussed the piece, the idea of a master-and-servant dynamic we wish to escape emerged, and that’s how we decided to use rocks as a trial run.
Shiraishi: That’s right. So, because nature is of course different from machinery, it didn’t take the shape we were looking for. One way or another, we wanted to alter it as little as possible, so this time we focused on whether it would rotate or not, and whether you could touch it or not. As for how we would work out the construction, we went from actually throwing rocks in the river to selecting the best ones for the piece as we built the machine.
Fujita: Also, we want viewers to notice the alterations we introduced into the rocks and how geometric they are; we calculated their placement on a grid. We’d like viewers to notice the combination of human and natural elements in this space, and that they are all ruled by numbers.
ーIs there something you want to convey with this piece?
Shiraishi: We’re here thanks to Tsutsui’s efforts and also thanks to my colleagues Claire and Ishikawa; this was our first true venture as a trio. For that reason, I managed, and so did the others, I’m sure, to do something that can only be done here, and to do more than continuing what we always do. It was a really fun excursion, and that’s the impression you get from the piece itself. I hope it makes viewers want to walk around a little here at the BnA Hotel and to the Kamogawa River close by - I want everyone to go to the Kamo River.
ーPlease tell us how you came to make this piece, and the process behind it.
Fujita: This exhibition space is not only vertical, but it’s only visible through a window, so we spent a lot of time thinking about how to use the space wisely. Then there were the natural rocks; their shape had to be visible across 360 degrees. I also want people to notice the colors; we included unnatural, artificial colors to highlight the contrast between man and nature.
– Please tell us more about you and your team’s excursions.
Ishikawa: Our excursions…We have typical field trips, but we also have real excursions. For now, we’ll have another one this December, and we’ll be announcing that at some point so please look forward to it. I want to grow from this experience; I’d love another opportunity to make something that I wouldn’t be able to make alone. To add to that, we had fun with the theme for this exhibit, and I think it’d be fun to make something more controversial. I’m not sure why, but I want to put out some kind of text.
Shiraishi: We gathered rocks for this exhibit, so that counts as a type of excursion. We want to take them back to the Kamo River once our time at BnA is done, so please try to find them if you have time. We want to come up with a method to find them if we ever display this piece again. We want to gather them back from nature and turn them into art once more. It’s a give-and-take, of sorts. We want to develop that sort of excursive art in the future - though we don’t know if we’ll work together again - but if we do, please look forward to it.
Claire Fujita+Koichi Shiraishi＋Takuya Ishikawa
Where Overcare Leads
stone, metal, resin
2023