One of Tokyo’s most inviting private art museums, the Watari-Um is hosting a show that seeks to break free of the conventional, well-established structure of the art exhibition. What does it mean to create art? And what does it mean to create an exhibition? These are the questions that artist Yoichi Umetsu asked, as he put together this exhibition that mixes contemporary works collected by former Watari-Um director Shizuko Watari, before the Watari-um was established in 1990, with pieces created as recently as the present year.
Umetsu, born in 1982 and himself well represented here, is known for work examining Japan’s art history. Rather than conventional curation, Umetsu has approached his task with a mindset of ‘exhibition making’. The resulting show, featuring 44 mainly Japanese artists, employs some creative approaches to displaying art, and makes a great starting point for those wanting to explore Japanese contemporary art beyond the obvious household names.
Highlights include ‘Patient’ (2020), an installation by Asako Hoshikawa (b. 1984) that comprises a full-size bed strewn with empty alcoholic drink cans, plush toys and assorted artefacts of Y2K Japanese pop culture. Comparisons with British artist Tracey Emin’s notorious ‘My Bed’ come to mind, before one realises that this is an institutional bed, occupied by a papier-mâché effigy (standing in for Hoshikawa and signifying her own struggles) that is simultaneously cute and somewhat disturbing.
‘Rainbow’ (1979), meanwhile, is a rainbow-spectrumed silkscreen of a ram-like beast created by Ay-o (b. 1931), who was a member of the Fluxus group along with Yoko Ono and John Cage. There’s also an abstract work by Hodaka Yoshida (1926-1995) demonstrating a ‘modernity’ inspired by Mayan and other ancient civilisations.
Western contemporary art is represented by a handful of artists including Switzerland’s Cubist-influenced Hans Erni (1909-2015) and German Magic Realist Paul Wunderlich (1927-2010).
This exhibition is closed on Monday except July 15.