The fortress

November, 2009 - January, 2010

"What about Japan?" Exhibition

Souterrain Amsterdam

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The fortress is an artwork to represent an impression of a human body in Japanese society. Using an enlarged shape of a baseball catcher's mask, I wanted to emphasize an individual territory of people to suffer a superficial interpersonal communication society. Because of a rapid growth of the information technology, it has become easy to connect with others and get amount of information by the world wide communication networks. The other hand, it is a phenomenon to increase the number of crimes by it. Preventing the proliferation of their privacy, people become more strict to hide their own personal information. It influences to change their behaves in the real world that people tend to refuse communications with others. It is spoken that It is because Japanese are shay and a Japanese traditional nobility to respect others by hiding one's real intention. Even though, it seems seriously to deconstruct one of human necessity, their own confidences to trust others. Their social masks have become stronger and bigger like a fortress to protect from their faceless enemies.

Text from the exhibition

‘What about Japan?’ explores and verifies the borders of Japan’s cultural identity as experienced by young Japanese and Dutch artists. Souterrain Amsterdam presents the multi-interpretations of this question and shows the inspiration and fascination for Japan. She will search for differences in encountering and interpreting visual arts within the Western and Japanese culture. What does the artist think of Japan and which associations come up without losing their own identity? Can artists bridge the cultural differences between the Japanese and Western society? Do the Dutch always stand at the edge of the Japanese culture or can they break into their body of thought? How is Japanese art ‘read’ and understood in the idea of the Western artist? Where do stereotypes start and where do they stop? Can visual art create a new perception outside Japan’s traditional archetypical icons?