Julia Lohmann - News » Japan

The Catch, Sapporo, Japan

julia — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 06:40:41 +0000

Julia Lohmann’s 90 mÂ² installation ‘The Catch’ confronts viewers with a vast empty ocean, depleted by over-fishing and our unthinking consumption of marine life. Visitors are swept up in towering waves made of used empty fish boxes taken from Sapporo’s fish market. Unwittingly, they find themselves drifting into its womb-like core. ‘The Catch’ is modeled on an Almadraba, a Mediterranean tuna trap now obsolete due to lack of tuna. It is inspired by Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market. The installation probes our fatal beliefs in endless supplies of marine life, in inflated fishing quotas and our reluctance to act on scientific research.

Photography: Yoshisato Komaki

Exhibition: The Catch & A Pension of Norland 08.12.07-16.12.07

julia — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:07:08 +0000

S-AIR presents the work of their current residents Yen-Yi Chen (Taiwan) and Julia Lohmann (UK).
When?

08.12.07-16.12.07, 12.00-19.00 h

Private View: Saturday 08.12. from 17.00
Artist Talk: Sunday 09.12. from 14.00
Where?

Japanese speakers please see the flyer below. When you stand in front of Tokyo Hands in Sapporo the exhibition is two houses down to your right, on the sixth floor. There is a wooden carved elephant in front of the building.

Bound in a Tokyo Nutshell

julia — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:44:13 +0000

Gero spent his last night in Japan in a Tokyo capsule hotel, the pinnacle of anonymous abodes. The tiny pods, stacked like bunk beds, twenty per hallway, in who knows how many hallways on six floors, looked like leftovers from the film set of 2001 – A Space Odyssey. The light of capsule 5008 glowed like the eye of HAL. Guests in this men only establishment are issued with pale blue pyjamas and a towel and then left to their own devices in the maze of the hotel. There are communal TV lounges, baths, and infinite-looking washrooms full of mirrors, probably to counter claustrophobia. Most guests prefer to stay in their capsules though, entertaining themselves with a small TV set with channels ranging from traditional Japanese pottery to hardcore Japanese porn.

Capsule 5008

Somewhere in the infinite washroom

The ever-present ‘No Yakuza’ signs

From Salmon Skin to Leather

julia — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:06:54 +0000

Today, S-AIR hosted the second salmon skin workshop. Under the expert tuition of an Ainu instructor we learned how to transform salmon skins into supple white leather. After a short demonstration he quickly got us to do the work (especially the two boys in the group) while he supervised with a very dignified air.

So how does Ainu fish-leather-making work? The salmon skins are rolled up and laid in a groove cut into a massive wooden block. Under constant turning, they are then hammered with a large wooden mallet until they are soft. They are then ‘broken’ further in another wooden contraption before the scales can be removed with tweezers or pliers. Et voila – salmon skin leather.

Normally, it takes two days of relentless pummeling before the salmon skins are supple enough to be used for clothing. I think everyone who took part will remember the favourite words of our otherwise monosyllabic instructor for a long long time: “mada mada” [phonetic spelling, probably quite wrong], which translates as “Not yet, not yet” – or more to the point: “Get on with it!”.

To reward everyone for their hard labour we concluded the workshop with drinks and a feast of European and Japanese salmon dishes, followed by a screening of German short films from the Sapporo Short Film Festival showreel.

Our instructor shows how it is done.

Salmon skin about to be pummeled into submission

Mada mada!

Get on with it!

Top: unprocessed salmon skin; bottom left: softened skin, scales partially removed; bottom right: the finished salmon skin leather.

Detail of softened salmon skin, scales partially removed.

The workshop participants tuck into a well-earned dinner.

Submersed in Sapporo

julia — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:42:03 +0000

On a location visit to the building which will house our final exhibition, we discover a hidden apartment including a tatami room and adjoining bath. It is empty apart from a few newspapers dating back to the 1960s. We are speechless when we discover how the bath was heated – with a giant submersion heater! (see below) Later that day we finalise the exhibition layout at Cafe Zill, a cozy local hideaway with lots of lumberjack charm.

The infamous submersion heater…

…and how it is used.

Cafe Zill

What else did we see today? A pet shop which looked more like a dachshund dispenser, selling dogs like fashion accessories…

…and a shop selling canine lingerie.

Studio Interview at the ICC, Sapporo

julia — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:10:38 +0000

Tonight I was interviewed in my ICC studio as part of a documentary about S-AIR. The camera team was made up of Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani’s students whose energy and enthusiasm is truly amazing.

The S-AIR/ICC studio interview

Snow has arrived in Sapporo

Artist Talk at Sapporo City University

julia — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:20:14 +0000

Today I was invited to speak about my work and experiences as an S-AIR artist in residence to students and staff at Sapporo City University. The talk is part of a lecture series organised by S-AIR, the ICC and the university and was filmed by the media art students of the filmmaker duo Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani. It was great to be able to present my work to a non-Western audience and respond to their questions. A big thank you for the invitation and also to my untiring interpreter Rie Watanabe, without whose linguistic expertise I would have been quite lost.

Back in Sapporo

julia — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 20:08:14 +0000

Full of new impressions from our three-week journey through Japan we arrive in Sapporo. A cold drizzle hits us as we step off the plane, quite a change from the subtropical warmth of Iriomote and bright autumn sunshine in Kyoto. The city is getting ready for snow and we are getting ready to set up the final exhibition of the three-month art residency.
It is good to be back.

Sapporo snow shovels – function meets fashion

A view along the river on our way to the studio.

The installation concept begins to take shape…

…and materials start to pile up in my S-AIR studio.

Naoshima

julia — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:34:22 +0000

The contrast between our present location and Koyasan could not be greater. Naoshima is an island dedicated to contemporary art. It is home to the museum/hotel/spa complex of the Benesse foundation and the Chichu Art Museum. Both buildings were designed by Tadao Ando.

The Benesse House and Benesse House Annex could easily have been the setting of a James Bond movie. The three main buildings are set into a hillside with the top part, called the Oval, only accessible via a small monorail. Benesse hotel guests can roam the art collection until 11pm before retiring to their rooms located conveniently inside the museum.

Chichu Art Museum is a collection of minimalist underground spaces custom-designed for the works of art they contain. They are lit entirely by natural light and provide a gallery experience unlike any weâ€™ve ever had. The artists on show are Walter de Maria, Claude Monet and James Turrell. Near the museum is the Chichu garden planted with the same plant species as those found in Monetâ€™s Giverny garden. Photography of the buildings is not allowed but they have a great website that gives information in English and shows the work: http://www.chichu.jp

Dotted around Naoshima’s Miyanoura Port are various buildings belonging to the Art House project. Some draw on traditional Japanese architecture for inspiration while this one is built using local reclaimed materials.

Last but not least, there are many sculptures along the shore of the Inland Sea, the most famous being the red and yellow pumpkins by Yayoi Kusama.

Koyasan

julia — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:38:46 +0000

Autumn has arrived in all its splendour. We ascend to the top of the Koyasan temple mountain in a monorail, surrounded by trees glowing brightly in their red and yellow foliage. After a stroll through the small town and its vast ancient cemetery we bed down for the night in a monastery. We join the monks for morning prayers in the darkness of their sanctuary. It is unheated apart from a small gas heater and the candles lit one by one by a monk slowly making his way around the room. From behind a paper wall, another monk with ancient features enters the sanctuary. As the younger monk begins the prayer rituals, his chants punctuated by the low rumbling coughs of the older monk, it dawns on us that these two are the last inhabitants of the monastery. With more than fifty active monastic orders, Koyasan is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in Japan. We seem to have stumbled on the only congregation slowly fading away. Thanking the monks for their hospitality we leave for a last walk under the canopies of towering trees, past temples and tombs bathed in glorious sunshine.

Next stop: Naoshima.