Monthly Archives: December 2017

Announcing Cai Jun Lee’s Exhibition “Way of Life”

We are pleased to announce an exhibition Way of Life by Cai Jun Lee on December 23 (Saturday) & 24 (Sun), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Cai Jun Lee received her Master of Art in Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh College of Art (2012). She completed a Diploma with distinction from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with a major in ceramic and minor study in sculpture in 2006, under the scholarship from Singapore National Arts Council. She is a multidisciplinary visual artist who works with sculpture, ceramic, installation, illustration and photography.

Being drawn to the world of narratives and their anthropological influences, Cai Jun adapts the connecting element, symbolical imagery and motif, revised and creates narrative with modern day interpretations. Her works aim to blur the perceptual boundaries between object and space.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

I am intrigued by the cultural practices and the ways of living in Itoshima. I intend to incorporate this with my personal research on the connection between narratives and cultural anthropology influences.

Cai Jun Lee “Way of Life”
Date: December 23 (Saturday), 24 (Sunday), 11:00 to 18:00, free entrance
* We will hold an exhibition closing party and an artist talk on 24th (Sun), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Eswari Krishnadas’s Exhibition “Smile Silhouettes”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Smile Silhouettes by Eswari Krishnadas on December 23 (Saturday) & 24 (Sun), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

From Singapore, Eswari Krishnadas is currently a Special Education teacher and Art coordinator. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in ceramics from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. She is most expressive using clay as a medium as it allows her to create spontaneously. Her works mostly involves creating 3-dimensional organic forms which embodies evolving personalities of individuals. An inevitable phase for everyone.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

My artwork is inspired by “You smile, I smile” a contagious warm welcome remark I have learnt to embrace here at Itoshima. In our daily social life smiling is a perfect tool for forming an amiable, comfortable atmosphere in any situation especially for myself as I do not know how to communicate in the local language. The artwork will be collaboratively done by kids at studio Kura, students from Lee Kong Chian Gardens School-Singapore and myself.

Eswari Krishnadas “Smile Silhouettes”
Date: December 23 (Saturday), 24 (Sunday), 11:00 to 18:00, free entrance
* We will hold an exhibition closing party and an artist talk on 24th (Sun), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Leonardo Hidalgo’s Exhibition “Dwelling in Silence”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Dwelling in Silence by Leonardo Hidalgo on December 23 (Saturday) & 24 (Sun), as a result of his activity during his stay at Studio Kura.

Leonardo Hidalgo is a designer and textile artist based in Bogotá, Colombia. His work explores weaving, dyeing and mixed media and completed his BA (Hons) in Design, specializing in Communication and Textile Design at Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá (2015). Leonardo has worked in fashion, community research and artistic projects, participating in one solo exhibition during 2016 at Olga Piedrahita’s showroom and selected group exhibitions in 2015 at Universidad de los Andes and La Garza (2016).

His work studies the concepts of territory and materiality, looking for different relationships that individuals have with places and the interactions created by living, exploring, thinking and imagining them. He analyses how practices like migration, dwelling, costume and territory transformation, manifest bonds and materiality through places.

Here are some words from the artist himself.

At my arrival in Itoshima I got the feeling of living in a desolated landscape. Between the houses, I saw open garages, hanged fruits and clothing drying in the yards, but there were no people, just objects. However, during the night the inhabitants get life, the interior of the houses reveals itself through blurry signals of light, shining from its distant and silent windows.
Dwelling in Silence imagines a place where the life of its inhabitants can just be seen at the distance of the privacy and intimacy of home. I explored the material universe of the interior and exterior of Japanese traditional houses at Itoshima, to create textiles using washi, plastics and weaving.

Leonardo Hidalgo “Dwelling in Silence”
Date: December 23 (Saturday), 24 (Sunday), 11:00 to 18:00, free entrance
* We will hold an exhibition closing party and an artist talk on 24th (Sun), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Residence artists in December joined Shimenawa (the Sacred Rope) making for Masue Inari Shrine

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Our residence artists in December joined Shimenawa (the Sacred Rope) making for Masue Inari Shrine on Dec 10th in 2017.

Shimenawa means to represent a sacred place where a god is enshrined. The rope takes the role of demarcating the shrine and precincts from the every-day world, and avoiding impurity.

Artists helped to find fine rice straws and arrange them for making big Shimenawa ropes.

After that, they learned how to make the small version by a local master.

They made good ones and all said “I am going to hung this for my room door”!
In Japan, we have a custom to hung the Shimenawa above the front door as a New Year decoration, so we welcome the Kami 神 (god) of the new year into one’s home.

Home-made bento-lunch by Michiko san (our founders mother!).
Tonjiru 豚汁(miso soup with pork and vegetables) made us warm..

and these traditional Hibachi(火鉢) braziers helped us too.

Shimenawa represents the scene of advent of Kami, derive from Japanese mythology.

Each part of Shimenawa can be described as;
Big main rope= cloud
Shide 紙垂 (washi paper)= thunder = advent of kami
Tiny ropes= rain
Shimenawa is originally dedicated to a shrine to pray for a good harvest, so it is made of rice straw. We still see many shrines in this area as it has rice cultivation culture since long ago.

After purifing Shimenawa by a Shinto priest, and new ones were replaced.

We also went to other related shrines to replace all on the mountain behind the Masue Inari Shrine.

This mountain with shrines are the main location of our International art biennale festival called Itoshima International Art Festival: Itoshima Arts Farm. So artists could see some of previous works used natural materials shown in October 2016.

It was a special seasonal shrine event for the artists to know the relationship between rice harvest culture and Shinto shrines, also to experience the “art”-like cultural objects, customs and the faith in Kami (gods) around this area as well as Japan.

Thank you very much for joining this event, Cai Jun, Eswari and Leonardo!