Monthly Archives: December 2018

Announcing Ginnie Hsu’s Exhibition “The Mundane Magic 平凡の魔法”

We are pleased to announce an exhibition “The Mundane Magic 平凡の魔法 by Ginnie Hsu on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Ginnie Hsu is a Multi-media Designer, and Educator, an Illustrator and a Maker living in Starkville, Mississippi, United States. Her work is often inspired by everyday life, nature, human living, and well-being. She is passionate about helping people. She believes that well-designed digital experiences and technology can improve the quality of human living, and her goal is to design, make, and create things that have an impact on society. Having this personal mission statement in mind, her design and research have been focusing on human-centered design for the greater good.

Ginnie Hsu presents a collection of multimedia artworks focused on the townspeople’s daily life in Itoshima.

Ginnie Hsu “The Mundane Magic 平凡の魔法”
Exhibition style: Multi-Media
Exhibition venue: Stdio 1
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Jessica Auer and Zuhaitz Akizu’s Exhibition “Big fish like a hill”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Big fish like a hill by Jessica Auer and Zuhaitz Akizu on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of their activity during their stay at Studio Kura.

Jessica Auer is a visual artist and photography professor from Montreal, Canada. Her work is broadly concerned with the study of landscapes as cultural sites, focusing on themes that connect history, place, journey and cultural experience.

Zuhaitz Akizu is an artist from the Basque Country who lives and works in Iceland. With backgrounds in history, archeology and collecting, he is a self-taught photographer who works primarily with historical methods of image making.

During our residency at Studio Kura, we are examining representations of whales in Japanese art. Through this research we would like to learn about Japan’s spritual relationship with whales, particularly in relation to their whaling culture. Our explorations unfold in both the studio and in the field, where we create new artworks that speak to the relationship between people and whales.

Jessica Auer and Zuhaitz Akizu “Big fish like a hill”
Exhibition style: Visual Art
Exhibition venue: Studio 2
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Khor Ke Xin’s Exhibition “My Simple Life 私のシンプルライフ”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition My Simple Life by Khor Ke Xin on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Khor Ke Xin is an aspiring self-taught artist based in Singapore. Her passion for drawing began as a child, growing up in the rustling fields and serene waters around Kranji. The silhouettes of nature surrounding her sparked an inner fire to turn her experiences into art.

Ke Xin will be sharing her story of living in Itoshima through her illustrations. Her work uncovers sensory experiences through the likes of struggles with household chores and daily adventures. She hopes that her exhibition can inspire people to explore different paths to success – as simple as being happy with living in the mundane.

Khor Ke Xin “My Simple Life 私のシンプルライフ”
Exhibition style: Drawing, Illustration
Exhibition venue: Studio 1
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Sanne van de Goor’s Exhibition “Folding Thoughts”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Folding Thoughts by Sanne van de Goor on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Sanne van de Goor is a graphic designer based in Amsterdam. Her work starts with a fascination for the underlying rules that create a structure and the potentiality to generate an unpredictable outcome from a rule-based system. Her autonomous visual projects, commissioned assignments, and educational work embody a tension between precision and randomness, chaos and control. Her art projects and workshops for children, embraces the unpredictability that can emerge through rule-based play, while her pattern designs concentrate on single lines or forms that take shape through repetition.

For Folding Thoughts, I asked residents of Itoshima to fold a pattern piece of traditional Japanese paper clothing (kamiko) in such a way that it would fit into an octagon-shaped vessel that I had given them. Carbon paper traced their movements—creating an imprint of each action. Displayed together, the variations in folding techniques and different approaches to the exercise created a communal trace, a pattern of thoughts.

Sanne van de Goor “Folding Thoughts”
Exhibition style: Installation
Exhibition venue: Studio 1*
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Kyle Bates’s Exhibition “Second Self”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Second Self by Kyle Bates on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of his activity during his stay at Studio Kura.

Kyle Bates is a Pacific Northwest based musician, audio visual artist, and writer. He actively creates and performs in sister projects Drowse and Floating Room that have produced a range of work for The Flenser, The Native Sound, Good Cheer Records, Glowing Window Recordings, Apneic Void and Television. His work has been featured by outlets such as NPR, Vice, and Spin. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Music and English at Portland State University in 2015.

Kyle Bates presents a new audiovisual work, Second Self, that examines disconnection from and engagement with the physical world through a bipolar lens. The video stems from the practices of internal mapping and reading the self as text; the audio dips heavily into a musical uncanny valley. The majority of the work was completed during an artist residency at Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan–a beautiful setting for exploring the relationship between the physical and internal.

Kyle Bates “Second Self”
Exhibition style: Audiovisual installation
Exhibition venue: Studio Kura Gallery
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Zhongsheng Gu’s Exhibition “冬至 Winter Solstice”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition 冬至 Winter Solstice by Zhongsheng Gu on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of his activity during his stay at Studio Kura.

Zhongsheng Gu is a Photographer and Visual artist. He grew up in Yanji, a small town on the border of China and North Korea. He has been living and working in New York since 2013, he has taken photography as his true native tongue. His work is focused on trying to explore and expand the possibilities of photography as a method of communication. So that this visual language of him, can be more nuanced, more meaningful, more lyrical.
The focus of his work goes beyond trying to capture something visually but instead he wants to capture something invisible. Perhaps something only he can see, or perhaps something that occurs in our memories.

The Winter Solstice will occur on December 22nd, which is the same day the exhibition opens. This is a one of the most important festivals in East Asia.
Winter Solstice can be traced back to the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this day, there will be more daylight hours and that will result in an increase of positive energy flowing in.
This is my hope for myself and what I have seen and what I have experienced here.

Zhongsheng Gu “冬至 Winter Solstice”
Exhibition style: Photography
Exhibition venue: Studio 2
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Karolina Nowosielska’s Exhibition “花鳥風月 Kachofugetsu”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition “花鳥風月 Kachofugetsu by Karolina Nowosielska on December 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon) , as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Karolina Nowosielska is a fine art photographer with a great affection for symbolism and expressionism. She currently lives and works in Ålesund, Norway.
In 2014 Karolina graduated from the Sopot Photography College, where she received a diploma with distinction for her series “Fluctuation”. Moreover, the artist has earned master’s degrees in Nordic Studies and German Philology, which gave her a strong academic background. Karolina’s portfolio encompasses several prizes in photo contests, publications, as well as individual and group exhibitions in Europe and Asia.

The Japanese expression 花鳥風月 Kachofugetsu literally means: Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon.
The extended meaning of this proverb would be: experience the beauty of the nature and by doing so, learn about yourself. And this is what happenned to me during my 8-week stay as artist-in-residence in Itoshima.
Every day I would be mesmerized by small miracles at my doorstep: the cheerful cosmos flowers, the gentle chirping of the grasshoppers, soothing sound of water flowing in the stream, the wonderfully refreshing sea breeze, the glittering golden sand in the nearby beach. These, and many other small wonders I have been blessed with every day here, in Itoshima, would open my heart and herewith bring me closer to myself. In my exhibition, I attempt to illustrate this beautiful journey to the essence of life.

Karolina Nowosielska “花鳥風月 Kachofugetsu”
Exhibition style: Photography
Exhibition venue: Studio 2
Date: December 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday), 11:00 to 17:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 15:30.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.