Author Archives: Katsura Ishikawa

Announcing Thomas Williams’s exhibition “Vessels”

We are pleased to announce an exhibition Vessels by Thomas Williams on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Thomas Williams is a composer and sound artist based in Bristol (UK) creating interactive works that invite audiences to create, play and collaborate with sound and light. Coming from a background in music composition and sound design I enjoy exploring the social aspects of music making, attempting to create spaces that promote encounters between groups of people.

Vessels is a WIP interactive sound piece that portrays a series of tangible objects as fragment of music. The vessels each store within them a note, chord, phrase or rhythm. Together they become a palette presented to the audience as fragments to compose with – Intended as simple building blocks of music to prompt play and collaboration. The basis of the project responds to ideas in Japanese folklore of the inhabitance of spirits and beings within elements of the natural environment. Each of the vessels hold within them a voice and it is our relationship with them that prompts these voices to be heard.

Thomas Williams “Vessels”
Exhibition style: Music and interactive sound art
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
*Visitor can experience playing the sound art peice at the follwing time during the exhibition dates: 11: 00-12: 00, 14: 00-15:00, 16: 30-17: 30. Sample video and work pieces will be exhbitioned at the rest of opening hours.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Simone Darcy’s exhibition “Only The Knowing”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Only The Knowing by Simone Darcy on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Simone Darcy is an interdisciplinary from Newcastle, Australia. Her practice explores ways of fusing together fabrics and photographs into collage and assemblage, employing strategies of abstraction and symbolism in challenging ideas on culture, domesticity and eroticism.

Simone Darcy’s mixed media installation titled ‘Only The Knowing’ brings together fabric, paint, photography and collage. Employing strategies of abstraction and symbolism, splicing and overlapping elements and ideas on art history, domesticity and the body while questioning what is remembered and what is discarded.

Simone Darcy “Only The Knowing”
Exhibition style: mixed media
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Allison Kovar’s exhibition “Does this make you happy?”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Does this make you happy? by Allison Kovar on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Allison Kovar is a multidisciplinary artist who is a by-product of her residing in many different countries. She sees her body and everywhere it has been as the true work of art and she strives to do it justice visually. A dancer and crafter from a young age, she didn’t graduate from art school or fill a gallery with her creations.

Do you know what does?
Exploring the simplicity of a happy face amidst the serpentine complexities of modern life – is it effective? Is it authentic? Is it empty?
Your answer is important.

Allison Kovar “Does this make you happy?”
Exhibition style: mixed media
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Desiree Kong’s exhibition “Which One Are You”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Which One Are You by Desiree Kong on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Desiree Kong is a photography-based interactive installation artist living and working in New York where she graduated in Photo and Video from the School of Visual Arts in 2017. She is represented by MaryMary Projects and has been mentored by Dustin Yellin, shown in galleries in New York such as Re:Art Show, and at Photo London 2018. She has been published in W magazine, Collectors Daily and Dear Dave.

Which One Are You includes photographs, sculptures, and an interactive game that all question how we visual perceive ourselves and others. Using materials from Itoshima there will be a collection of personality portraits, sculptures that you can touch, and a one-player game where an audience can also create!

Desiree Kong “Which One Are You”
Exhibition style: Photography, interactive installation, & sculptures
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Muriel Holloway’s exhibition “Beginners Luck”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Beginners Luck by Muriel Holloway on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Muriel Holloway is a Sculptor based in the United States.
I currently live and work in Tampa, FL, where I recently received my Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the University of South Florida. My work has been shown in different locations throughout Florida as well as in New York while attending a six month long residency back in 2015. My work is about combining elements of materiality with memory. Using childhood memories as fuel, I challenge myself to confront and re-conceptualize the relationships between my memory and objects within the domestic space.

My work Consists of hybridized bread/object assemblages. The work attempts to create a dialogue between the permanent and the ephemeral. By using found objects (the permanent) and bread (the ephemeral) I create work that coalesces the unfamiliar with the familiar.

Muriel Holloway “Beginners Luck”
Exhibition style: Bread and found object sculptures
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing María Fernanda Araya’s exhibition “Sosiego”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Sosiego by María Fernanda Araya on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

María Fernanda Araya was born and raised in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile. She studied Visual Arts at Diego Portales University located in Santiago Center, and finally graduated in 2015.
Through different techniques she has formed a line of work linked to the Asian imaginary. From videos, animations and music, she works on research on the cross between eastern and western culture.

Looking for a link between here and there, I pause to contemplate the proper time of each entity around me.
Things have taken another direction, everything alive and everything dead in its time. Now is the time and the time is now.
In the mental silence and counting fragments of the sea, a bird-shaped light is projected, which flying comes and goes.

María Fernanda Araya “Sosiego”
Exhibition style: Installation. Frosted mirrors and paintings.
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Laura Cochrane’s exhibition “SUSTAIN”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition SUSTAIN by Laura Cochrane on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Laura Cochrane (illustration name: Lawra Law) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a flare for illustration and textiles from Northern Ireland. Laura has completed a Bachelors of Arts in Textile Art, Design and Fashion, within Ulster University, and through her creative journey developed a passion for illustration. She has participated in multiples exhibitions, in both capital cities of Ireland, Belfast and Dublin.

Laura Cochrane depicts illustrations of environmental concerns. Touching on subjects of sustainability; the overconsumption of waste; pollution on the natural environment and the consequences of these acts. This collection of imagery is created both, digitally and by hand, to comment on these prominent issues in a playful, compelling fashion.

Laura Cochrane “SUSTAIN”
Exhibition style: illustration
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Lee Jia-An’s exhibition “Recurring Dreams: Hotel”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Recurring Dreams: Hotel by Lee Jia-An on September 21(Sat.) – 23(Mon., national holiday), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Lee Jia-An is an MA Authorial Illustration graduate from Falmouth University with a background in English literature.
She is fascinated by stories of reality and uncanniness colliding, and narratives that challenge the way that we perceive the real and illusory. This tension in narrative is what takes brings her to continue creating and exploring research on the doubleness of the self. She is also part of the Nexus Collective, formed by the 2018 MA Authorial Illustration graduates from Falmouth University, and a member of the Daughters of the Daily Special, an independent grant organisation aimed at supporting female artists.

Jia-An’s practise is driven by the contrast that exists between romantic dream-tales and unsettling literature. What is it about dream narratives that make them so beautiful, fleeting and yet uneasy? How can something so dreamlike and gentle feel so uncomfortable at the same time?

Recurring Dreams: Hotel is made-up of ten paintings and one short fictional text, all of which depicts a silent dream that Jia-An used to carry with her when she was younger. There was a time when she’d fall asleep on Saturday afternoons only to find herself arriving over and over again at the front doorsteps of the hotel. When this dream came and when it left is no longer remembered by all those involved.

Lee Jia-An “Recurring Dreams: Hotel”
Exhibition style: illustration and painting
Date: September 21 (Saturday) to 23 (Monday, national holiday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 22nd (Sun.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other seven current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Micha Tauber and Cyrille Faivre’s exhibition “Kokoro”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Kokoro by Micha Tauber and Cyrille Faivre on August 24(Sat.) & 25(Sun.), as a result of their collaborative activities during thier stay at Studio Kura.

Micha Tauber and Cyrille Faivre are an artist couple living and working in Paris.
Micha Tauber is celebrating her 30 years of painting, 30 years of colors during which she constantly has shared her emotions, her multicolor dreams, her unchanging thirst for creation and curiosity.
Cyrille Faivre is a psychologist and art therapist. In his art practice he is observing surroundings, urban forms and textures from nature. He likes to experience monotype technic, pixel art, collecting traces and footprints, and put
them into paintings.

Japan : inspired by the surroundings and exchanges, with a sense of wonder and part of dreaming,
their curious view of everything. All that has been absorbed.
Painting the unseen.
A rendez-vous with love, life, stories, shapes and colors.
First teamwork of the artist Micha Tauber and her partner in life Cyrille Faivre. productive, ensemble,
a way of being together,
together in electric dreams.

Micha Tauber and Cyrille Faivre “Kokoro”
Exhibition style: mixed-media on canvas, 210 x 180 cm
Date: August 24 (Saturday) to 25 (Sunday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 24th (Sat.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other six current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.

Announcing Donglai Meng’s exhibition “Hairy Legs Shrine/毛腿神社”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Hairy Legs Shrine/毛腿神社 by Donglai Meng on August 24(Sat.) & 25(Sun.), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Donglai Meng is a multi-media artist, currently living and working in the Netherlands. She had her Bachelor of Painting at the Academy of fine arts of Rome (IT), and a master of Fine arts at Master Institute of Visual Cultures AKV St.Joost (NL)

Theism as the original human society’s imagination and exploration of the unknown originated from the inner construction of the spiritual sustenance. With the development of history, it was gradually replaced by the science-oriented contemporary social ideology and lost its mainstream position. But the myths and legends associated with it have become our earliest understanding of mysterious and enlightenment of aesthetics.

My inspiration comes from shrines, temples and related myths and legends near the place of residence. I borrowed their forms to create my own mythological system, through the ‘hairy legs god’, a ridiculous figure, to reflect on this rational, efficient and realistic contemporary society — it is meaningless, it is of no value, it is the gradually lost imagination of contemporary society.

Donglai Meng “Hairy Legs Shrine/毛腿神社”
Exhibition style: installation
Date: August 24 (Saturday) to 25 (Sunday), 11:00 to 18:00.
* We will hold an artist talk on 24th (Sat.), starting at 16:00.
* The exhibitions by other six current residence artists will be held at the same exhibition periods.