Date/time
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Morning session 10:00 – 12:00, Afternoon session 14:00 – 16:00
Venue
3F Fuchu Lifelong Learning Center, Washitsu (talk), Studio 1 (craftmaking)
Instructor/Artist
MATHRAX
Target participants
Open to all.
*Parents and children welcome (children under 10 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian)
Capacity
10 per workshop
Participation fee
500 yen (including tax)
*Cash payment at venue
How to participate
Please fill out the form in the following link.
*Personal information will be handled as strictly confidential and used only for the operation of this event and to send you information from the organizer.
Deadline for applications
Friday, February 17, 2023
* First-come, first-served basis. The application will be closed once the application number reaches the limit.

Workshop flow

On the day, the workshop will proceed as follows.

1. Introduction｜The self and stone
   We consider the relationship between ourselves and the stone around us from various examples. We speculate why people use stone and what sort of thoughts and feelings they have expressed in stone.
2. Creating output from impressions of stone
   We will freely express our impressions of stone in the creative output of words, pictures, and physical expressions.
3. Lecture
   MATHRAX introduces its everyday creative activities, works, themes and interests.
4. Crafting
   Based on MATHRAX’s production method we will work the stone, getting hands-on experience of soldering.
5. Experience and share
   We will bring together the stone we have crafted and listen to its “voice” by touching and having contact with it. We will then share our resulting feelings with other participants.

Material: Samples of stone from graves
Tama Cemetery, which has been open for 100 years, was Japan’s first memorial park, and dozens of stonemasons line its approach. A long-established store (Tamagawa Sekizai) provided us with samples of stone for gravestones, now imported from China and India.

On display in the exhibition will be pieces created with workshop participants, information on the activities of workshop instructors MATHRAX, a video interview with the company who provided the workshop materials, and more. Experience for yourselves the finished works.

Date/time
Saturday, March 4 – Sunday, March 12, 2023, 10:00 – 16:00
Venue
Kyodo no Mori Museum, Fuchu City (Washitsu room in the former Tanaka family residence)
Admission to the exhibition
Free
*Please note there is an admission fee for entering the museum. Please see here for details.

When we were being shown around Fuchu City by Artist Collective Fuchu (ACF), we noticed there was an especially large green space on the map we happened to be looking at. It turned out to be Tama Cemetery, almost as big as the entire neighborhood.

The graves where unknown people lie sleeping usually feel a little unapproachable somehow. But when we actually walked through the cemetery, we were surprised to find we felt strangely calm. It was as if the gravestones had sucked up all the noise, and it was refreshing to think of it as a place suffused with the beauty and tranquility of autumn leaves.

Even in our seemingly peaceful everyday lives, we have the power to recall and envision the bottomless sense of death that we glimpse in the odd moment. In recent times we have experienced a time of constant anxiety due to the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the instability of the global situation, and the uncertainty of Japan’s future; and we feel that death, which comes equally to us all, has lately become a familiar presence. Perhaps this is why the cemetery somehow felt comfortable.

For this workshop we also interviewed Tamagawa Sekizai, which has been dealing in gravestones for many years, as we wanted to think again about the relationship between stone and people. Stone has been closely aligned to people’s lives, different ideas and thoughts since ancient times: sometimes as a way of showing power and authority, and sometimes as an elixir of eternal youth and life. Stone has also been the object of wishes and prayers, and has also played the role of a boundary for dividing the world. Moreover, it has always been a friendly presence reflecting our souls. Perhaps it is precisely because stone doesn’t speak that it become a trustworthy part of human life.

In this workshop we will look again at the relationship between ourselves and the stone around us.
Based on the feelings produced in each participant, we hope to be able to envision a new relationship between stone and people, and the new landscape it affords a glimpse of.

【Artist】

MATHRAX (Shozo Kuze ＋Mariko Sakamoto)
https://mathrax.com/

Artist Collective Fuchu(NPO)
contact@acf-tokyo.com