What we do

Kujira

  • Organization : Shiori Watanabe
  • Section : Artistic and creative activity in Tokyo
  • Type of Grant Program : Single Individual
  • Art Forms : Visual Art / Media Art

Outline

While Watanabe has previously experimented with an ecological approach by exhibiting ecosystems themselves, this exhibition will be her first video installation composed of edited images depicting the reality of the relationship between nature and humans which the artist encountered on the Izu coast during a visit there. The installation uses two projectors to display video images in a high-quality acoustic space. It is stipulated that animal carcasses washed up on shore in Japan are to be disposed of “appropriately,” according to a Fisheries Agency manual. The existential value of aquatic animals, which once held a deity-like significance but are now something to be disposed of “appropriately,” does not change for any species except humans. This is because both mythical time and real time are nothing more than products of human creation. Kabukicho, where the installation is being shown, is a district created by people – but does it belong to mythical time or real time?

Profile

Shiori Watanabe
Born in 1984 in Metropolitan Tokyo. Completed graduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2017. Based on her own origins and research, Watanabe considers subjects such as unique ecosystems and Japan’s Emperor System from a gender perspective using raw or live organic matter as exhibits. While making her mark exhibiting in alternative spaces and elsewhere in the metropolis including her solo exhibition “BEBE” (WHITEHOUSE, Tokyo), “Dyadic Stem” (The 5th Floor, Tokyo), and “KUJIRA” (Decameron, Tokyo), she has also participated in exhibitions at commercial galleries such as her solo show “Nipponia nippon”(SYP GALLERY, Tokyo), and “Non-Human Control” (TAV) as well as the art festival “RIPPLE ACROSS THE WATER 2021,”organized and hosted by Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. She was selected as a candidate artist for the 7th “Women to Watch” exhibition in 2022.

Contact

Shiori Watanabe
shioriwatanabe.studioghost@gmail.com

Venues

Decameron,Shinjuku City,Tokyo