Volume 04, Number 22

Diversions
By Owen Schaefer

Future Beats—before you beat it.

Let's say you were leaving Japan for good. Wouldn't it be perfect if you could catch an art show featuring works by up-and-coming artists, giving you the opportunity to see the future of art in Japan as these young artists move onto the international stage? On the surface, that seems to be the promise of the Mori Art Gallery's second run of its Roppongi Crossing exhibition.

Subtitled, Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art, the show boasts a wide selection of disciplines and styles from some fresh names, but also hedges its bets by including a number of already established older artists. The museum's disclaimer for this decision is that the work of these older artists are still vibrant in a contemporary context and this turns out to be remarkably true. Even the self-devouring landscapes of the late Tiger Tateishi or the unsettling dolls of Simon Yotsuya do not seem out of place, although it may not be particularly accurate to call them “future beats” in art. There are, however, several hits and misses in this exhibition, and age has little or nothing to do with it.

Roppongi Crossing is deliberately arranged to downplay media and genre, drawing attention instead to the “intersection” of these artists in one venue. Works have been spread out enough to allow them to breathe within their own space but still contrast with the next piece in line. Thus, the twisted and ominous dog statues of Tatsumi Yoshino give way to the gleaming science-fiction cityscape of Chu Enoki's, RPM-1200—a collection of industrial drill bits and machine parts arranged into a crescent-shaped skyline of skyscrapers and towers that would make George Lucas proud. Then, from this almost utopian work, the visitor moves to the unsettled dream-space of Shinichi Hara's marble sculptures, where human ears grow like fungi and stones bleed.

The unfortunate exception to an otherwise successful layout is the comparatively meager collection of newmedia art all lumped together in one section. Considering the number of successful works in techno-art exhibited around the city in the four years since the last Roppongi Crossing, the curators at Mori seem to have foundered here in both content and presentation.

The best of an uninspiring lot in this category comes from Masahiko Sato and Takashi Kiriyama. Math Gates is maze-like work in which participants carry numbered RFID cards through gates representing certain simple mathematical functions. The goal of this “game” is to reach a specific sum. The process echoes, to some extent, the computer's own logic circuits, and draws attention to the process of human and machine performing the same function in different ways. But many of the show's highlights come from more established forms. Nobuhiro Nakanishi's Layer Drawings are not drawings at all, but photographs printed on transparencies and arranged in three-dimensions.

One room is dominated by the largest of these—a series of sunrise photos, each taken a few moments apart and hung in front of each other in a long, snaking line. Walking past the installation creates the impression of a physical movement through time. But the viewer can only ever catch glimpses of each moment, as each transparency intrudes upon its neighbor. Nakanishi also has smaller works which appear on standard slides stacked into a small tower, requiring the viewer to peer down into each one. While some hold abstract forms, others reveal clear figures— ice skaters, or rows of trees—and each gives the impression of sinking into a tiny, contained world.

Those hoping to discover the next Yayoi Kusama can turn their obsessive imaginations to a different Yayoi—Yayoi Deki, a painter who fills her canvases with images of tiny faces, often painted onto her own fingerprints, in luminous, fluorescent colors. Then there are the dizzyingly intricate works of Yoshio Yoshimura, who once drew his own face in pencil every day for a year. Those drawings are on display along with his hand-drawn reproductions, in flawless detail, of entire newspaper issues—every single page, from the headlines to the ads.

With 37 artists involved, it's naturally impossible to cover everything. But for the visitor, it also makes it easy to glaze over the two or three works that fall flat. Is Roppongi Crossing the prophetic show it hopes to be? Only time can answer that. But for its ambition and scope, it is an intersection of art worth crossing to see.

Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art (to Jan 14) Guest curators and 36 contemporary Japanese artists point toward the future of art. Mori Art Museum. Roppongi Metro Station. ¥1,300. 10am–10pm (Tue until 5pm) Tel. 03-6406-6100. www.mori.art.museum

Listings:

Chiharu Shiota: Trauma / Alltag (to Nov 24). Solo show of works from the string-obsessed artist. Kenji Taki Gallery. Shinjuku Station (JR, Metro). Admission free. Tel. 03-3378-6051. www2.odn.ne.jp/kenjitaki/
Cinematic Ginza (to Nov 25). Film memorabilia from Ginza and its theaters, along with a screening room showing new films by women directors, along with classics. House of Shiseido. Ginza Station (Metro, JR). Admission free. 11am–7pm. Tel. 03-3571-0401.
www.shiseido.co.jp/house-of-shiseido/
Ikor-Mosir, Flight over the North (to Dec 2). Ariel photography of the Japanese north country by Takeo Shimizu. Epson Imaging Gallery Epsite. Shinjuku Station (JR, Metro). Admission free. 10:30 am–6 pm. Tel. 03-3345-9881. epsite.epson.co.jp
Thomas Demand—Yellowcake & Camera (to Dec 8). Thomas Demand films cardboard and paper reconstructions of places with political importance. Confusing? Indeed. But interesting. Taka Ishii Gallery. Kayabacho Metro Station. Admission free. 11am–7am. Closed Sun and Mon. Tel. 03-3552-3363. www.takaishiigallery.com
Isamu Wakabayashi—Daisy 1993–1998 (to Dec. 16). Metal sculpture from the Japanese master of iron and sulfur. Tama Art University Museum. Hashimoto Station (Keio Line). ¥300. 10am– 6pm. Closed Tue. Tel. 042-357-1251. www.tamabi.ac.jp/museum/
Ai Kitahara—How We Divide the World (to Dec 23). Installation and sculptural works exploring the idea of borders, from the Paris-based Japanese artist. Shiseido Gallery. Ginza Metro Station. Admission free. 11am–7pm. (Sun to 6pm.) Closed Mon. Tel. 03-3572-3901. www.shiseido.co.jp/gallery/
Milkmaid by Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting (to Dec. 17) Dutch masterworks from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. National Art Center Tokyo. Nogizaka Metro Station. ¥1,500. 10am–6 pm (Fri. to 8pm, closed Tue.) Tel. 03- 6812-9900. www.nact.jp
Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (to Dec 24). More than 70 works by masters such as Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Duchamp. Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Ueno Station (JR, Metro). ¥1,500. 9am–5pm. Closed Mon. Tel. 03-3823-6921. www.tobikan.jp
The 8th Tokyo FILMeX (Nov. 17–Nov. 25). Subtitled films from around the world and Japan. An event not to be missed. National Film Center. Kyobashi Metro Station. Various prices. Various times. Tel. 03-3561-0823. www.momat.go.jp
The Nutcracker (Dec 19–Dec 25). The classic toy comes to life in time for Christmas once more. New National Theatre. Hatsudai Station (Keio Line). ¥3,150–¥10,500. Various times. Tel. 03-5352-9999. www.nntt.jac.go.jp