As children in inner tubes bob on the calm waters of this small ocean cove, a 250-kilogram dolphin zips through the crowd in pursuit of raw squid tossed out by a trainer.
Niru, a Risso’s dolphin caught locally, seems unbothered by all the people and the squeals of surprise and delight. The cove is packed - it’s a bright summer Sunday and hundreds of families have come.
But in two weeks, the waters of the cove will turn blood red, as it becomes a holding pen for annual hunts that capture and kill hundreds of dolphins each year.
The ancient village of Taiji, portrayed in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” has a long and complex relationship with the dolphin. The dolphins caught in the region are not endangered. In 2008, the prefecture caught 1,857 dolphins, far less than other parts of Japan, which allows about 20,000 to be killed each year. Taiji fishermen use a method called “oikomi” to hunt dolphins, banging on metal poles in their boats to create a wall of sound and herd them to shore, where they are harpooned for meat or captured alive as show animals. (AP)

The Japanese are feeling the impact of China’s emergence as an economic superpower in many different ways. As their relative spending power declines, so that of their neighbour’s rises and the relationship between the two countries changes.
Japanese businesses, for example, are switching from buyer to seller, with shoppers increasingly likely to be served by Chinese workers brought in to help deal with increasing numbers of cash-rich tourists from the middle kingdom.
Chinese visitors to Japan have jumped 80% over the last year, following a relaxation on visa requirements, providing a much wanted boost in business at Japan’s department stores and luxury outlets, where sales to domestic customers have long stagnated. (guardian.co.uk)

Yume Akasaka Exhibition

at INAX Gallery 1 & 2

Media: Installation - Art Party

(2010-08-19 - 2010-08-28)
Opening Reception on 2010-08-19 from 18:00 to 19:00

Yume Akasaka has won much acclaim for a body of work that deals with the border between dream and reality, always returning to the theme of memory and our relationship to things. This exhibition showcases new works that consist of a series of hanging mosquito nets that impress themselves on the viewer like a midsummer daydream, conjuring up childhood memories of playing by the river and catching insects.

[Image: Yume Akasaka, "Stories" (2009) video installation, mixed media]

"Abflug 2010 - Toshiya Motai Seminar Student Exhibition"

at Makii Masaru Fine Art

Media: Painting - Installation - Art Party

(2010-03-05 - 2010-03-16)
Reception For The Artist on 2010-03-12 from 17:00 to 20:00
Gallery talk by art critic Akihiko Takami

“Abflug” means takeoff in German. This exhibition features work by 4 students of the Motai seminar at Tokyo Zokei University who are graduating and “taking off” this spring, including an installation of meta-paintings by Orie Takikawa, narrative paintings depicting the relationship between the self and other by Sae Tanaka, a fragile installation by Kazuyo Tsukamoto, and a “morphologia” project by Asami Hagiwara.

[Image: Sae Tanaka, "For You, Singing Somewhere" (2009-10), oil on canvas, 194x162cm]

"Color and Form seen by Architects" Exhibition

at Turner Gallery

Media: Architecture - Art Party - Art Talk

(2010-03-01 - 2010-03-11)
Opening Reception on 2010-03-06 from 19:00

Color has long been maligned in the world of contemporary architecture. This exhibition features cardboard models and sculptures in key colors by 5 architects that express their individual takes on the relationship between architecture and color. This is the first event being organized by the group Sha-ken, which aims to build links between architecture and society.

Artist talk: March 6th (Sat) 17:00-18:30

Yoshinari Nishio "Overall Project in Nairobi"

at A.I.T. Room

Media: Installation - Art Party - Art Talk

(2010-02-26 - 2010-03-05)
Opening Reception on 2010-02-26 from 19:00

AIT is holding an exhibition by artist Yoshinari Nishio (born 1982 in Nara) entitled “Overall Project in Nairobi” from February 26th through March 5th.

Nishio has been creating work about the relationship between communication and the act of clothing or adorning oneself. This exhibition showcases records of his past projects, such as “Self Select in Nairobi” and “Overall Project in Nairobi”.

Nishio will also give a talk at the opening reception on February 26th about an alternative view of Africa.

Even though there were numerous high-profile murder cases in 2009, including the death of a 19-year-old university student from Shimane Prefecture, the number of murders and attempted murders reported by police hit a postwar low of 1,097.
The figure is 200 cases fewer than in 2008, and about only one-third of the record high set in 1954. Why? Statistics on the relationship between perpetrators and victims gives a hint as to why this has occurred. When comparing 2009 data to data from 1985, the first year such statistics were kept, “work acquaintances” decreased to 61 from 104, and “friends and other acquaintances” was down to 254 from 317. (Yomiuri)
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President Obama will arrive in Tokyo on Friday, at a time when America’s relations with Japan are at their most contentious since the trade wars of the 1990s - and back then, the fights were over luxury cars and semiconductors, not over whether the two countries should re-examine their half-century-old strategic relationship. Meanwhile, Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has called for a more equal relationship with the United States, and his government wants a review of the status of forces agreement, which protects American troops from Japanese legal prosecution. (New York Times)
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Akira Rachi "Frames"

at Taro Nasu

Media: Photography - Installation - Art Party

(2009-10-30 - 2009-11-21)
Opening Reception on 2009-10-30 from 18:00 to 20:00

The focus of Rachi’s work is not so much the photographs themselves or the subjects he captures, but rather the structure of the exhibition space that accompanies the work. He is acutely concerned with the process of art appreciation that unravels within these sorts of spaces.

For this exhibition, Rachi has created an exhibition space measuring about 1 meter in all directions extending from the floor and white walls of this white-cube gallery. On display in this “device”, which looks as if it was cut straight out from a corner of some room, are a number of works whose subjects are the photographs that were previously exhibited on the walls, as well as the space in between those photos.

Rachi’s “Between” series homes in on the “floor” of the gallery, where the typical viewer’s gaze seldom strays. In addition, the “Frames” series that is being shown again here looks at the structure of the relationship between the work and its “frame”.

These “walls” and “frames” expose invisible structures that are typically hidden from view, and represent Rachi’s attempt to redefine the viewer’s spatial awareness.

On display are 10 photographs set within a 3D installation.