JAPAN

I was invited to participate in an artist residency named Fusion Scoge. A group project aimed to merge the western world to the eastern in a small town called Kaga City, Ishikawa Japan. Twenty artists mainly from New York were provided with a hotel famous for its Hot Springs to produce and exhibit their work in a collaborative show. 

Japan is a country where cohesion and balance is a way of life. Never have I experienced such an equilibrium between tradition and the modern world. There is no sense of difference between then, now and later.  Rather what seems significant is a deep physical and mental comprehension of function, purpose, space, and their actions are no exemption from it, only reflecting a deep sense of respect. For example, one of the fusion artists found an abandoned hotel that seemed to have never been loitered by their own people. Everything from the slippers to the furniture was untouched and the only thing that had made its intervention was the time between when it was abandoned till when the residency group intervened. The group’s expressive energy easily and unintentionally disrupted the Japanese, but because the artists were all creative and open people they were received and welcomed to their home with the same openness. This was an extremely admirable and humbling experience to be a part of. There seems to be a time, place, distinction, focus, function, cleanliness, and gracefulness about the Japanese. I hope the artists can absorb this experience and apply it to their own cultures.