Funeral for Bioengineering to Not to Die – Early Works by Arakawa Shusaku |
Reviews |
Written by Takeshi HIRATA |
Published: July 06 2010 |
Funeral for Bioengineering to Not to Die – Early Works by Arakawa Shusaku fig. 1 Arakawa Shusaku, Einstein Between Matter's Structure and Faintest Sound, 1958-59, Cement, cotton, nylon, painted cotton and polyester cloth in woodenbox, 166.0 x 107.7 x 21.0 cm The National Museum of Art, Osaka, ©Shusaku Arakawa, photo: Kazuo Fukunaga, the reprint without permission is prohibited. Shusaku Arakawa passed away on 19 May, 2010. He consistently repudiated the notion that human death is a destiny which one can’t escape, and developed and practiced his own thoughts without adhering to common sense. I awfully regret his too early passing. This exhibition entitled “Funeral for Bioengineering to Not to Die – Early Works by Arakawa Shusaku” (17 Apr 2010 – 27 Jun 2010, The National Museum of Art, Osaka), which has collected Arakawa’s early works, gave me an opportunity to think anew about the existence/absence of Arakawa, who “has decided not to die”. The “early works” included in the title of this exhibition are Arakawa’s creations which were presented in Japan. On 28 December, 1961, he left for the U.S. on his own, and thereafter based his creative activities in New York. His active period in Japan before going to the U.S. was for only about four years. This period includes his participation as one of the exhibitors in “The Nineth Yomiuri Independent” (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1957), his first solo exhibition named “Mō hitotsu-no-Hakaba” (Another Graveyard) (Muramatsu Gallery, 1960), and his second solo exhibition held at the Mudo Gallery in 1961. The exhibition this time has successfully presented Arakawa’s twenty works, commonly known as the “coffin” series, by collecting them from museums throughout Japan . These works had been exhibited in his two solo exhibitions at the Muramatsu Gallery and the Mudo Gallery. “Destiny means being mortal. All living matter, including human beings, cannot escape its destiny. Therefore, reversing destiny means pursuing the choice of not dying which can never be selected.” *2 Let us then “reverse destiny” under the assumption that this act is an “option which can never be selected”. In other words, I would like to propose that we should consider this exhibition a retrospective show of Arakawa’s early works as well as of the solo exhibition of his “latest creations”. We should not consider his works displayed in this exhibition from a “retrospective” viewpoint or as his “early works”. Based on the expression “reversing destiny”, as propounded by Arakawa, we must “reverse” our perspective of this exhibition. That is exactly why we view his early works in 2010. (In Arakawa’s words, this would mean exercising “the mechanism of meaning”.) As a result, Arakawa’s biography will be “reversed”. His “early works” will come to be deemed not his past creations which were made in his early years but his current (late-stage) works. This exhibition showed Arakawa’s early works as well as his latest creations. It can be called both his last solo exhibition and his “first solo exhibition”. We, the viewers, through this exhibition have been given an opportunity to “discover” new aspects of Shusaku Arakawa’s creations. Notes
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Last Updated on July 11 2010 |