Publishing

「キッズ・アート・ワールドあおもり2000
終る世紀とはじまる未来」

• 青森県、青森県教育委員会
• 2000年
• カタログ

"KIDS ART WORLD AOMORI 2000"

• Aomori Museum, Aomori Board of Education
• 2000
• brochure

"KIDS ART WORLD AOMORI 2000," Museum Brochure,
Aomori Prefecture, Aomori Prefecture of Board of Education, 2000

EXHIBITION: "Multiple Request Gallery" at Hasegawa Liquor Store, Aomori city

WORKSHOP: "ORIKOMI ART"
At the workshop called Orikomi Art, children began the creative process by visiting four
Aomori City business establishments located in Shin-machi Mall and Yanagi-machi Mall.
Based on the interviews children conducted with store managers and workers there, and an
extra dose of imagination, they created relief prints. The prints were then made into
11" by 7" newspaper inserts, or "Orikomi Art," and home-delivered to 22,000 local
households in Aomori city, where most kids were from, as a part of local newspaper.
Together with the relief prints, the inserts had on them a date and time for various art
service; creative activities that would be offered by the kids to everyone who had decided
to visit the stores. The initial interviews and research done at the stores were the
inspiration for the art services, through which participants mingled and made friends

Event: Workshop "ORIKOMI ART"
Instructor: Rica Takashima
Date: August 10,11,18,19,20,2000, 10am-4pm
Location: Kousakaya meat store, Sandorion cake shop, Ishidare drug store,
Ririana noguchi clothing store, Aomori Art Museum,
Office of Aomori Art Museum and park project.
Participants: 19 children

COLLABORATIVE WORK: "WHO'S MIURA?"
The conceptual backbone for the collaborative work "Who's Miura?" was none but Ms. Miura
herself, a charismatic museum guide who worked at the Museum of Local History.
The participants first filled out "Who's Miura? Data Sheet" with Ms. Miura's favored quotes,
her dreams, and etc., before they had a slightest idea about who she was, not to mention
meeting her in person. After completing the data sheet using only imagination, participants
chose one of three Kodashi-kun (a real-size cutout board of a person, with a hole you can
peek your face through.) that depicted the mystery lady, Ms. Miura and stood behind the
board for a photo shoot. Pictures were then taken as a proof of the moment they became
Miura.
The proof of the metamorphosis was attached to each participant's "Who's Miura? Data
Sheet,"
which an official Aozora Art stamp. Armed with the official certificate of "Miurarization,"
so to speak, and a "Who's Miura?" commemorative pin, participants finally went to meet the
mysterious guide and enjoyed listening to her well-organized, information-packed and
fun-filled tour of the history and culture of Aomori prefecture.

Event: Collaborative work "WHO'S MIURA?"
Instructor: Rica Takashima
Date: August 13,14,15, 2000
Location: the Aomori Museum of Local History
Participants: 150

SYMPOSIUM: "WE ARE THE FUTURE ARTISTS!"
The participating artists, who continue challenging the contemporary art scene from their
unique perspectives, discussed their childhood and artistic backgrounds.
During a question and answer session following the discussion, children and parents in
audience raised many questions. We hoped that the audience gained more affinity with
artists and art in general through the symposium.

Event: Children's symposium: "We are the Future Artist"
Guests: Shoutokutaishi Akiyama, Rica Takashima
Host: Yoko Itakura, Shigemi Takahashi
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2000, 2 pm-3:30 pm
Location: Aomori Prefecture Hospitality and Tourism Building ASPM 2nd floor lobby

"KIDS ART WORLD AOMORI 2000" museum brochure, p72
Text by Rica Takashima

Ever since I was a child, I was surrounded by mysteries.
To a child's heart, the rules of the adult world were strange. That's what I felt.
Why did they go out of their way to add color to food, or (whiten) it, or make it shiny?
Even though it smells odd and tastes odd. Why do boys have black, and girls have red knapsacks?
Why are boys assigned seats in the front of the class? Even though we're all the same human beings? I hate drinking from plastic or (poly)vinyl cups! 'Cuz it feels like the plastic components dissolve into what I'm drinking. And so forth…
There were no adults that could give me satisfactory answers to my overflowing questions.
Even while thinking, "That's odd?", I wondered if the adults' thoughts and actions were correct or (if) my thoughts as a child were mistaken? And I kept watching (around me).
When I was in junior high, there was a man who answered my questions thus (like this).
"(Adults don't answer your questions) It's because when you become an adult, you stop thinking and/or feeling such things".
I was really shocked at that, and (suddenly) understood everything. Why couldn't any adult answer my questions? It's because no one thought or felt (anything) about them! In that instant, I think I felt that I would rather die than become an adult like that!
To me, who matured continuously embracing questions about the society adults create, I gradually came to understand that the many things that I felt when I was a child were never odd nor mistakes. I had simply had a different way of seeing or thinking (about) things, and was just suggesting them to adults. They were never "What a child says is in
the end a child's mutterings". Even what the children of today are thinking and feeling have got to be useful as a chance (opportunity) to examine what society ought to be like by casting doubts on the real (actual) society that the adults of today have created by saying
"These are other ways of looking at it, but what do you think?"
And that's where "Incorporation (Interwoven) Art", using what adults and the world (public) in general say "Ought to be so" as the standard, tests the appeal of "Isn't it OK (even) if it isn't so?"
What children want to do, what they are thinking, they understand quite well without needing
to be taught. My role is solely to transform them (what children want to do/are thinking) into a form that can be communicated (conveyed) to everyone [art], and have them give feedback. And then, so that I would not be left with that empty (futile) feeling of "No matter what I ask adults, they won't answer, and even if they knew (the answers), they are running away (evading me)" that I felt as a child, I created it believing in and praying for the adults that took on and participated in the "Incorporation (Interwoven) Art".
The communication art (style) of "Aozora Art" is not a fantasy world of "Let's all create something together and make it art" or "That really came out well". It is a "contrivance (device)"-like thing where each individual takes what they felt or what they thought and makes it into art to relay it (what they felt/thought) to others. Not solemnly, but pleasantly
and serenely.
There is nothing (in particular) that I want to say to society through Aozora Art.
However, there are a mountain of things that I would like to say to each individual adult that makes up (this) society, and have them feel.
The adult-faced child that is me still continues to question the adults. "Why do you give priority to the customs of society rather than your own feelings?" "If you weren't you, what kind of choices would you make?" "Why do you exist here (and now)?"
Why? How?…

"MY SUMMER VACATION WITH AOZORA ART"
Museum brochure, 2000
By Yoko Itakura, curator, Aomori Art Museum and Park Project Office.

I first met Rica Takashima in June, this year, when she and her art troupe,
Aozora Art, came to visit Aomori prefecture in preparation for the upcoming "Kids" show organized by our institution. My first impression of Rica, I now recall, was slightly different from what I had conjured up prior to the meeting. I had come to take note of her work, at first, from a brochure for "Multiple Request Gallery," her installation for "Museum City Fukuoka" held in 1998. In it, a mini-skirt and a white beret clad blonde girl, holding a gigantic toy pencil, jollily announces "Tell me what your cherish, I will make it into an art work for you!" She appears quite approachable and exudes an upbeat disposition. Since then, I read more about her and work by Aozora Art, as she had been chosen as one of the participating artists at "Kids" show. The more I read about her, the more I became convinced that I had a pretty good idea about what Rica would be.

Aozora Art is a street art troupe whose activities turn out mostly in downtown squares and everywhere else in a city landscape. Their activities often engage everyone who happen to be around, men and women, young and old alike, and are easily understood by people outside the close circle of artists. For instance, Aozora Art once installed a show called "Kisekae Kazoku (Order Made Family)," where participants were invited to come up with their make-believe families.
In another instance, they offered virtual wedding ceremonies called "Love Love Ceremony," where all sorts of imaginable marriages took place.
All of their installations had comic aspects to them; with the underlying theme being something like "Let's create something together! Let's do art together and have some fun!"

The real Rica Takashima, I came to find out during the three days I spent with her in June, was a little different from what her work might have evoked in my mind.
She was not an introvert in any sense of the word, but not exactly the most socially adept individual either. She appeared sensitive and a bit finicky, and at times looked uneasy while talking to the author.

In the "Kids" show, Aozora Art was set out to contribute in three areas; "exhibition," "collaborative work," and "workshop."

For exhibition, Rica presented her work from "Multiple Request Gallery," an interactive art event she had put up on several different occasions in the past, where she had produced paintings on demand from audiences. As a venue, she chose the charmingly old Hasegawa Sake Brewery. It was hard to imagine, by looking at the entrance of the liquor store, that such an intriguing space was hidden inside. Rica and the fellow artists were particularly fascinated by a vaulted ceiling immediately following the entrance, with a loft attached to it. The space was designed by a former owner of Hasegawa, who apparently had a bit of inclination for art. Its original wrapping paper was also designed by him. Although I had frequented here prior to the show, it completely escaped my notice until then that this now obsolete space could be transformed to an attractive gallery space. I was quite impressed by what fresh eyes could capture.

For collaborative work, Rica presented "Who's Miura?" The idea for the work came to her rather unexpectedly, when She went with Aozora Art to the Aomori Museum of the State History. Fumiko Miura was assigned to give us a tour to introduce her collection.
Our artists were instantly captivated by Ms. Miura for a delightful mix of her machinegun fast talk and daring omissions while she was explaining, all the while beaming with the most dazzling smile. Rica was so strongly attracted to Ms. Miura's character that she started entertaining the idea of making Ms. Miura's "Kaodashi kun" (a peek-a-boo board the artist has been using to accomplish her artistic end.), and eventually decided to device the collaborative work named after the charismatic guide. Nearing the opening of "Kids," Rica sent me a flyer for "Who's Miura?" with huge letters dancing "Supernova Miura!" Especially memorable to me was the caption there that read "So…is Miura you or me?"

Among the three installations offered by Aozora Art, I was most interested in her workshop, "Orikomi (newspaper inserts) Art." From the beginning, it seemed to me quite striking that children's paintings would be home-delivered as a part of morning papers. I would be quite delighted to find kids' art in my paper! When you read Rica's own recount of "Orikomi Art" published also in this report, it becomes apparent to you that her artistic intent was not exactly the same as what I had in my mind. This conceptual gap lingered at every event presented by Aozora Art. I was quite clueless as far as what their real artistic intents were, even after the exhibition was already well under way.
Even then, my understanding of Aozora Art remained essentially the same as before I met Rica at the Aomori Airport. I superficially appreciated why they wanted to create "Orikomi Art," "Who's Miura?" or "Multiple Request Gallery."

As the "Kids" show wrapped up and Rica and I were chatting about it, she said "I wish I could have bothered the (participating) shop owners and staffs members more." She was wondering if they wanted to be more involved with the artistic activities taking place at their stores. I realized then that my main concern, before and during the show, was how we could get through the entire process without becoming too much nuisance to the business. In our daily lives, we often fear to bother people around us, not to be independent and self-sufficient enough. Is this always a right attitude to go about our lives? Don't people love to have someone who depends on them, and can't having someone like that be a source of great joy? I was remembering everyone who helped us materialize the show.

Early in the planning phase for the show, someone at our staff meeting in the Museum made a comment; "Rica keeps saying that she would draw a picture of our cherished objects. I wondered though, if she seriously thought she could establish any sort of meaningful communication in such a fleeting encounter."
She continued, "That seems to me equivalent to how the younger generation of kids are so content about having many so-called friends' phone numbers stored in their cell phones, but in reality, they have little real relationship with any one of them. Can you honestly claim that communication has taken place here?"

This was a contentious point for me also. How does Rica define communication?

I think that Aozora Art's real undertaking is to face up with individuals.
When we walk down the street, how do we normally address to the people we see there? From the perspective of my work, for instance, they will be "community members" (I work for a municipal office). It could be "the public" or "the masses." When we use such terms, we do not see each individual. In our everyday lives, we are desensitized by these terms that greatly obscure individuality.
Aozora Art questions the state of individuality so prevailing in the modern society. When it asks such questions as "What do you think family means?" or "Why are they have to be a man and a woman to get married?" it goes beyond "community members" and "the masses" and asks the questions directly to each individual. Each of us is uniquely individual, responsible for independent thinking. And to think independently, Aozora Art claims, is the very core of creative expression, or the arts. What do family, marriage, or cherished objects mean to each individual, and who are we to define such concepts? As we contemplate ourselves, we find an opportunity to relate to others around us, and in turn reflect on ourselves again. I argue that, in such bouncing back and forth among individual, lies the very nature of communication. And Rica Takashima is deeply preoccupied with the question,
"Who am I?"