Another weekend has come to an end and back to work this morning. Every week going back to work gets easier as I get more and more used to it. I have a lot more power at work now, particularly as I only have about 4 months left there so I don't really care anymore what happens. Yay! It would be so funny to hop in a time machine and go back to myself about 5 months ago when I was so freaked out and say "See, it really is going to be OK."
To say weekend is probably an understatement. I actually had an extended weekend that lasted all week! Tuesday night last week went out with Michiko and some of her friends for dinner at an Okinawan restaurant near Shiki. Good food, good company, good atmosphere. Good feeling of sitting next to my beautiful friend Michiko and feeling her warmth. I dropped in at a cool bar on my way home for a drink and chatted with a bunch of tanked people who were celebrating somebody's birthday party. Then finally went home to bed.
On Wednesday I went to the arts and crafts exhibition as mentioned in previous post. Then Thursday went to a bar in Ebisu where my friend Ian was playing some nice progressive/psy beats and my friend Jaime was having a little birthday party. Then went to a little bar in Waseda and spent the night immersed in a cloud of good conversation and cheap beer. This was the coolest bar I've ever been too! Had lots of fun talking to old friends and new. Got home finally at about 7:30 am and stayed up for hours crying and writing on facebook. Felt thoroughly purged when I finally went to bed at about 10am and then had lots of fun trying to stay awake at work.
Then Friday night went to Ikebukuro to have dinner with Dwight, yay! Dwight has arrived in Japan. We spent ages trying to find somewhere promising to eat but ended up at a chain izakaya (Japanese bar/restaurant). Great to catch up and hang out with someone I have actually known for more than 5 minutes. Dwight just got back from his first two weeks in Japan which were spent in Hokkaido snowboarding and visiting the Ice festival in Sapporo.
Saturday night was earth groove. I have been looking forward to this party for quite a while. Valentine's day at work was rather saturated with chocolate so I left there feeling vaguely sick. Went home and had some dinner and then got ready to go out. I wanted to stop at a bar in Koenji on my way but ended up getting there so late I could only stay for about half an hour. Nevertheless, at least I got to hang out with some groovy people and get myself ready for the earth groove. A really nice American guy called Jeremy runs the bar on a Saturday night. He has lived in Japan for several years and speaks really good Japanese. Then got an email from Michiko that said no can do short term relationship. Sad. But OK. It was fun. Felt beautiful again.
Finally arrived in Aoyama and after walking straight past the venue and along the street for quite some distance made my way there. Earth Groove was organised by Emilie whom I have heard about but never met. She organises parties under the name Parties for Peace. The parties are meant to promote peace and this one being a fundraiser for a campaign to protect Patagonia. The music is techno/house which means it doesn't have quite the deep bass that I'm used to. It was good for hanging out and chatting to. I met lots of people and finally chatted properly to Ian and Mitsu who are a really beautiful couple. Thought about trying to flirt a bit but only ended up talking to women already in relationships! I think I just didn't have it in me. I've been a little too introspective lately. Not really the kind of mood that can sustain flirtation. The wheel keeps turning and these kinds of moods take hold of me for a while, move through me and then go. Finally left the party at about 5am and walked to the station with Ian and Mitsu. I managed to sleep on the train at every point and wake up exactly at my station - I must be getting used to this.
Sunday was quiet. Went for a swim and then Dwight came over and we carried his boxes to his new place in Itabashi ward. So exciting! His place is nice, quite roomy. He cooked me dinner and we talked about Japan, relatioships, music, parties, the arrogance of most DJs and about a thousand other things. So nice to have a good friend come to live in Japan. Monday I spent at home pretending to write my research proposal and finally actually started doing some real work on it very late at night. Went swimming on Sunday and Monday at a pool in Asaka. Now here we are! It's Tuesday again - ready for another week? Well, ready or not.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Arts and Crafts
Today I went to see the Life and Art: Arts & Crafts from Morris to Mingei exhibition at the Tokyo City Museum in Ueno. I met up with my friend Naoko. I met Naoko in Australia when I was studying homoeopathy and we became dear friends. Since I have come to Japan we seem to have trouble actually meeting up all that time but whenever we do it is wonderful. It is so nice to spend time with someone I actually know well. Naoko lives in Yokohama, which is on the opposite side of Tokyo from Saitama and hence we are pretty far away from one another.
I received tickets to the exhibition from my Japanese teacher so we got in for free, yay! The exhibition was really well put together. There was some explanation in English and more in Japanese but more than this it was the way it was put together that gave a real sense of the development of the movement itself. I have seen a couple of Arts & Crafts Movement exhibitions in Australia but never managed to grasp the philosophical meaning of their work. It just seemed pretty. This exhibition really emphasised the artists vision of nature and a kind of romantic reaction to industrialisation. In looking at the exhibition from this point of view though, I have to say that I lost a lot of my admiration for their work.
Arts & Crafts is mostly just that, arts and crafts which are functional. Furniture, tapestries, tableware, wallpapers, books, clothing, stained glass windows, vases, crockery etc. One of the first things that struck me was the obvious expense of the objects, even when they were made. They were clearly not accessible to most people and their were many photos of the expensive manners for which large interior design commissions were created. There is a profound opposition in the works to the idea of modernity. Human figures are draped in high feudal dress robes, nature is exhalted and in one particular series of works on the four seasons there was an intensely romanticised image of country peasant life. One gets the impression that in the face of the horrors of late nineteenth century industrialisation the artists could conceptualise of little else than a flight into a mythic, idyllic past. There are many references to mythology in the works, such as to the myth of St. George and the dragon. The irony is that only the winners in the industrial revolution could possibly have been able to afford these pieces.
The incredible beauty of many of the works is seen in the roundness of lines and the use of colour. The salute to nature is also infectious. There is one tapestry in the exhibition of a woodland scene filled with animals which bears a motto commanding to gaze upon nature with wonder and not to interfere. This beautiful idealism is certainly one of the admirable qualities of this body of work. I'm not sure how to describe the colours. There is a lot of use of bright colour as well as pastel greens and blues in some of the nature scenes.
An interesting feature of this exhibition was the connection made to the Mingei crafts movement in Japan which was directly influenced by Arts & Crafts. These pieces were predominantly traditional Japanese in style with a nuance of Arts & Crafts style. If they had not been presented as part of the exhibition I would never have made the connection. Nevertheless, I didn't realise that Arts & Crafts had such a wide influence. There was a section on Arts & Crafts influence in Europe too. I particularly liked some of the German pieces which included many posters. There seemed to be a slightly more Art Deco feeling to the German stuff where the English work is overwhelmingly Art Nouveau.
This analysis is based entirely on my own feelings. It may not be accurate historically.
After the exhibition we went to Koenji and had dinner at Yoyo-san's delicious vegetarian cafe Vege Shokudou (べじ食堂）. Then we had coffee at this cool coffee bar I have wanted to visit for ages. Once again my love of Koenji has been reaffirmed!
I received tickets to the exhibition from my Japanese teacher so we got in for free, yay! The exhibition was really well put together. There was some explanation in English and more in Japanese but more than this it was the way it was put together that gave a real sense of the development of the movement itself. I have seen a couple of Arts & Crafts Movement exhibitions in Australia but never managed to grasp the philosophical meaning of their work. It just seemed pretty. This exhibition really emphasised the artists vision of nature and a kind of romantic reaction to industrialisation. In looking at the exhibition from this point of view though, I have to say that I lost a lot of my admiration for their work.
Arts & Crafts is mostly just that, arts and crafts which are functional. Furniture, tapestries, tableware, wallpapers, books, clothing, stained glass windows, vases, crockery etc. One of the first things that struck me was the obvious expense of the objects, even when they were made. They were clearly not accessible to most people and their were many photos of the expensive manners for which large interior design commissions were created. There is a profound opposition in the works to the idea of modernity. Human figures are draped in high feudal dress robes, nature is exhalted and in one particular series of works on the four seasons there was an intensely romanticised image of country peasant life. One gets the impression that in the face of the horrors of late nineteenth century industrialisation the artists could conceptualise of little else than a flight into a mythic, idyllic past. There are many references to mythology in the works, such as to the myth of St. George and the dragon. The irony is that only the winners in the industrial revolution could possibly have been able to afford these pieces.
The incredible beauty of many of the works is seen in the roundness of lines and the use of colour. The salute to nature is also infectious. There is one tapestry in the exhibition of a woodland scene filled with animals which bears a motto commanding to gaze upon nature with wonder and not to interfere. This beautiful idealism is certainly one of the admirable qualities of this body of work. I'm not sure how to describe the colours. There is a lot of use of bright colour as well as pastel greens and blues in some of the nature scenes.
An interesting feature of this exhibition was the connection made to the Mingei crafts movement in Japan which was directly influenced by Arts & Crafts. These pieces were predominantly traditional Japanese in style with a nuance of Arts & Crafts style. If they had not been presented as part of the exhibition I would never have made the connection. Nevertheless, I didn't realise that Arts & Crafts had such a wide influence. There was a section on Arts & Crafts influence in Europe too. I particularly liked some of the German pieces which included many posters. There seemed to be a slightly more Art Deco feeling to the German stuff where the English work is overwhelmingly Art Nouveau.
This analysis is based entirely on my own feelings. It may not be accurate historically.
After the exhibition we went to Koenji and had dinner at Yoyo-san's delicious vegetarian cafe Vege Shokudou (べじ食堂）. Then we had coffee at this cool coffee bar I have wanted to visit for ages. Once again my love of Koenji has been reaffirmed!
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