Kinya Hanada a.k.a. Mumbleboy

popular to unpopular

mumbleboy — 2009-08-06T23:51:52+09:00

I've never been a fan of Michael Jackson really. The fact that he died recently hasn't changed that. It seems famous people's deaths don't quite affect me the same way as they did when I was younger. Kurt Cobain's death was devastating to me even though I wasn't much of a fan of Nirvana. These days, it may sound weird, but I feel sort of relieved when people die especially if they've lead a full life and die amongst loved ones. The death of Japanese rock star Kiyoshiro Imawano felt like that. He had what seemed to me like a very full life and it seemed somehow comforting to be reminded that life does end. Michael Jackson's death may not have been as comforting, but I wasn't saddened by it either. People die whether they are famous or not and you don't necessarily feel sorrow for someone just because he is famous. I've had a lot more opportunities to listen to his music lately though. I'm still not a fan of "Billie Jean" or "Bad", but his earlier song like "Rock with you" ain't too bad. What I've really noticed though is that I keep hearing James Brown in Michael Jackson. A lot of people have told me that Michael Jackson was such a sensation to them when his videos started airing on MTV. I experienced it in real time, but I wasn't too into it. However the first time I heard James Brown's "Papa's got a brand new bag", that was really shocking to me.

It's such a strange song.
It's sort of made up of repetitive phrases with JB's unique howling over it. It's kind of like a precursor to hip-hop in a sense.
"Sex Machine" is even more repetitious.

and it really reminds me of my favorite Talking Heads song "Cross eyed & Painless".

This isn't the best video, but the one I liked better couldn't be embedded. Click this link to see it. It's part of an awesome show they played in Rome in 1980. I'm actually not a big fan of the Talking Heads either. Their 80's stuff is more well defined and more clear, but I like this earlier stuff much better. This song starts out slow, but then picks up dramatically a minute and a half into it (the song is over 6 minutes long!) Aside from the vocals, it's made up of a whole bunch of different instruments playing repetitive notes, but together with the vocal, it created a very strange mix. It reminded me of this song below.

"Horizontal Hold" by This Heat

This is a song by a very obscure English band called This Heat. It is definitely not a pop song and it may sound loud and annoying at first, but it's a very experimental and for me a very exciting song. I only know it because I was a college radio DJ in college and obscure stuff like this was available for us to listen. I don't know much about the band, but its member Charles Hayward seems to have had quite a career. This song reminded me of another song.

"Wide Forehead" by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282

This might be slightly more well known than This Heat, but still probably quite obscure to most people. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (TFUL282) was a an Francisco band that existed from the late 80's to mid 90's and had quite cult following. I was lucky enough to see them live many (about 5) times as I lived in Northern California in the early 90's. They were noisy, but quirky and had a charm which is hard to describe in words. This is my favorite song by them although I don't think they consider it to be one of their "hits". This song is weird in a way as the bass is central to it whereas the bass is usually only in the background. It's mostly made up of 2 parts of repetitive parts and it's not complicated in structure, but somehow the noisiness and the weird melody combines into a thrilling song for me. TFUL282 had two albums with the Matador label, but they never quite gained wide popularity.

It's weird that first thinking about MJ's music has lead me to these other musicians. For me, I always had trouble liking music that was popular, but the music that made impressions on me I found mostly by chance. I'm not sure what I'm getting at, but I think popularity or fame ha nothing to do with the quality of music. While these songs may not have a wide appeal, there's people like me who appreciate them anyway. The same can be said for art. There's plenty of talented artists that remain quite obscure, but that doesn't mean their work has no value.

The return of Mumblehop

mumbleboy — 2009-05-06T00:25:41+09:00

Hello hello,

So, unlike most recent posts here, I am actually writing about something relating to "Mumbleboy".

They have this thing called the PDX Film Fest which happens once a year here and this year's edition which begins tomorrow, Wednsday May 6th, will have the installation "Mumblehop" .

I don't know if there are people reading this blog who has been keeping an eye on my work long enough to remember it, but "Mumblehop" was an installation commissioned by the American Museum of Moving Images (AMMI) back in 2002 which was a collaborative effort with me, Karl Ackermann, E*rock and Karl's brother Oliver Ackermann(he made the pads). It was shown at AMMI and then at a group exhibit called ALT in Pittsburgh later that year. We never documented it very well online, so if you didn't see it at those exhibits, you probably have no idea what it's like.

here's a picture of it I found online.

well, it still probably doesn't give you a good idea of what it is.

It's actually a very simple Flash piece which is projected on a big screen and you could interact with it using floor pads. Thanks to Karl's impeccable programming and awesome music by E*rock, it still feel pretty fresh even after 7 years.

If you're in or around the Portland area, please come and check it out.

The opening is 7pm tomorrow May 6th.
the PDX Fest is going on just 5 days, but the exhibit will be up for a few weeks.

BUM EQUIPMENT
The PDX Fest Video Installation Exhibition
curated by CARTUNE XPREZ
Opening Reception, May 6 at 7pm
Exhibition Hours
May 7th - 24th from 12PM - 6PM, Thursday through Monday

Artists include
TM Sisters - Miami, FL
Mumbleboy, Karl Ackerman, E*Rock - Portland, OR + New York, NY
Deelay Ceelay (Chris Lael Larson + Delaney Kelly) - Portland, OR
Luke Forsyth + K Syms - Portland, OR
Adam Keller - Portland, OR
Evan Meaney - Iowa City, IA
Shana Moulton - New York, NY
Seth Scriver - Toronto, ON
Sabine Gruffat - Madison, WI
Philippe Blanchard - Toronto, ON
Marc Couroux - Montreal, QC
Emanuele Kabu - Belluno, Italy
Adrian Freeman - Minneapolis, MN
Lief Hall - Vancouver, BC
Stephen Slappe - Portland, OR
AND MORE!

for more info check this link.

Water in 3 parts

mumbleboy — 2009-04-13T19:43:02+09:00

I thought I'd write about 3 things relating to water. None of them is even worth mentioning on its own, but I thought the way they are related might be something interesting to write about. We shall see if I manage to write anything worthwhile reading.

The other day, I walked by this business called The Rainbarrel Man Co. I thought that's an interesting idea to sell barrels for collecting rainwater, but didn't think too much more into it. Then later on, I thought about it again and thought that's a great way to make use of a natural resource and lessen the burden on municipal resource.

(Columbia Slough Trail pond)

Another day, I biked up North to Columbia Slough Trail. (I'd been riding my bike to parts of Portland I hadn't been yet) It wasn't the most scenic trail I'd been on, but it looked pretty enough. I came to a pond and decided to take a break there. The pond looked alright at first, then I noticed the air smelled a bit like sewage. There was some weed growing around the pond, but the dirt on the edge of water looked very black and lifeless. On the way back, I noticed that the pond was part of a water treatment facility. That must be where the water we use end up. I don't know the exact process of cleaning up used water, but I imagine, after going through some filtering, the water will sit in a pond like that to let toxic stuff settle to the bottom and then it will be released back into the river. I'm just speculating, but as I sat there smelling the sewage like air, I thought that this is the direct result of how we use water and it's kept away from us (unless we venture out to a place like this), but it's important to acknowledge that.

The third thing. I answered an email interview about our Etsy shop recently and one of the questions was "What is the importance of being eco conscious for you and your store?" I gave a vague answer like we try to do what's good for the environment, etc. Then I thought later on, would it have been more interesting to write something more specific? There is one thing I have been doing which is really not a big deal, but maybe qualifies as "eco conscious". Since I do a lot of painting of paper mache figures, there is always the task of cleaning the paint off of brushes. I think the normal way to go about it is to dunk the brush in water, shake it about to get the paint off and afterwards, dump the dirty water in the sink. This procedure is in effect is putting paint into the water and I didn't feel very good about doing that. So, I've developed a way over time in which I don't have to dump paint water back into the sink. First, I clean the brush with newspaper.(I will use this newspaper for paper mache) Then I soak the brush into a container of water. I don't shake the brush and I wipe the wet brush with a rag. repeat this a few times until not much paint comes off the brush, then shake the brush in the water and wipe it. This way, the water will take much longer to become dirty. I use this same container of water until it's too dirty to get the brush fully clean.(days or weeks depending on amount of use) I usually use another container of water in conjunction to use after the first container to get it fully clean. When the water is too dirty, I don't throw it out, but put the container out of the way to let the water evaporate. Usually, I use the bottom of a paper milk carton for the container and after the water has evaporated, then I could throw that out which isn't the most ecological way, but I think is a slight improvement from putting paint directly into the water. Another thing I do is the brushes I use for gesso, I saw off the ends of them to put inside a gesso container with just a bit of gesso at the bottom. This way the brushes won't dry up, so you don't need to clean them at all.

Well, I thought maybe talking about these 3 different things of human interaction with water would somehow paint a big picture, but maybe this was mostly just practical tips about cleaning brushes! Probably not interesting at all to those of you who don't work with paint, but I think these kinds of mundane things effect our environment. The smell of air at one place maybe a direct result of your action at another place.

boy in the mumble and Tree Hugging Overload

mumbleboy — 2009-03-03T00:45:36+09:00

I've started using a couple of new things online recently.

(New Mumbreeze card!)

I've joined Twitter a few weeks ago like, I think millions of people have as well. I knew about it for much longer and I didn't have any intention of joining it, but then I started checking Twitter pages of friends and after a while, I wanted to join in. I'd never been a fan of chatting online and hardly ever chatted unless if it was for work or a friend prompted me to do it. I mostly try to avoid having to chat if possible. Twitter on the other hand feels totally different from chatting. For one thing, you can post whatever you feel like any time, but it's not (unless you're responding directly to someone) directed at anyone in particular, so you're not requiring anyone to respond. Likewise, you can look at other peoples' 'tweets', but you don't need to respond to it unless you fee like it. So, looking at your Twitter page is kind of like sitting down with a dysfunctional group of friends. Everyone is tweeting whatever they feel like and some of them, you have no idea what they are talking about, but that's actually more interesting than people chatting with each other. There's nothing as bad as having to listen to a bad conversation, but if it's something written by a single person, there is no small talk involved and it is more informative. Anyway, I wouldn't write about it here unless I wanted more people to know that I am on Twitter. So far I've got a few friends and some other people I'm following, but I think I could do with a few more. There are some people who tweet every little thing they do and it's a bit too much to follow and I don't keep them in my list, but I wanted to see if I'll gain some new people to follow by writing about it here. Likewise, if you're on Twitter and want to check me out, you're welcome. I don't think I'm the most interesting Twitterer out there, but then I think I'm not the most boring either. I tend to be kind of all over the place as far as subject goes, but I think my top subjects are bicycle, environmental issues and artwork. If you're not interested in any of that, then my tweets might be super boring for you. Anyway, feel free to follow me on Twitter. Add me to your list and then delete me if you're not into it. I won't take any offense at all. If you add me, I will check your page too (unless it's private) .

(Mt. Tabor Park, Portland)

The other thing I've been doing online (for 4-5 months now I think) is the Google reader. I may have written about it a while ago, but It's a Google tool that lets you keep up with all your subscribed blogs, so you can browse through all your favorite blogs without having to go to each site. If you like to read a lot of blogs, this is a good tool to do that with. I'm sure most of you know that already though. With Twitter I could use more activity, but lately dealing with Google reader have gotten me a bit overwhelmed. I know exactly why this is too. I started following Tree Hugger recently through the reader. I really like a lot of the articles they have. The problem is that they upload so many articles everyday and even if I take ample time going through my reader updates, I can never seem to get through all of them. If I can skim through the titles and only read the most interesting ones, maybe I can get through all of them, but they all look pretty interesting to me so that I want to at least read a little bit of most of the articles. Anyway, so I'm in a strange situation of having access to a lot of interesting reading, but not having the time or the mindset to be able to go through all of them. If the number of unread articles get to be too much, I will just have to set the status to "all read" and just forget about all the information I might have missed in them. Maybe it seems strange to you that I am interested in environmental issues at all. Wouldn't it be more appropriate if I recounted some psychedelic dreams I had here? For me though, I'm interested in the environment mostly for selfish reasons. I want to live in a world that feels good basically. My idea of what that world would be like has changed as I've gotten older. I didn't care much for nature when I was younger, but as I grow older, I seem to crave the charms of nature more just as a lot of people do. When I was younger, I didn't really like doing the same things as most people and if people said flowers are pretty, I questioned that statement. I guess maybe I'm not such a rebel anymore and I have come to appreciate nature through first hand experience. Anyway, so the world that feels good to me is one where nature is thriving much more and human civilization is in harmony with it. I think though that the way we are living is destroying the environment and we're getting further and further from my dream world. Maybe it's futile, but still I like to think that we can turn things around. Sites like Tree Hugger, while not all their writers might have high aspirations for a better world, does contribute greatly in sharing news and ideas about our environment and I think the more of us that are better informed can bring change for the better. I've gotten way off track, but that's sort of why, I am stubborn to not to dismiss all the articles in the ever growing list of unread updates. Anyway, Maybe I could just get better at reading them and I won't worry about this any more.

time for a change

mumbleboy — 2009-02-18T13:45:05+09:00

You may have noticed that the name of this blog has changed. It used to be "mumblog2", but now it's "Kinya Hanada a.k.a. mumbleboy". If you didn't know already, Kinya Hanada is my name. I'd been using the name Mumbleboy since like the mid-90's and I'm not sure it still fits with what I've been doing. Also, some of the things I'd been writing here I think might not have anything to do with my artwork, but are more like some random thoughts I had. While I'm not ready to part with the name Mumbleboy altogether, I thought a little change was needed. So now, I will free to write whatever I feel like without having to think if it's relevant to do so here.

Maybe you noticed the little pictures on the top right, they are artworks which are being sold at our new Mumbreeze store at Etsy. We did have a Mumbreeze store already, but it was in Japanese and probably not something you would check out if you didn't know how to read Japanese. We didn't want to exclude our worldwide friends from our stuff, so we decided to open the new shop over at Etsy. Etsy's main thing is that you can only sell hand-made or real vintage stuff, so you don't see mass-produced low quality things there. Also, they allow you to setup your own shipping prices to wherever for each item, so that's really good for us especially because we're in 2 different places at times, but we'll still be able to do the store regardless of our location. The 3 items you see on the top right (if you're reading this at a later date, it may be different) are ones that are available from me here in Portland, so you don't have to pay the overseas shipping if you're in the US. We've just started the store and so far we haven't really told too many people about it, so we could use a few sales to get it going. You want to give a present to somebody, but don't know what to get? Maybe you'll find it there. Also FYI, the paper mache figures are made with plastic and other things (on the inside) that may not be good to throw out, so making them is a kind of a way to intercept that stuff from going into the landfill. That is not the traditional way to make paper mache, but it also helps me that I don't need to throw out things that I feel should be recycled if possible. Anyway the Etsy store is one thing we're trying out, so that we may be able to live more on making things by hand. We're not really the most entrepreneur-minded people, so it may take us a while to get it running, but any suggestions you might have about the shop is very welcome.

Thanks for reading, I hope to be updating this blog more often.

Mumbreeze Exhibit in Buenos Aires

mumbleboy — 2009-01-13T12:29:39+09:00

Happy new year!

I have been enjoying the new year in Japan going to the old capitol of Kyoto, but while we're her in Japan, we (Mumbreeze) have an exhibition in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the other side of the globe.

My friend Julian Gatto has a shop/gallery there with his friends and he has asked me like a year ago to do a show there. At the time, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to visit Buenos Aires, but while that would have been most awesome, we decided not to go because we can't really afford it. Anyway, I don't know how many readers of this blog would be able to go to Buenos Aires, but I thought to let you know of our activities just the same. In case you want to go see it, it's taking place at a shop called Canasta which is located at Delgado 1235, Colegiales. The show is up until the 31st of January.

Julian took some pictures like the one above and the one below of the opening.

He said that even though it's Summer time in Argentina and lots of people are on vacation out of town, there was a good turnout and the work was well received.

We definitely would love to go there one of these days.

"Heroes of the Forest" at HaNNa gallery, Tokyo

mumbleboy — 2008-12-03T22:21:56+09:00

Since I wrote last, I have travelled over the Pacific again to spend the year's end and the new year in my native country of Japan. In case you are in Japan, Tokyo in particular during this month and first half of January, I have a little show up at the HaNNa gallery at LaForet in Harajuku. It is really little. Maybe 5ft x 5ft, but I really wanted to do it because it's a space where I can make a sort of a diorama and the bigger the space is the more difficult to do, so this was the perfect little space to try it out. I made collage prints and covered the entire back walls, so they become the backdrop of the entire scene. I've shown collages and the paper mache figures in the same space before, but they were never quite like integral parts of a whole piece. So, it was good to try out some new things and I'm pretty happy the way it came out. Having done this, now I've got some new ideas for shows on a much bigger scale. I'm quite horrible at approaching galleries and such, but hopefully I'll have a chance to try out these ideas sometime next year.

Anyway, if you are in and around Tokyo sometime in the next month and a half, please do come and check out this little exhibit of mine.

Holiday display at Blackwagon

mumbleboy — 2008-11-17T07:12:10+09:00

This isn't a show exactly, but I made a display for Blackwagon, where I just had a show, for the holidays. It consists of a red building and a silver tree with little animals. I'm not sure if they "feel" holiday-like or not, but I tried without being too specific. It'll be up for a while (not sure till exactly when), so if you're in and around Portland during the holidays, come and check it out. Blackwagon is also a fine store for children, so it's a great place to shop for your special little ones.

www.blackwagon.com

Eat (vote) Everyday

mumbleboy — 2008-10-21T16:44:29+09:00

In the continuing theme of writing not about my artwork, I'll write about what we do everyday, eating.

I ran across this article which is a NPR link about this book called "In Defense of Food" by the author Michael Pollan who also wrote "Omnivore's Dilemma". You can also listen to the author being interviewed on NPR from a link there.

I would really recommend you check it out and read his books if you can. I won't be able to do justice to try and describe what he is saying in his books, but it's kind of like what you eat, how that food is made and transported and what is used to make that food have a direct impact on our health and environment. A lot of our food is based on just a few crops like corn, wheat and soy and they are made with chemical fertilizers which are made with oil, so we really use a lot of fossil fuel to grow our food and also to transport it. In the audio interview he suggests that we move away from this fossil fuel based system to a more solar based agriculture. To do that, it would help if the government changed its policy and tried to encourage this kind of farming which might seem far fetching for most of us who don't feel like we have any access to such government policy making, but there is something we can do everyday, every time we feed ourselves and that is to "vote" by eating. How we acquire food and what we eat can have impact. If we choose not to eat food grown and transported with fossil fuel, there will be less demand and encourage other ways of agriculture.

Of course, it's ideal to eat organic solar based food at all times, but that may be too inconvenient and expensive at times, but luckily we do this eating thing everyday several times a day, so if we are guilty of not being the idealistic eater at one meal, there is always the next time for redemption.

I think a lot of people here in Portland are very aware of these food issues, but if you haven't heard these kinds of things, I really recommend cheking out Michael Pollan's books first.

(The picture above is of the lunch set at Nagi Shokudo in Tokyo which is a Vegan diner.)

Perfect commuter bike?

mumbleboy — 2008-10-16T22:54:11+09:00

I guess I've used this blog to write about my work mostly. I have another blog in which I write in Japanese and it tends to be more like random thoughts than talking about my artwork and such. For this entry though, I will write something which has nothing to do with my artwork. I will write about bikes. I'm not sure if I have mentioned that I am fond of bicycles here, but I have been into bikes on and off for a long time. Now that I have been living in Portland over a year where cycling culture is very much alive, it's very much on again. Also with my recent addiction to Google reader and checking more blogs than ever, I've been checking out lots of blogs about bikes; blogs about making bikes, riding bikes, dressing up on bikes, commuting on bikes, etc. It seems that interest in the bicycle as transportation is getting higher and higher with the price of gasoline is becoming ridiculously expensive. With that, there is discussions about what sort of bicycle would attract people who never considered riding bikes before, but it seems to me that people who are into bikes so much that they write about them in blogs are too into it to see what might be attractive to the non-bike people. So, I thought I throw in my 2 cents.

Here I mashed up 2 bikes; Civia Hyland and Trek District. The Civia bike is a super nice city bike and is pretty much perfect for everyday riding. The drawbacks with this bike in my opinion is that its looks is a bit conservative and also it's very expensive. Trek District on the other hand is specifically targeted towards the hipster and is maybe too cool for most folks. What I like about this bike though are the wheels. The aero and colorful wheels give the bike kind of a "pop" feel to it. As an armchair bike designer, if I was going to design a commuter bike for people who until now had no interest in bicycles, I would take the Civia Hyland and add the aero wheels from Trek District. Of course the wheels being aero is totally unnecessary for this bike and doesn't make any sense performance wise, but I just thought the Civia lacked a little something and adding wheels with large areas of color makes them more aesethically appealing. The Civia Hyland also comes with disc brakes, but I would lose those as well. I'm sure they work great, but for most everyday riding, they aren't necessary. I think a lot of bike industry people who are trying to come up with the perfect bike for the masses might be thinking too much about how it rides, but I don't think that isn't so much an issue as there are plenty of bikes that ride well if people only tried them. Just as with cars what might matter more is how it looks and how much it costs.

Anyway, I have no idea whether this will be read by any bike industry people at all since I've never written about bikes on this blog before, but I will keep my eyes open for new bikes out there. If it's a problem with either Civia or Trek with that picture above, just let me know and I will take it off asap.

ANIMAL HERO RESCUE

mumbleboy — 2008-10-09T12:31:38+09:00

This is a super short notice (it started today!), but I have a show at Black Wagon in Portland. The opening is this evening from 6-9pm for those in and around Portland. The show will be up until November 12th, so you have over a month to see it still.

I titled the show "Animal Hero Rescue", but there isn't really a deep meaning behind it. It's just that these animal figures I'd been making started to look more like heroes to me. When I first started making these animals, they were just abstract animals or like spirits, but maybe it's the way I paint them with patterns of color that they start to look like the hero figures I'd been making before. I added the "Rescue" part to pay tribute to this show called "Tomica Hero Rescue Force". (be careful! the site will automatically play the theme song) Well, maybe not a proper tribute since I'd never watched the show. "Hero Rescue" just sounded kind of cool. Though when I think about it, I don't think these animals would be rescuing us humans. They would probably be rescuing the earth, so those of us who are contributing to its destruction may be the enemy of these animal heroes. That's just some after thought though and you will not see these words ("Animal Hero Recue") anywhere in the show. Black Wagon is not a gallery per-se, but a store that has really cool stuff for children. If mass manufactured toys over at Toys R Us do't do it for you, this is the store for you. So, this show may be more of a backdrop than a full-on art show. Anyway, the store is really nice and the street that it's on, Mississippi Avenue is a pretty cool little street, so if you get the chance, you should come check it out.

ANIMAL HERO RESCUE
BY MUMBLEBOY
10/9 - 11/12
opening 10/9 6-9PM
BLACK WAGON
3964 n mississippi ave
portland, or 97227
www.blackwagon.com

Decapitron 9 from Outer Space

mumbleboy — 2008-09-30T00:23:55+09:00

Shoboshobo has been making these limited edition books called "Decapitron" and they had each one done by a different artist. This is the one I made and it was the 9th one they put out, so I called it "Decapitron 9 from Outer Space". Kind of a reference to an old Sci-Fi movie called "Plan 9 from Outer Space". I don't know if anyone picked up on that though I only know the movie's title and have never seen it.

These are made with drawings on carbon (blue print?) paper with which Shoboshobo made 60 prints with and put them together into a book.

The process itself sometimes becomes a collaborator and leave some unexpected marks which are kind of cool.

It's sort of like tape hiss on reel to reel tape recording?

For those of you on the European side, you can get them from Shoboshobo's site (10 euros each I think). For US peoples, you can email me and send me $10 and I'll ship it yo you. Other artists who have done these books include: Misaki Kawai, E*rock, Matt Lock, Matt Brinkmann, etc.

shoboshobo books

Berlin / Real Deal

mumbleboy — 2008-09-03T01:01:46+09:00

I'd been meaning to update here for sometime especially since I started using the Google reader recently and found out that there are actually a few of you who subscribe to this blog. Anyway, so I'd been wondering what I should write about. A lot has happened already this summer and I should have written about them when they happened, but rather than going back and reporting on what's already happened, I thought I should write about things that are happening now.

Now may be really "now". I don't know the exact time it is in Germany right now, but I think it might be happening right about now or just a few hours from now. There is an opening in Berlin of a group art show which have these 4 collages in it.

The show "Strich und Faden - Heimat, Folk-art, Subversion & Subculture" is at the Kunstraum Richard Sorge in the Friedrichshain neighborhood from
September 3 to October 8. The adress is Friedrichshöhe, Landsberger Allee 54, 10249 Berlin. I assume there will be an opening, but not sure what time. Probably throughout the evening?

Also, the other reason why I'm writing this is that I wanted to publicly state that these prints at this gallery are definitely authorized by me. We were first talking about shipping framed prints over there, but that sort of fell through and I ended up just sending digital files of the collages, so I wasn't able to sign them. We talked about what we could do to prove its authenticity if anyone wished to buy them and this was one idea I had. Unless you fear this was written by some hacker, you can now feel assured that those prints are the direct results of my wish.

I'm not sure how many of you live anywhere near Berlin, but if you do or if you plan on going there this month, please do check out the show. I wish I could myself, but I'm a bit low on funds at the moment.

show in NY tomorrow!!!

mumbleboy — 2008-05-22T16:07:03+09:00

Just in case anybody's still checking this blog, I will be in a group show starting tomorrow May 23rd.

here's the info & press release:

"Sticky, Messy, and Sweet" - opens Friday May 23rd, 2008 from 6-8pm
hpgrp Gallery
32-36 Little West 12th Street
New York, NY 10014
212-727-2491
http://hpgrpgallery.com/contactus.html - for directions--------------------------------

hpgrp gallery New York presents “Sticky, Messy, and Sweet”
May 23rd, 2008 – June 21st, 2008

It seems these days that Japanese art is hot or new or one of the next great things. Murakami’s enormous retrospective exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is an obvious milestone but the range of group shows and smaller exhibitions in galleries through out the city in the past year or two featuring art by Japanese artists have grown exponentially. Curator and Little Cakes gallerist Hanna Fushihara Aron presents her perspective on an under recognized faction of Japanese artists.

“Sticky, Messy, and Sweet” focuses on a particularity found not only in contemporary Japanese art but also in its culture where at first glance things may look candy colored sweet but there are other layers and depths which are opposite to the stereotypically orderly and clean image that outsiders have of Japan. The country being both historically xenophobic and self-conscious has the tendency to hide the unkempt, obsessive, or perverted underbelly. As one example, many have not heard about the growing number of young homeless in Japan. As seen in a recent NHK (Japan’s PBS) documentary, teenage runaways use “Manga Kissa” or “Manga Cafes” as cheap places to sleep overnight. The tiny rooms normally used to surf the net or sit and read comics offer only a lounge chair to sleep sitting upright in. During the day these kids might wear Hello Kitty bottled perfume to hide their unwashed body odor and sport their one and only in style outfit but at night they go back into the world of shadows. Another example can be seen in Mike Mills’ documentary “Does your soul have a cold?” which follows five people living with depression in Japan, a nation where the word for depression has only started to be known widely for less than ten years. Anyone “sick” should not be seen. Anyone with a hint of the sniffles should wear a face mask to protect others from getting sick.

This is not to say that this show is about depressing subject matter. On the contrary, the show is brightly colored and swirls with emotions and spontaneity. The references made were to give an idea of “What is shown widely” and “What is not shown as widely” especially when it comes to what is representative of Japan. “Sticky, Messy, and Sweet” shows other existences and experiences contrary to the slick and commodified or cutesy beyond belief. Although some the participants have graduated from prestigious art schools both in Japan and the United States, the others are more self-taught and could be referred to as being somewhat “Otaku”, fixated on anime or manga or on any other hobby, which in and of itself labels them to be outside the masses.

Some of the artwork in this show physically represents all three adjectives in the title; some a combination of two. Ai Tsuchikawa’s obsessive drawings filled with miniature fishy shmoo characters, rainbow flares and wirls are drawn on taped together pieces of paper, her installations of found objects covered in plastic “slime” epitomizes the idea of “Sticky, Messy, and Sweet”. Yui Kugimiya’s thick and goopy oil paintings cut and sectioned by colorful strands of yarn are gross and cute at the same time. Mumbleboy and Reiko Tada use craft to get sticky and messy. Gunji Yusuke uses scotch tape to put together little plastic bubbles holding drawings as if they were idea bubbles. Chie Fukao uses what is immediately around her like her own bed sheets to make an imaginary rabbit character’s resting area. Akinori Shimodaira uses simple, translucent brush strokes to create his dreamy, blurry, paintings.

With this show, the curator hopes to give a glimpse of another side of the Japanese psyche; one that goes beyond the polite exterior. She hopes to delve deeper and explore the more untamed.

hpgrp gallery New York
32-36 Little West 12th Street, 2nd Floor
(Between 9th Avenue & Washington Street)
New York, NY 10014
212-727-2491
http://www.hpgrpgallery.com
Gallery Hours - Tue-Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 12pm-6pm

Site renewal

mumbleboy — 2008-01-29T08:32:19+09:00

Mumbleboy site is renewed. This may be the first time that I've renewed the whole site. It still needs a lot of work, so if you have any feedback, let me know.