ARTIST INTERVIEW

An exclusive interview with contemporary artists, EDO AND YUMEKA.
Contemporary artists and craftsmen meet, and tea ceremony is born. Group exhibition "KUROism - The world of tea ceremony as seen by contemporary artists"
<May 10, 2024 (Friday) to May 19, 2024 (Sunday)>

Contemporary artists and artisans who inherit traditional Japanese culture reconstruct the tea ceremony. The exhibition "KUROism - The world of tea ceremony as seen by contemporary artists" updates traditional culture and asks us what art means to us. We spoke to EDO (EDO and YUMEKA), the curator of the exhibition.

- What first sparked your interest in the tea ceremony?

Since I was a child, I would go to a potter to make tea bowls as if I was playing with clay, so it was something I was familiar with. In the last 7 or 8 years, my interest in tea utensils has grown, and after my exhibition at YUGEN Gallery last year, I decided to carve a wooden tea scoop and have been hooked ever since. After carving about 100 of them, I finally began to see something that was unique to me. From there, I began to wonder if there was a shape of tea scoop that was different from the typical shape of a tea scoop?

2023年4月1日（土）〜4月6日（木）の期間に開催された個展「NUDAVERITAS feat.SUSIESVELT」の様子

--And that leads to one of the keywords of the exhibition: "reconstruction."

There is a utmost respect for not only the tea ceremony but also for traditional Japanese culture. That is why I feel that paying too much respect to tradition is becoming an obstacle. I also think that things that have remained over the years have been reconstructed for each era, and I feel that it is important to freely come up with things that we feel are contemporary, rather than just making traditional things as they are. It's not about being anti-traditional.

-- The members are a very talented bunch.

In particular, Isogai-san and JINGUUJI, who works under the name of art's gaze Jin, are craftsmen with an incredibly high level of skill when completing requests. This time, I was able to give shape to what I imagined as the producer, and I have confidence in their sense of style, which goes beyond that.

I had seen Asano-kun presenting works that incorporated traditional wood carving into contemporary art, and I had always wanted to work with him. Ishiguro-kun is a designer who creates one-of-a-kind clothes by dismantling old clothes, and he is truly active on the theme of reconstruction. For this exhibition, we asked him to create a haori coat as a collaborative piece that questions preconceived notions with the theme of "Dadaism."

What if we made tea utensils that had never been made before? We were convinced that it would be a fusion of contemporary artists and craftsmen, and that the chemical reaction of a once-in-a-lifetime encounter would be the best way to reconstruct tradition and create something incredibly cool.

-- Each artist works with different materials, such as wood, stone, iron, and fabric. What did you keep in mind when directing each artist?

I told them about my personal image of the color black, but I hoped they would create their own worldview with their own interpretation. However, I wanted it to be something that was heavy, like stone or iron, but was "usable." I told them that I wanted it to be a proper tool, not just a copy of tea ceremony utensils such as tea caddies or tea utensils.

KENICHI ASANO

- What kind of chemical reaction did you experience?

We always draw on paper, but this time we are also making a hanging scroll out of wood. The moon is the theme, and we are using iron, brass and copper to corrode the moon part and change the color with a burner, while YUMEKA is painting the background with ink and acrylic. The reason we decided to make a work using metal was because of an encounter with an artist who works with iron, and the reason we were motivated to carve out wood and make a tea scoop, as I mentioned earlier, was because we happened to get our hands on rare woods such as ebony and black persimmon. I am reminded once again that coincidences and chance encounters can lead to something.

EDO AND YUMEKA “茶杓”

-- That coincidence is something out of the ordinary, which leads to the theme of this article, "Art as the extraordinary."

The modern idea of looking at and displaying art and artworks on a daily basis is important, but I think it would be good to have art that lies a little further in the gap between the ordinary and the extraordinary, the kind of art that can only be reached by going down a small alley, and I have a strong desire to create that.

I don't know how it influenced me, but I'm sure it has had a strong influence on my life. When I was a child, my father took me to see the dance of Ushio Amagatsu from Sankai Juku. A person with white makeup suddenly appeared from the darkness and danced. I've recently come to feel that I create works to explore the emotions that welled up in me in the darkness at that time. I want to cherish these extraordinary experiences.

The world of tea is truly an extraordinary experience, and in a tea room, guests are entertained in a space filled with art such as hanging scrolls and tea utensils. In other words, a tea room is a gallery. What will the view be like from there? I hope that you will have gained some realization within yourself and leave feeling good.

山海塾『時のなかの時―とき』©︎Sankai Juku

Art is like a view at the end of an alley you don't usually go down. What emotions arise when you encounter it? Contemporary artist EDO's perspective gives us hints to draw art or tradition closer to us as something that is filled with our real feelings. The exhibition "KUROism - The world of tea ceremony as seen by contemporary artists" will be held from Friday, May 10th to Sunday, May 19th. For more details, please see the solo exhibition details page below.

ABOUT ARTIST

EDO and YUMEKA

Ed and Yumeka: An art unit consisting of EDO, who has been involved in live painting and jewelry design in the underground culture, and YUMEKA, a painter who creates various paintings such as oil paintings based on Japanese painting, which he learned on his own since his teens. In addition to painting, they are involved in a wide range of activities such as product production and spatial design for tea ceremony. Solo exhibitions include "SESSION" at ASPLUND/BAROOM/JMT CAFE in Tokyo, "BACKSTAGE" at Cafe CEREZA in Aichi (all in 2022), and "NUDAVERITAS" at YUGEN Gallery in Tokyo (2023).

To the artist page