A cross-disciplinary project between Yamaguchi and Scotland 自然科学 × 現代美術 リサーチとアウトリーチによる イラナ・ハルペリン：ロックサイクル（ヤマグチ）
山口とスコットランドをつなぐ領域横断プロジェクト
Installation views at Akiyoshi-dai Museum of Natural History
美祢市立秋吉台科学博物館における展示風景
Photo credit: Michihiro Ota / 大田道洋
Installation views at Akiyoshidai International Art Village
秋吉台国際芸術村における展示風景
Photo credit: Michihiro Ota / 大田道洋
Installation views at ‘Karstar’ The Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark Center
Mine秋吉台ジオパークセンター「カルスター」における展示風景
Photo credit: Michihiro Ota / 大田道洋
Images from the opening event (artist talk by Ilana Halperin; lecture by Professor Kazuhiro Tanaka of Yamaguchi University; and field workshop by Keijiro Suzuki). 13 October 2019.
展覧会オープンに合わせ開催されたイベントでの写真（イラナ・ハルペリンによるアーティストトーク、田中和広氏 (山口大学 理事・副学長) による講演、鈴木啓二朗 (アーティスト) によるフィールド・ワークショップ）
Photo credit: Michihiro Ota / 大田道洋
*日本語続きます
Through the lens of Yamaguchi and Scotland, The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi) considers new ways of imagining our relationship to the natural world.
This project draws inspiration from the rock cycle, a geological concept that describes how rocks change from one type to another through geologic time. Each chapter within the project represents a different stage within the cycle, though a subtle artistic intervention introduces the idea of ‘life’ - or a biological stage in the process. Through the project we ask: what might shift in our understanding of and relationship with Akiyoshidai, and with geology and geological time as a whole, if we imagine ourselves both poetically and materially as part of the rock cycle? For example, can we begin to consider ourselves as part of a deep time calcium carbonate family tree - from Fusulina, to coral, to our bones and teeth?
Building on a two-week research residency in 2018 hosted by Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has developed a new cross-disciplinary project between Scotland and Japan with Scotland-based curator Naoko Mabon. The exhibition will tour to the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney in 2020/21. There, Halperin’s new body of work featuring material unique to Yamaguchi and to the geological and archaeological context of Orkney will be exhibited, in conversation with thematically resonant works by Yamaguchi-based artists Yoshihisa Nakano and Keijiro Suzuki.
* The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi) is an official event of ‘Japan Season of Culture in the UK’, and an affiliate programme of ‘UK in JAPAN 2019-20’.
JAPANESE EXHIBITION
Akiyoshi-dai Museum of Natural History
12 October - 4 November 2019
9am-5pm, closed on Monday (*open on 14 Oct and 4 Nov, closed on 15 Oct)
SISTER EXHIBITIONS
Akiyoshidai International Art Village
12 October - 20 October 2019
9am-5pm
‘Karstar’ The Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark Center
12 October - 4 November 2019
9am-5pm
CURATOR'S TOUR
Curator Naoko Mabon will tour the three exhibition venues across Akiyoshidai to explain about the project as well as the works on display. Accompanied by Motoko Soda (Yamaguchi Art Network). No booking required, all welcome. Click here for more details.
Saturday 19th October
1.00pm Akiyoshidai International Art Village
2.00pm Akiyoshi-dai Museum of Natural History
3.00pm Karstar (finishing with coffee together)
SCOTTISH EXHIBITION AND PUBLIC EVENT
2020/2021 at Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
ORGANISED BY
Akiyoshidai Academic Centre, Yamaguchi University | Research Laboratory of Professor Yoshihisa Nakano, Department of Art, Faculty of Education, Yamaguchi University
COOPERATION
Akiyoshi-dai Museum of Natural History | Akiyoshidai International Art Village | ‘Karstar’ The Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark Center | N3 ART Lab | Yamaguchi Institute of Contemporary Arts | Matsu no Yu, Kibetani Onsen, Shimane | Meizengama Pottery Studio | Ando Quarry Ltd., | Naganobori Copper Mine Cultural Exchange Centre | Nagasawa Clay Ltd., | Chijimatsu Washi Workshop | Mine Seiryo High School | be Art Shop | Michiko Fukuda, Freelance Project Manager | Takashi Murakami, Vice President, Speleological Society of Japan | Pier Arts Centre, Orkney | Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio, Dundee | Graphical House, Glasgow | Patricia Fleming, Glasgow
SUPPORTED BY
Mine City | Mine City Board of Education | British Council
FUNDED BY
Akiyoshidai Academic Centre, Yamaguchi University | Creative Scotland, Edinburgh | The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, London | Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
