Ikuko Hanashiro installation

I wrote a while ago about Champuru, an exhibition of contemporary Okinawan art in Vancouver that I’ve been eager to see. Yesterday afternoon, I picked up my husband from work for an evening on the town. We headed over to find it at Tinseltown, a still new, huge three-story shopping centre and movie theatre on the edge of Chinatown.

Being our first visit there we felt a bit lost as we wandered around trying to find the exhibition, even asking security and store personnel, who were all helpful but still misdirected us. As seems usual, we found it in the last place we hadn’t looked – left of the doors looking out to GM Place stadium with a small handwritten sign, should any readers be heading there. Our first impression upon walking in was of a cavernous grey concrete space with a huge wall of glass and the few installations looking quite overwhelmed.

We did enjoy studying each artist’s work aided by some interesting stories offered by the helpful and knowledgeable attendant. Ikuko Hanashiro has two installations, shown in the photo above. I was intrigued by the group of what looked like miniature boats sitting on the concrete floor made of slices of wood from a young tree with little wood cages on top. These represent an Okinawan custom to send off the spirits of the dead to China, “a better place” (or if in China, to Japan!). On the right, note the shaman stick, for the artist comes from a family of matriarchal shamans. She had denied her calling until recently and thus her work reveals an interest in prayer and Okinawan folklore ceremonies. Some of her earlier work can be viewed on her website (click on WORK and year).

Hiroya Maeda, artist & curator of the Okinawa Museum of Contemporary Art being built presently, has a beautiful spiritual feeling installation of small sculptural wall and floor pieces, with subtle textures of shiny and matte black, and with small pools of water in some of the floor pieces – all too difficult to capture in a photo unfortunately.

Ryujin Ie is a calligraphic, installation and performance artist. He “performed” calligraphic expressionist works on huge sheets of paper at the opening that are up for viewing. It is interesting how he uses the traditional scroll with contemporary imagery, sometimes using rolls of many metres long, such as in a performance on Central Park, New Your in 1988, as shown in the exhibition printouts. The image below shows his sculptural installation with scrolls that we found compelling.

Overall, the connection to their culture and history is what makes these artists’ works meaningful to us both. It’s a shame this exhibition was not presented in a more congenial space, especially with some connection to nature, which I believe is a strong aesthetic for the Okinawans. The new museum in Okinawa should be such a wonderful space.

Ryujin Ie installation

Auguste Rodin. Monument to Balzac. 1898 (cast 1954). Bronze, 9′ 3″ x 48 1/4″ x 41″ (282 x 122.5 x 104.2 cm). from MOMA.

The sculptor must learn to reproduce the surface, which means all that vibrates on the surface, soul, love, passion, life. – Rodin

Yesterday evening we went to see the exhibition Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the first time that we’ve seen a major collection of his work. I went expecting to be disappointed for some reason, but it turned out to be a very very good show, quite inspiring. There were about 70 works mostly sculptures, a few small and beautiful engravings and some photographs. Lots of interesting information posted about the artist’s life, works, writings, the lost wax process for bronze casting, a law concerning editions of his sculptures (12 only per work), and so on, all made it a great learning experience. Interestingly, Rodin himself did not believe in limited editions, sometimes having hundreds of a popular sculpture such as The Kiss made up in different sizes by his studio and the foundries. (The tacky reproductions in the gift shop don’t count!)

Of course, cameras were not allowed so I found an image online, above, of one of my many favourites – do read the interesting description of the creation of this Balzac commission. There were several examples of the numerous studies Rodin made of Balzac (famous but dead, can you imagine?) before he decided on the above one. My husband chuckled over the one with an erection only partly concealed by the writer’s hand. Rodin wanted to portray Balzac’s famed eroticism as well as his overweight figure which did not go over well, and even the robed figure above was deemed too controversial. Much of Rodin’s work, with its rough textures and expressive movement, was considered somewhat radical for his time.

The Musée Rodin, chosen by the artist himself, has a website with a wealth of information and an excellent online gallery of works in different media. And the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia has Rodin’s Sketchbook online.

If you’re in Vancouver and want to see the exhibition, it is still on until September 22nd. If you want to save money, go on a Thursday evening. This is the first time we went on a Thursday night which is by donation, paying $10 for the two of us, which normally is $30 now. (I had let my membership lapse.) Obviously Rodin is popular for it was very busy, especially with two large groups with guides, rather like an opening night where it was hard to see some work. I do prefer a quieter time to really enjoy the art with a sense of meditation, but it was still worth it.

UPDATE: Sept.11.05 You may like to also read an interesting article on Art Daily about a great sounding exhibition of drawings and sculptures by August Rodin and Joseph Beuys at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt in Germany. If I were in Frankfurt….