Collected Matters guidebook
Transcript of Collected Matters guidebook
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Collected Matters:notes on Fuyuka Shindo
A Solo Show of Fuyuka Shindo
curated by Zian Chen
9&10 March, 2013
ICC, Sapporo
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Collected Matters: Notes on Fuyuka
Shindo began with a conversation with
the artist in a Yakitori dinner. It was about
the conceptual and aesthetic relationship
between artifacts and their materials, as
well as how it could reshape our idea of
boundaries in terms of artistic practices and
cultural differences.
The practice of Fuyuka Shindo consists
of serial combination of various mediums
that have originated from a long history
loaded with established technique, such as
silk fabrics, sewing, and embroidery works
on animal skins. Referencing to the local
artifacts, which suggest Hokkaido and its
neighborhood Tohoku and Sakhalin, the work
contains the cultural prestige from within, and
much as the oral tradition, these techniques
are taught by the maternal side of her family
and some regional artisans. Shindos work
bespeaks an organic sense of space and
time, interplaying between remembering and
forgetting in archiving the visual memory, be
Introduction
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On cultural diversities
If I lived in a way just like a normal citizen
did, then theres nothing suggest any kinds of
ethnic group, for there is just an assumption
that people share the same background.
But once you let your perception open
up a bit, even your ethnicity belongs to
mainstream, you may suddenly notice how
cultural diversity is rooted and shapes in
these region: Hokkaido, Sakhalin and maybe
Tohoku. I want to combine these elements
into my art and accepting the whole of these
differences as I locate my own identity to this
region.
It seems that these cultural neighborsare inuenced by each other in a way. For
example that when I see Ainu embroideries
in Hokkaido, sometimes Kimono fabrics
are used on it, and some parts of stitches
are similar to Sashikos one, too. On the
other hand, when I see Ainu embroideries
in Poronaysk in Sakhalin, their patterns
and stitches are similar to other indigenous
groups around this area.
Interview
it personal or collective.
By exhibiting these collected materials
instead of artworks, Shindo tells the linkage
from craft to art and the aesthetic root of
the cultural materiality, which serves as asubtext in narrating the historicity of the
local. Therefore her artistic research can be
seen as an archive project from recollecting
memories in danger of forgetting, a multi-
tudinous telltale by itself.
What is presented in Collected Matters,
a pun for materialand subject, cannot be a
singular story of a culture but an intertwined
narrative of alternative identities that has
been collected and recollected alone the
history of certain materials. Therefore the
boundary between art and life is blurred,
and much as an exploration in dreams full
of icking and vicissitude imageries that can
surface ones past, now and the possible
future.Zian Chen
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I learned Japanese traditional sewing from
my grandma and we often share the time
for it. Although this skill was essential for
housekeepers in the past, it is not required
nowadays. Since we start sewing together,
I nd there are lots secret skills about
sewing that are not in textbooks. From her
experiences I see her as a living witness to
the past.
I also learned traditional embroidery
from my mom, and various kinds of sewing
from local people around this region. Hand
sewing is not only like other traditional art
mediums like oil colors and brushes, but also
an implication of cultural diversity around
this region, which plays an important part to
connect my body of works and my idea. I see
same feeling about materials as well. I like
the slow-paced tempo in practicing sewing,
for it is like a small protest for fast society.
On artistic research
I learned traditional crafts from local people
in Sakhalin and Hokkaido. During eldwork
various things was told, like their childhood,
impressions of wartime, how to cook, how to
grow veggies. All would tell the integration
of personal stories (which is trivial) and
collective histories (which is consequential).
These experiences help to recognize this
region as a whole. So to master these skills
and knowledge for my art practice is not just
about learning craft, but always accompanied
the communication between people, both of
which become resources of my work. I apply
my experiences into my artwork afterwardthrough which Im able to take over the role
to conserve tradition.
On medium
The material I used for art practice, such
as Kimono fabrics, vegetation dyed cotton
threads and salmon skins, bounds up with
local histories and traditions, which are
important parts of my work.
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Plates
On imagination
While I mold artistic ideas which
encompass wide range of kinds into my
practice, for example my personal and
collective memories, tradition, region, history,
technique, diversity and nationality. They
are all imaginations at work, in which all
elements treat evenly and functioned in an
interdependent way. This process produces
reality and imagination at the same time. And
this coexistence helps to create energy.
On the past and now
The awareness can be the power enables
me to voyage back and forth between
historical time lines. Past let me know what
was the fact, by which now are constructed
in most cases.
On folktales
Folktales tell me where I am or who I am.
Folktales show me fact in the past.
Folktales make me emotional.
Folktales are always beside us even if we
dont notice them.
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6 8
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1-2silk threats with silk fabrics, 2010-12
3 silk fabrics with bamboo rulers, 2011
4Japanese knotweed with silk fabrics, 2011
5-6 salmonskinswithvegetationdyedcottonthreads,
2011-12
7-8 water color on papers, 2011
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Fuyuka Shindo
born 1975, lives and works in Sapporo
Zian Chen works as curator and writer mainlybased in Taipei. His serial writing PossibleExhibitionsexamines the boundaries of art criticismand creative writing via ctionalized subjects.