ART LIVES TORIDE Where Art Is Born

─Ayumi Tsuchiya

I work mainly in woodworking. Sometimes I use glass or other materials as well. . I am self-taught in wood, and I research the techniques necessary for what I want to make, and try to make it work.
When I first started creating, I was moving from one place to another, and I was having a hard time finding a place to create. I have rented a house halfway between my husband’s workplace and my own and commute there.

I am grateful that I can use a large space for the rent and that I have a place where I can create this kind of work, but what I am more grateful for is the understanding of the neighbors. This is a great place. Until my child was born, I used to focus on production and do housework during the rest of the day, but now my children is my main focus, and I work from 9am to 5pm, drawing drawings after they went to bed at night and before I drop them off at their kindergarten and pick them up. I feel like a businessman.

The work “Rinsho no ◯ (wa)” is a xylophone with keyboard that can be rearranged by the audience. I wanted to make a musical instrument that even someone like me, who is not very good at music, could play.
When I was in elementary school in a place called Harborland in Kobe, there was a place where a ball rolled on an iron harp and sounded “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do”. (CDEFGABC)
I remembered that I was thinking, looking at it through the glass, that the melody would change if I put it back in, and I made it after 15 years.

“Rinsho no ◯”

If something I make for fun is accepted, I often get excited and pursue it, soI try to make only what I think is good. I try not to lose sight of what I think is good. To avoid losing track of it , I make things that no one seems to be looking for in particular, or I make things just for fun.

If you ask me if I like art, I’m actually not interested at all. I hope to create a place that serves as a gateway to art for small children, families, and people who, like me, have never been exposed to art before and have no interest in it, so that they can approach it, touch it, look at it, enjoy it, and then realize, “Oh, by the way, this is art, too.

 

─Hiroko Oshio

I have been here since December. At that time, Ino Shopping Center was full of empty stores. The late Professor Yoshiaki Watanabe (then Professor of Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Inter Media Art) established a platform for students and people who had just graduated from university and had no money or community and did not know what to do. The atmosphere, I feel, has always been so much the same. It’s always been gentle, and the atelier is always filled.

I do a lot of things anyway. I paint pictures, make three-dimensional objects, and use a variety of materials. Sometimes I paint with paint, use stones to make my works, and use glass or cement to make three-dimensional objects. I work in such a wide variety of materials. I often do murals, and I am allowed to paint on the streets, inside train stations, and so on.

I chose to major in mural painting at university because frescoes and mosaics have a more definite end than oil paintings, which can be painted in endless layers if you want to. Besides, what is painting? What is the borderline between fine art and design? When I was struggling with this question, I came across a mural painting, and I felt at home with the idea that I could express myself while being conscious of the public nature of the work.
I think there are a lot of things to think about, not only in the modern age, but as long as we live, we have to continue to be involved in society, so it suited me as a way to think not simply about technology, but also about ideas and my touch.

“Hyakki Chūgyō” (Diurnal Parade of One Hundred Demons)

Ever since I was a student, what I ultimately want to do after continuing with art is to create a park. My own park. I would like to do something with large lots and such that I can’t handle on my own. I would be happy if my works could be seen by a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, or many more people in a train station, as if they were looking at a landscape, rather than just one or two people looking at my works in a museum. All I can do is to draw pictures and make things. I don’t know if this path is the right one or not, but I am doing it because I think I have made a choice that is not a mistake. I am super happy to be able to continue doing what I love, so I am happy at the moment.

 

─Aya Kurashiki

Through my work, I am exploring how we can live in the relationship between others and self, based on the premise that self and others are absolutely different and separate. Since I and others are different, we sometimes clash with each other’s arguments, and since we live our lives categorizing others by occupation, gender, race, etc., absolute harmony is not possible. We do things like how to live there with others.
The technique I mainly expand on is transfer.. Transfer is a technique similar to printmaking. There are various methods, such as medium transfer, thinner transfer, and hydraulic transfer, but they all have different characters, so I choose the one that best suits the expression I want.

I originally created images on a computer and painted from them, but I thought it would be more efficient to eliminate the process of looking at the images and painting from them. At first, I used transfers as preliminary sketches, but gradually I began to focus on transfers, because I thought that it would be better to use transfers as the main body of work and add paintings, or to use only transfers without paintings, in order to achieve the image I wanted. Transfers always have an original, and the original is often pulled from an outside source. Using something outside of the self to create overlaps with my production philosophy of establishing a relationship with others. When I transfer, I get scratches and other marks, and depending on how I do it, I get a cracked or grungy look, but I like to use transfers because the marks left by such actions are physical and I like them.

“transition”

The performance I did at the graduation works exhibitions (where visitors exchanged words with the artist inside the work) was well received, so I would like to do it again. However, it is difficult to do it during the pandemic , so I would like to resume it when the time is right. I also like to make big things, so recently I have been interested in murals.

For me, my method of dialogue takes the form of dialogue with others through my artwork to deepen my understanding of others, so I continue to create art because I want to do that. Art itself may not be a necessity for the body, but I believe that it is more necessary for the maintenance of society than for the maintenance of life.
 

─Nayu Kakeya

I create my artworks using styrofoam for modeling, flat metal works, and experiment with many other things

Originally, I was a bank clerk in Marunouchi, but at that time I wanted to create something that would physically energize people, and I thought that one way to do that was through art, so I decided to study contemporary art at the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts to become an artist.

The way I worked or the way I live now is different from when I was a bank clerk, to begin with. When I was a bank clerk , I was one person in a big organization, and now I am living on my own, presenting myself in public , which is very vivid . Now I have to make my own decisions about how much I move and control everything, so I have to make my own decisions about how I live my life. I don’t know what kind of work I will be able to produce in the future, but I will continue to work hard at it. I feel that I have no choice but to work through it, so I will do my best.

“Drifting Skin”

I enjoy using this studio because it is easy for me to discuss my work and share my problems with others. It is difficult to actively interact with the local residents as open ateliers are not readily available, but there is a gradual interaction with them, such as when they help me carry my artwork inside because it looks hard.
During the pandemic, it is difficult to relate to people, but one of my current themes is to create works that physically bring joy to everyone through new ways of relating to each other via the Internet, etc. So I hope to create works that will make people feel such a connection even in this difficult time.

My original intention was to create something physically to energize people, so no matter what kind of masterpiece or failure it turns out to be, I will always value taking on challenges.


 

─Tesshin Iino

I am the coordinator of the Ino Artist Village (hereafter IAV) starting in 2019. It’s like being a caretaker. I deal with people who want to move in and I deal with any problems in each room. I am allowed to use the 101 workshop very occasionally, but basically I work in my studio in another part of the city.
Ino Artist Village（IAV）｜ART LIVES TORIDE
IAV was originally a shopping center in this housing complex. It was a joint studio established by UR, Tokyo University of the Arts, and Toride City around the end of 2007 as a project by the late Yoshiaki Watanabe, a professor at Geidai, where stores had dwindled and the street had become like a shuttered street.

I think being close to the lives of the people in the apartment complexes is something that other studios do not have. When I see that, I sometimes feel that art is closer to me than I thought.
I graduated from the sculpture department and often create three-dimensional works. What I have always based my production on is what a boy thinks is “cool” or “interesting. It looks beautiful to me, and I don’t agree that it is treated as something poor. I am trying to create works in pursuit of how to convey that. There are things I want to make, so I will make more.

I want to have a Bon festival dance here. I think it would be nice to have a big festival, or event, or Bon festival dance, where everyone dances together in a huge Yagura tower , decorated with sculptures.
I also want to have an Independants exhibition for people in apartment complexes. I was thinking that it would be great if there were a lot of umbrellas made out of cigarette boxes.
I talked to one of the people, drinking with at last year’s Open Studio, and he said, “I’m making artwork, too.” With so many people living in a housing complex, there must be some people who make things as a hobby, so I would like to gather them together and hold an exhibition of Housing Complex Independants.

“Okuribi (ceremonial bonfire) Spirit Horse Mover”

“Judo Painting​”