Author: helenahildur

In the Garden

art, beauty, recent work

Cecilia’s adapter doesn’t work.
No cellphone, no laptop, no Internet. Just eyes and ears and presence. Pencil and paper, too.

Take the local bus to next village. There’s a temple, with a steep hillside garden behind. There’s a mountain brook, running quietly,  and a stone reservoir offering its clear cold water to visitors. Bright sunlight sieves through the deep red foliage of maple trees, reaching down into the water. Delicately indented leaves scattered on threadstones and thick green moss. In the garden, two hundred and fifty Buddha’s disciples carved out of rock; each human figure caught in movement, in meditation, in anger, in story-telling, in rest, in laughter…

I like it here.

Three stone sculptures in Choanji Temple garden, Sengokuhara;
graphite pencil on paper.

Bonus: In the Garden by Van Morrison (from the album No Guru, No Method, No Teacher 1986; this version played live in Norway 1988. Sweet intro!)

“…

No guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the Father in the garden

Listen

…”

Time Off in Hakone Gora

time-out


From Hakone Tozan railway; all photos HHW.

Day after the opening, I leave Yokohama together with my Swedish colleague Cecilia Lindborg. We’re off for Hakone – a vulcanic highland area, not far from Mount Fuji and wellknown for its beauty and its hot springs. The pitch of the railway leading up from the coast is so steep that tunnels and bridges aren’t sufficient to bring us there. The train zigzags its way up; three times the driver has to walk along the set of cars to change direction. At last we reach the terminus and find our way to the ryokan – the inn.
Our reserved room has not a number, but a name: Bright Star. A low table with two cushions to sit on; two sleeping mats with thick, warm, light blankets; a kimono, a coat and a pair of slippers each. Beyond the paper wall, a waxing moon is climbing over the valley. After dinner, the onsen bath is waiting for us – hot and sulphuric. Then, a cup of green tea, some sweets and a chat before bedtime.

World Citizens of Art at the Red Brick Warehouse

art, recent work, time-out

Despite the title of this exhibition – Contemporary Art from Sweden – it was a joint venture, displaying artworks by no less than eighteen Japanese and fourteen Swedish artists. On Monday, we gathered for the hanging at Red Brick Warehouse on the Yokohama waterfront. This is the result, or at least a fair portion of it – please note the mixture of distinctly different cultures; Expressionism, Pop Art, Modernism, Classicism…


left: Taeko Ukon, Mitsuharu Miyake and Håkan Wennström (video)
middle: Toshiko Watanabe and Kerstin Svanberg
right: Shoko Miki, Cecilia Lindborg and Hitomi Iwano

Kersti Rågfelt Strandberg and Ito Chihiro

 

left: Helena Hildur W; right: Shizuko Ono and Jan Manker

Kira Malmsten

…and then, again, this happy mixture at the opening: after the opening speech by minister Ulf Sörmark from the Swedish embassy, Swedish folk music was performed on traditional instruments by Japanese kids having learned from Youtube how to play them. And a kimono-clad lady inviting everyone to dance the polska.

Streets of Yokohama

art, recent work, time-out

Safely landed at Narita Airport, the Swedish party head for Yokohama and the Red Brick Warehouse where the EAJAS exhibition will take place. Our hosts – particularly Ms Toshiko Watanabe, Ms Shizuko Ono and Ms Akiko Kondo – have prepared everything, including a welcome reception in the tiny studio of Ms Ono’s father, the late sculptor Nobumuchi Inoue. Emancipated by the cultural openness of the Meiji restauration in the 19th century, Nobumuchi Inoue gathered and merged influences from Japan, Asia and Europe. Later, during the second world war, his heartfelt world citizenship made him a conscientious objector. Today, his studio remains a working space as his daughter honours his legacy by her own career as a painter. History is present, and so is Herstory; we all share, and co-create.

Nourished by this first encounter with our Yokohama friends, I set out next morning to take a look at the city. And this is what I’ve seen.

 

(all photos by HHW.)

Leaving Gnesta for a While

art, recent work

EAJAS – Emerging Art from Japan & Around Scandinavia – was launched in 2010 as an art biennale alternating between Södertälje (Sweden) and Yokohama (Japan). Invited to participate in the 2012 Yokohama exhibition, I leave the Green Lab and Gnesta via Stockholm one dark November morning. First stop is Helsinki, where I meet up with a group of Swedish colleagues. Next, we fly through the night to reach another morning at the shores of the Pacific.

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Green Lab at Art Lab Gnesta II

art, recent work

Today’s piece of work in the Green Lab was primer painting. After one layer of natural resin primer, another layer of white casein paint is added. Next step will be the trying out of a ‘Green Label’ assortment of eco-friendly pigments.
The results from the Green Lab project will be collected, systemized and published at a separate Art Lab Gnesta website.

Green Lab at Art Lab Gnesta I

art, recent work

The Green Lab project at Art Lab Gnesta originated from the urge to scrutinize our own artistic practises during the Green Year 2012. Grounded in experience, this minor initiative turned out to match a general want, and rapidly grew into a larger project aiming at collecting experience about eco-friendly materials in painting and sculpture – partly also developing new techniques and composites – as well as highlighting the issue among art professionals and establishing channels for open exchange of knowledge.
Here’s the tiny first beginning of Green Lab/paint – trying out pigments, primers, binders and solvents.

To be continued…

2012 meet the artist@Åmells Möbler II

art, recent work


Santa Casilda reproduction at Art Lab Gnesta;
risograph print mounted on felt, pigments, monoprint on paper
and pencil drawing on wall; photo by HHW.


2012 Meet the Artist admins at Art Lab Gnesta;
photo by Signe Johannessen

The annual Meet the Artist event is powered by the municipality of Gnesta, with some help of volunteers. The exhibition space at Art Lab Gnesta is the hub where participating artists and artisans can present themselves by one work each, and open studios all over the neighbourhood attract hundreds of visitors over the weekend.
At Åmells Möbler, I share the space with photographers Bengt Björkbom and Pekka Virolainen and therapist artist Lars Berg. People come and go all day; some stay long, some are mainly interested in sofas and dining tables, some are friends and family, some are happy to recognize well-known features, some have precise technical or hermeneutical questions… For the artist, this is also a See the Viewer event, providing feedback on multiple levels.


2012 Meet the Artist event at Åmells Möbler;
photo by Lars Berg (thank you, Lars!)


Santa Casilda reproduction; photo by HHW.

2012 meet the artist @ Åmells Möbler I

art, beauty, DADA, recent work

This is Gnesta Konstrunda 2012, a local ‘Meet the artist’-event. Just like a year ago, I’m invited to exhibit some works at Åmells Möbler – a company showroom for skilfully handcrafted furniture. I mount the recent #I triptych and place it between two cabinets… Right.

#I (work in progress) displayed at Åmells Möbler;
oil on canvas, app. 200 x 200 cms

And next, 14 prints representing the Zurbaran Santa Casilda are hung at the approximate eye-level of a young girl.

 


Santa Casilda reproduction;
risograph print on recycled paper, 42 x 29 cms each

The legend of princess Casilda, discovered when carrying bread to the imprisoned martyrs held by her father, echoes in black and white images against the backdrop of stylish furnishing. Or, from another viewpoint, the prints provide a modest background for the items on display.
Ok, this is it. Now for two days of meeting the public…