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A R T F U L wednesdays
I have always loved the work of Hirokazu Fukawa, ever since I was introduced to it when he was my sculpture professor at Hartford Art School. His installations combine an autobiographical motivation (a Japanese man born after WWII, a father of two Autistic children,) intellectual research and skilled craftsmanship that are not only beautiful to look at but also engaging visual poetry that you think about long after you have left the gallery. Recently Hiro sent me a link to his new website. You can view documentation of his installations through the gallery link. Or you can play around with sort of creepy flash animations of skeletons and skulls that take you through a various games, quotes and images about the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings during WWII. Every once in a while you have a choice of three identical skulls to click on. It is almost frustrating when you forget which one you have already been to, but quite rewarding when you find something new.
Oh yeah…and the second show I mentioned last week…at the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside: Supervision includes work by Nicoline van Harskamp & Jill Magid. What stood out the most for me was van Harskamp’s three channel video installation “To live outside the law you must be honest” combining interviews with 30 residents of Freetown Christiania just outside of Copenhagen. According to the museum’s wall text, it was originally a social experiment set up by the Danish government in 1971 on a former military base to see if people could survive in a self governing society and it is still functioning. Very fascinating.
