collected matters guidebook

7/29/2019 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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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.

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