JETAA North West After the Earthquake: New Media Art Showcase

After the Earthquake: Japanese Contemporary New Media Art Showcase

On August 27th JETAA NW collaborated with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool and invited the public to a presentation in the stylish cinema room, The Box.  Director of FACT, Mr Mike Stubbs, gave a presentation on the background and purpose of FACT and an introduction to Contemporary Japanese Art.  Artists showcased included Sankai Juku, Ryoichi Ikeda, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Keiko Kimoto, Meiro Koizumi and Dumb Type.  I found the work of Daito Manabe, who has used the massive telescope at Jodrell Bank as an audio-visual canvas, quite fascinating.  Here are some images taken when he was developing his work for the telescope.

During the meetings leading up to this event, I was lucky enough to be able to talk to one of the Japanese artists Mr Stubbs regularly works with.  His name is Yoshinari Nishiki (also known as Inari Wishiki) and he is interested in food and trade.  Though based in Holland, if you ordered tofu from him, he would go to your house and make it for you!  I found that pretty interesting and had hoped he would also talk at our event but it was not to be this time.  It is good to have made that connection for the future though.

Mr Stubbs also talked of a growing partnership between Kobe and Liverpool.  Sharing histories of resilience, international trading, growing interests in Bio-Tech, port expansion, and artist-led creative industries, it seems there are many opportunities for a collaboration between the two cities being explored in the lead up to the 2020 Olympics.  Indeed, JETAA NW had the pleasure of assisting FACT host a delegation from Kobe earlier in the year: a small ceremony between the Deputy Mayor of Liverpool, Mr Gary Millar, and Kobe Government Official Taisuke Matsuzaki was held at The International Business Festival in June to cement the partnership between the two cities.

Going back to the event at FACT, after the showcase, Mr Stubbs was presented with a bottle of sake to show our gratitude.

Then our guests were invited to an informal wine reception where they could talk to Mr Stubbs directly and do some networking.  Amongst our guests, we were delighted to see members from Japan Society North West, the Japanese Embassy in London, and recently-made Japanese acquaintances who had come over from Kobe and JETAA NW had worked with a week earlier.  You can read about that event here.

https://www.jetaa.org.uk/news/free-as-a-bird-by-the-keiboku-calligraphy-school/

We have had some excellent feedback regarding the running and contents of the event, and there have been calls for more showcases and presentations.  With the growing connections JETAA NW is making within both the UK and Japan, there certainly seem to be plenty of opportunities for more exciting collaborations in the future.  Do come and join us next time!

Thank you for reading this.  I hope you are well.  Best wishes,

Corrina Ellis - North West Chapter Chair