JOURNALS

I have recently returned home after a fantastic week in Japan. I arrived just in time to join the private view reception for Machiko’s solo show at GalleryGallery in Kyoto. Machiko has made a drastic change this year in her way of working, media and techniques used. We have communicated about this new avenue for her, since June, and when she came to Norway in August, I was able to see and feel one sample of her new work in mirror sheeting and ink jet prints on fabric. This sample represented work in the very early stage, and I was very excited to follow the development since August and to see how this new artistic venture would work. Machiko will use the same technique as she did for her solo show in our collaboration, but with different images and in another constellation. Therefore it was extra exciting to visit Machiko’s solo show. I knew that it would be easier for me to visualise how our collaboration would work after seeing this exhibition.

Machiko Agano and her installation in GalleryGallery, Kyoto

I entered the gallery just before the opening, while it was still quiet and easy to study the work, and I was instantly thrilled and excited by the work and from that also felt extra and new enthusiasm about our forthcoming collaborative installation. For me this was extremely useful to see how they worked technically and visually and how we can use them to best advantage in our installation. I really liked the way Machiko had joined them together and how they invaded the gallery space, almost lifting its roof and pushing the walls. The scale was for me an important aspect of why it worked so well for me. The installation could give associations to a gigantic forest and the visitors who manoeuvred themselves around and inside this vivid and powerful forest seemed small and insignificant by comparison.

Machiko and I had our first partnership meeting in the Oyamazaki Sanso museum on the West side of Kyoto where Keiko Kawashima had been able to arrange for us to work inside their conservatory for a few hours in the morning, before the museum opened. The idea was that the glass environment would be a good setting for a trial installation and discussion about our forthcoming collaboration, which will be installed inside a green house. Arriving at this special and beautiful museum, I was thrown by my excitement in discovering a fantastic Japanese pond area just outside the conservatory. I just had to dedicate some time in and around this pond with my green sculptures, photographing them and seeing how they behaved in this environment. These particular sculptures really adapt to natural environment in the most exciting way. They look so at ease and at home at the same time as they are completely alien to their surroundings. I had taken the same green sculpture series into the forest nearby my house a month earlier, which gave me similar excitement and thoughts about the way they adapt and behave. In addition to work very well as a site sensitive installation on its own they also inspire me in the direction of making photographic work. I only had two sessions of 15 minutes to work out in this specific pond, and I thought I got a lot of useful photographic material from this, but I could easily have spent hours and days there. Ideally I would have really loved to be able to exhibit my work in this pond on a later occasion. We will see if that will be possible, but anyhow, it was an amazing and inspiring surprise to discover this pond and to be able to work there for a little while this time round.

Machiko and I, together with Keiko Kawashima, had two very effective hours at this museum, which enabled us to plan and test out various aspects of our collaboration. From there we went straight to the Botanical Garden in the North of Kyoto to take in the atmosphere, search for plants and trees for Machiko to use as images on her ink jet prints and to look how green houses are organised and plants displayed etc. During our conversations at the museum we started to consider the possibility of using sound inside our green house, which is a thought we continued discussing while walking through the huge green houses at the Botanical garden.

We soon thought of water as a suitable sound feature. We discussed various forms of water sounds, one being the hollow sound of dripping water, as when listening to a deep and damp well, to strengthen the sensations of scale and dampness/temperature/cultivation. On one of our working days together we dedicated the whole meeting to discussing and searching for sound. We went to a couple of temples in Kyoto, known for their many waterfalls and features. Unfortunately we didn’t have any appropriate recorder, but it was very useful just to explore the sounds, listen and imagine what would work inside our green house. We have discussed using natural water sounds or artificial sounds resembling natural sounds like birdsongs, water, wind, rain etc. We have various ideas of what effect we are after and what kind of sounds we would like. We will present these ideas, together with some sound samples we have collected ourselves, to a sound producer that we would like to collaborate with. We have discussed that it might be most practical to use a Norwegian sound producer that also could help in the actual installation of the sound at the exhibition’s first venue; Galleri F15 in Norway in April.

Machiko and I had very constructive days together and the collaboration has again moved a big step further. I feel there is so much potential in this piece so it is almost difficult to leave some room for the developing and making of my individual piece for the exhibition. However, while I am working on our collaboration, I do sketch, plan and think of my individual piece, so the process for this part of the exhibition is a parallel process, even though the production hasn’t started yet.

Now the exchange period is over for both of us, and we are moving into the stage where we will produce the work alongside continuous discussions. Even though our exchange periods have been short, I feel we have managed to come far and deep into our partnership, thoughts and plans. We both started out the partnership thinking that we wouldn’t make a physical collaboration this time, but more agree on a mutual theme, technique or medium. Anyhow, as the project and partnership has developed it feels like we now are deeper than ever into a collaborative installation, and it feels very exciting.