JOURNALS

This is where we are

Kira kira Edo style

I arrived in Tokyo in the morning of January 21, tired after a long and sleepless journey, but very excited to return to the city where I lived for six years and always miss.

Getting out of the airport limousine in Shibuya, I became a little confused.  New sky-high buildings disturbed my orientation, but after some searching and help from passers-by I found my hotel. It was very centrally located, and surprisingly quiet. After getting installed I immediately went out, eager to see some of my favourite places in the area. My first stop was Tokyu Hands.

Tokyu Hands is a department store over several floors where a creative person can buy everything thinkable and unthinkable needed for inspiration and artworks. We do not have anything like it in Norway. I also checked out a nearby store with four floors of textiles. Finally I had lunch at a restaurant where I used to eat when I lived in Japan. No doubt, Tokyo is the perfect place for inspiration, pleasure and business, and all at the same time!

Overwhelmed by everything, I suddenly felt very tired and headed  towards “home”, only a 10-minute walk away. I immediately fell asleep. Luckily Yuka soon called and woke me up. She had visitors from Rwanda the day I arrived and could not meet me earlier. Now she came to the hotel, her apartment being within walking distance, and finally our creative process together could start. The fact that I was going to spend these days with Yuka reassured me that the next 10 days would become a very special experience.

The first thing we did was to make an open plan. This time Yuka was in charge of the planning, - what to do when according to her schedule, and where it would be most convenient for us to work. And of course, very importantly, what to eat and where! I was very eager to eat different Japanese food, and with Yuka’s knowledge of the restaurants I had great expectations. Since I already knew Tokyo, the usual sightseeing could be omitted. Lots of new spots might have been interesting to visit, but we had to focus on work.

We chose to move directly to the point, - our common work. This started by explaining to one another the works we planned to do alone, so that we could find a connection between all the projects. We had already worked a good deal with experiments and thoughts during the time we spent together in Norway last summer. As a result, the outline of the idea and how to realize it fell into place after a few hours. This first day we spent at Yuka’s atelier in Tokyo. After reaching a decision about the common work, we ended the evening at a special Tokyo-style sushi restaurant.

The next day we went to Tama Art University, where Yuka is working as an associate professor. Yuka showed me the textile department, located in a separate building, - several rooms for weaving, printing and dying. The new library designed by Toyo Ito was impressive, and reminded me of a modern cathedral in concrete and glass with windows specially designed to invite nature in. I was very impressed with the university!

In a vacant classroom we measured up a room similar to the one in F 15 where we will show our work. Then we imagined the parts of our installation, taking notes of all  its measurements, in order to plan, buy materials and finally make it.

Later that day we ate the most delicious tempura, before enjoying a view of Tokyo by night from the bar of one of the tallest hotels in Shinjuku. The view and the atmosphere of the place made me completely forget my fear of heights and earthquakes. Tokyo covers a vast area, and to see the city in this perspective, the ground were we usually move around being so far away, merely like a pattern, with buildings on its way up, or down, gave me many thoughts related to our project where terms like gravity and ground are some key words. From my vantage point high above the streets I could not see any people, only knowing that people lived everyday lives in this image under me that was created and made over time by thousands of people.

Yuka’s starting point when creating is always the thread, while mine is a material that can be given shape. When planning the common work we used our experience from our own approach, then talked about every possibility and did not decide anything unless we both agreed. For some reason the planning and discussion went very smoothly. It seems we have a kind of understanding and preference for each other’s choices.

Our common work was created partly by talking about the ideas we approached when Yuka was in Norway, and partly by looking at samples of textiles we had worked with and the potential of expressions they had. When in Norway we talked about gravity and the many different meanings of this notion, - physical, existential, environmental and so on. We also talked about the ground, like a field or a base. The terms together point towards perspective, direction and movement, and can relate to the body, nature, life and death. The vertical and the horizontal, - actually also one condition for creating a textile.

After 10 days we had decided on the details and bought most of the materials. The last days we had to hurry to prepare the textiles I had to bring to Norway.

The next weeks we will work separately in each country and send each other photos as the work progresses. The entire installation, the final result, will appear when we meet again to mount it in the spring.

Tokyo gives me a lot of energy and inspiration. In this very urban city I feel alive, and the creative challenge seems more like pleasure than difficult work. On my way home, I once again found myself in this somewhat artificial position between earth and sky. Looking down on the ground I saw a very different view than that of Tokyo, - snowy mountains and icy seas in all directions, a beautiful landscape. The nature, magically created in time, in this perspective merely an image, a great inspiration,  but in daily life an important condition for our existence, - our common challenge.