Coming from Okinawa, a place with a turbulent past, Berlin-based artist Sugano Matsusaki has an innate fascination with the history of her culture and its many incarnations over the years. It drives her art; propels it forward.
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Charwei Tsai’s latest series of works tells the sung stories of people living far from home in precarious living conditions and uncertain legal status. Together with her partner and filmmaker Tsering Tashi Gyalthang, they visited marginalized communities in Nepal, in the UK, and in Taiwan, recording voices of sorrow and longing, but also of hope.
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Okinawan artist Chikako Yamashiro draws from contemporary social issues, nature, and some of her homeland's deepest historical scars, in particular, the Second World War, to create work that kindles hope in the hearts of oppressed peoples around the world.
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Although much of Hiromi Tsuha’s work is strikingly different, there’s one central theme that is always present. From reconstructing her father’s house to recreating the homes of her friends on the steppes of Mongolia, these pieces of art all tell a similar tale. They are symbolic of home.
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Mao Ishikawa's latest autobiographical collection, Red Flower, gives us a candid glimpse of life as she knew it between 1975 and 1977 in Okinawa when occupation forces, the U.S military, brought not only arms and guns, but a taste of what life could be should the locals live without conforming to their cultural environment.
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For Japanese photographer Takashi Homma, darkness is special in a world that "overflows with light." In his most recent book titled The Narcissistic City, he goes back to the past, to the origins of photography, to explore and question the role of the photographer in image-making.
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“If you are too busy, you can’t see everything, and you miss a lot of things,” says textile artist Seiko Kinoshita. Much of Seiko’s work aligns with the notion that modern life is painfully fast-paced, and we ought to take all of it in more slowly.
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Photographer Kohey Kanno understands how uniquely we remember the places we’ve once visited. He knows that there’s something immensely heavy about the spots we carry with us when we finally leave them. We cannot shake them.
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Photographer Greg Girard's latest publication, Hotel Okinawa, is a pictorial study of the hidden qualities of Japan's southernmost island, focusing on the US military bases that “matter-of-factly,” the photographer says, shaped the island's social and physical landscape.
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Okinawan artist and designer Kiyoaki Shinzato looks deep into the natural environment to produce 'art-artifacts' that combine modern aesthetics and materials with the philosophical heritage of his ancestors. In this conversation, Shinzato offers insight into his work and aspirations.
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For Okinawa-based live painter and calligraphy artist Naoyuki Soyamax, the fundamental value of his art lies in its ability to express the energy and essence of the people he meets. We met with the artist on the streets of Naha to talk about his practice.
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Minoru Uehara's work explores his desire to capture the oft-overlooked beauty in the familiar of everyday life. We caught up with the photographer at our artspace to talk about his recent exhibition and popular portrayals of Okinawa in commercial photography.
Ryuichi Ishikawa is a photographer from Okinawa, Japan. In this conversation, Ishikawa talks about his recent curatorial debut at the Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum and describes how approaches to art production in Okinawa have progressed since the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese rule.
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The iconic figures of British artist Duggie Fields live in seas of color and abstract settings to articulate the artist's messages about the media and our associations with visual culture.
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Australian artist Sally Harrison depicts the natural world with vivid strokes and dots, but there hasn’t always been such colour in her life. The widely exhibited artist uses art to heal historical pain by reconnecting with her Aborigine roots.
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"I feel a connection with Shannxi through the scissors” says Hong Kong-based paper cut artist Li Yun Xiawho. In a few words, she measures the distance between Hong Kong and her native Shaanxi province in China, crossing millennia as she remembers the home of an ancient art form.
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Chinese contemporary artists have become so diverse they reflect the nation's cultural and economic change. So what of China's original contemporary art luminaries?
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To some, the groundbreaking impact of China's contemporary artists has left its traditional art to incense-filled nostalgia. One aspect of traditional art, the natural landscape, is finding a renewed significance in the 21st century.
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Art presentation is about more than just exhibiting and showcasing. Australian artist Adam Nankervis' organic approach to curatorship is helping artwork find a voice of its own.
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