Draft:Motoyuki Shitamichi

Shitamichi Motoyuki (b. 1978, Japan) was born in Okayama in 1978. He is an artist who assembles and categorizes his observations and collections. He gathers fragments from different times, illuminating them in the present to connect past stories with the current moment. His work manifests in photographs, films, maps, objects, and texts. Using an archaeologist's approach, Shitamichi explores the layers of time, focusing on traces of the past that remain in the present. He captures landscapes altered by natural disasters or urban development, collects signs of artificially partitioned boundaries, and uncovers everyday objects and stories behind mundane events. Shitamichi aims to understand individuals, society, and the world by revealing significant signs within everyday life, inviting us to rediscover new values and perspectives. His interest in physical and psychological boundaries sensed in daily life continues to this day. His research has expanded to a broader geography, using photography to capture the imagination inherent in ordinary people and places.

Career

He is a contemporary artist, curator, and researcher. Shitamichi graduated from Musashino University in 2001 with a BFA in painting and pursued postgraduate studies at the Tokyo College of Photography until 2003. Since 2005, he has been actively publishing photo books and served as a visiting researcher at the National Museum of Ethnology from 2016 to 2019. In 2012, a year after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the artist relocated from Tokyo to the Aichi region. In 2019, Shitamichi represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with his work "Tsunami Boulder" and exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale in 2012 and 2018. He received the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award in 2019 and the 21st Okayama Arts and Culture Award Grand Prize in 2020. Since 2019, Shitamichi has been based in Honmura village on Naoshima, an art island in the Seto Inland Sea, where he initiated the Setouchi Archive at Miyanoura Gallery 6, with the quotes filled to match each new project's theme. He has exhibited extensively in Japan and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Kunsthal Aarhus (2022), Ohara Museum of Art (2019), and Kurobe City Art Museum (2016). His works are part of several prestigious collections, including the Kadist Art Foundation in California, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the National Museum of Art in Osaka, Takamatsu Art Museum in Kagawa, Ishikawa Foundation in Okayama, and the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.

Works

Remnants (2001–2005)

In his series "Remnants", Shitamichi Motoyuki traveled across Japan to document the scant remnants of war, capturing how these scorched landscapes have been forgotten and covered by layers of reconstruction, urbanization, and modernization. His photographs reveal crude concrete hangars and batteries in today's flat and uniform landscapes, offering a chance to ponder the ancient relationship between humans and nature.

He then extended his exploration to Saipan, Tinian, Taiwan, Sakhalin, and Korea, photographing Japanese shrine gates that remain from Japan's colonial period. These images depict torii in various states, from those stranded in dense tropical forests to those repurposed as park benches, highlighting how these relics are perceived and transformed by contemporary society.

"Torii" series (2006–2012)

From 2006 to 2012, Shitamichi Motoyuki embarked on a project to locate and photograph forgotten torii gates from the Japanese colonial era, a project that garnered significant attention at the 2012 Gwangju Biennale. These traditional Japanese gates, originally built at Shinto shrines in territories once under Japanese rule, are depicted in various states in his photographs: some lie abandoned in dense tropical forests, while others have been repurposed, such as one transformed into a park bench. Shitamichi examines how these symbolic and historical relics—now destroyed, forgotten, or abandoned—are perceived and transformed by contemporary society. Shitamichi's images do not serve as direct evidence of the past but rather encapsulate the current state of these relics after many years. His photographs illustrate how traces of past events continuously evolve or vanish, reflecting the transient nature of memory. During Japan's occupation of Asian territories, numerous shrines were constructed, often forcing the adoption of Japanese language, ideology, and lifestyle. After World War II, many torii gates, seen as symbols of Japanese oppression, were destroyed, yet some survived due to their durable concrete construction. Shitamichi tracked down these remaining torii in various locations: a graveyard in Saipan, a verdant hillside in Taipei, the vegetation of Tinian Island, the hills of Sakhalin, Russia, and a street in Changchun, China. In Taichung, Taiwan, a torii was knocked down and repurposed as a park bench. In his photographic series "Torii" (2006-2012; 2017-Present), Shitamichi explores the instability of national borders by documenting torii gates placed throughout the Pacific by the Japanese Empire in the early 20th century. He has spent years tracing these remains in the Northern Mariana Islands, Taiwan, Saipan, Sakhalin, South Korea, and Northeastern China. Haunting yet beautiful, his photographs capture the echoes of the past still present in these torii. Overgrown, disguised, and abandoned, many of these structures have acquired new meanings that challenge their original purpose as monuments of imperial expansion. Shitamichi's archaeological approach in the gallery space is dialogic and open to interpretation, highlighting the fragility of fixed values like national borders, canonized narratives, and the division between art and viewer.

"Connection" and "Bridge" (2011–present)

In his ongoing projects "Connection" and "Bridge", Shitamichi Motoyuki photographs makeshift bridges that people construct using boards and other materials to cover street gaps. He incorporates these actual items, borrowed from residents, into his installations and typically returns them after the exhibition, though they are often gifted to him. Through this approach, Shitamichi invites both himself and his audience to reflect on the nature of creation and the essence of what we call "art." These seemingly trivial actions are essential parts of our daily lives.

14 Years Old & The World & Borders (2013-Present)

Since 2013, Shitamichi has been conducting a workshop-based project titled "14 Years Old & The World & Borders," engaging with 14-year-olds in various countries worldwide. For this project, he interviewed teenagers in Asia and France, asking them about "the boundaries around you." Their responses were published in local newspapers and compiled into a book, which is presented in the exhibition alongside major press headlines.

One notable display contrasts a newspaper article showing the South Korean leader meeting the pope with a Japanese teenager's submission: "One day, the black ships of Commodore Perry will come and demand that I open up. When they come, things will become busy. That's why I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of isolation for now." A note mentions that the farthest place this student has traveled is Osaka.

Okinawan Glass (2014-Present)

Okinawan Glass explores the history of Ryukyuan glassware, which began with local craftsmen repurposing glass bottles found on beaches during the US military occupation of Okinawa (1945–1972) and selling them as souvenirs to Americans. Shitamichi revisits this now "traditional" craft through his project, showcasing three cycles of annual glassworks, each set comprising unique glass compounds.

This project is part of Shitamichi's Floating Monuments series. It started when he discovered glass bottles on Okinawan beaches while working on Tsunami Boulder. These bottles, which had drifted ashore from other countries, were washed, crushed, melted, and transformed into Ryukyu glass. This craft emerged during the U.S. occupation, utilizing discarded soda and beer bottles from American soldiers. Shitamichi's transparent green glass pieces, shaped into vases and bottles, are displayed on a map depicting Okinawa, Taiwan, and China.

Tsunami Boulder (2015-Present)

In 2015, Shitamichi began the "Tsunami Boulder" series, which captures the movement and transformation of giant, windswept stones that seem immobile on a human timescale but change on a global scale. This ongoing project, centered on Okinawa, highlights the abrupt changes in scenery caused by natural disasters. Deeply affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Shitamichi documents massive boulders carried by ancient tsunamis from the sea to the Okinawan Island chains of Yaeyama and Miyako.

By presenting these impressive rocks in black-and-white films shot from fixed points, Shitamichi turns moving images of stationary objects into still images. The occasional appearance of birds and people in the frames emphasizes the insignificance and fleeting nature of human existence compared to the geological forces that shaped these stones. "Tsunami Boulder" reflects on the fragile ecology of human and non-human life in regions with fluctuating national boundaries.

References

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