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(at hiromiyoshii, October 10th – October 31st, 2009)

Installation Views:
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Wooden frame, glass, digital print
Dimensions Variable

When I was a teenager I wrote a silly story about a spider. I forgot the details but it took place in a town surrounded by tall walls. A boy lives there. One day he sees a spider going up the wall, and he knocks it down with a finger so to make it fall to the ground. Every morning he would see the spider and would knock it down. One morning he sees a spider’s thread twinkling in the morning light, in the sky, over the top of the wall.

There is a strange form of liberation in how spiders are.

In “A Red Leaf of Palm Tree” by Shun Medoruma, two boys go through a forest, to the cliff where they can have vista of the ocean. One of them is realizing his likely gay sexuality. Wanting the other boy,he awkwardly gives him a handjob. The other one refuses in a shock.

They see a single string of spider’s thread gently waving in the wind. The wind is carrying the thread towards the ocean, to outside.

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Cotton aloha shirt, military short pants, wooden chair, polyester
Dimensions Variable

Loosely inspired by the novel “Cocktail Party” by Tatsuhiro Oshiro, and all the raping incidents caused by Americans in Okinawa.

Aluminum
Dimensions Variable

There was a video game that I played over and over when I was a kid. When you get close to the end, you get a key called “FINAL KEY”, which can open all the locked doors in the world. I grew up in a place where there is no need for children to carry keys. For me, anything that resembles a key was exhilarating thing to carry.

One of them was the openers for SPAM cans, which comes with the cans. I would carry a bunch of them in my hand, feeling rather important to own keys. They had sharp edges and I would get scratches in my palm, because I held them too tight. Don’t do that, my mom would scold me. But I don’t remember the pain. It didn’t hurt, the stupid idea of owning keys excelled the pain.

Since I moved back to Japan, I often use pork luncheon meat for cooking. It is a quite popular ingredient in Okinawan cooking, since it was brought to the islands during the post-war occupation by theAmericans. One day, I was using the canned meat and remembered that It once hurt my hand. I tried to hold it tight but then got scared. I didn’t want to hurt myself, and now I have had so many keys in my life and they gets heavy. But still, a new key always give me a juvenile feeling I had many many years ago.

Glasses, ceramics
dimensions variable

In February 2009, for the first time, I visited a flea market that takes place regularly in an American military base in Okinawa. To my disappointment, It was just a regular flea market, whereas I hoped that I would see something there, some sort of distortion maybe. There wasn’t any. Then glasses caught my eyes. Many of the sellers had the glasses or cups at their stalls; wine glasses, beer glasses, whiskey glass, or tea cups, mug cups.. I started buying them. One of the seller told me his cups are Portuguese. A pair of wine glasses had prints “Sumo Wine Club”. There were big ORION beer glass, smaller KIRIN beer glass. Up to that point, all spent their lives in the base. I bought them all so that they can get out to that world, to the Okinawan side. One day, maybe we all can have a cocktail party with those glasses and cups. some of them, or most of them, are inappropriate for serving cocktails, but that is ok, it is Okinawa.

Acrylic wool, wooden knitting sticks
45W x 45D x 10H cm

I cut out a small part of the wool-fence and using the wool, I made a pair of gloves for the lost AWOL. It must be cold in winter where he lives. The red gloves would look nice in the snow. But I wouldn’t finish it. Because he is a lie that needs tobe left open-ended.

Acrylic, cotton string
4,500 x 2,500 cm approx. (a fence, wall to wall of the front gallery)

It would be nice if all the fences in Okinawa were all made of wool. In red, perhaps. They feel warm, although Okinawa is already a warm enough place. Kids can make secret paths more easily, they just need a pair of scissors. Lovers can meet more often in the dark.

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Moleskine notebook
21.5W x 27.5D x 2H cm

The AWOL had a red Moleskine. He would open and show the notebook to me here and there. In it was a photograph of older man in military uniform, some scribbles, snapshots, etc.

He once opened a blank page of his Moleskine and tore off a small piece of it, and wrote his name on it. Unfortunately I lost it so I don’t remember his name anymore.

There was a hand-drawn American map. He had cut out a small map of Okinawa out of some travel guide and pasted next to America, then connected the two with a rainbow. But that is a bit too American, I thought.

After a while, I decided to recreate his Moleskine.

Ceramic figures, flowers
30H x 12D x 27.5H cm

After a typhoon maybe a wife of an American soldier would take a stroll outside of the military base. Maybe she would find a pair of fallen, broken Shisas on the littered street.
She would take them home and think of using them as a nice pair of flower vases. For colorful gerberas she is growing in the garden.
She wouldn’t know the significance of those small ceramic statues, but maybe that is good. Who believes in the devils and guardians anyways. Some peoplemay just place those on their entrances because Shisas look Okinawan. Idea of making use of a broken faith, making them into functioning daily objects is much productive than a habitual belief. And I think it is beautiful thing.

Watch
8W x 8D x 3H cm

The AWOL didn’t carry much. He wore a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans that are very military looking somehow. All the american men look militaristic in Okinawa. And I didn’t appreciate it. I always wished there were guys less muscular.
He wore a watch, a japanese watch with three stars inscribed on the plate, not so manly. Three stars seem very Okinawan to me because they reminded me of Orion Beer logo. When he disappeared next day he left the watch, perhaps he just forgot to take it with him. It is with me, still ticking Okinawan time. But one day it’ll stop as well.