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Focus features two in-depth reviews each month of fine art, architecture and design exhibitions and events at art museums, galleries and alternative spaces around Japan. The contributors are non-Japanese art critics living in Japan. |
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Peter MacMillan: Mount Fuji Metamorphoses
Lucy Birmingham |
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Above: Seisai (aka Peter MacMillan), The Sun, the Moon, and Fuji, 2012, Sony Building Art Wall Project, Ginza, Tokyo. Photo © Lucy Birmingham
Below: Artist Seisai (aka Peter MacMillan) standing next to his work "Apron Fuji" at the exhibition Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji. Photo © Lucy Birmingham |
"I've always been mystified by how I have an interest in creating visual images and how I also have the urge to write poetry, which seem like very different tasks," reveals Peter MacMillan. "But when I was [recently] watching a piano performance by Gen Tomura, up close, I noticed that not only were his hands going in completely different directions, they were making completely different sounds, but together, in harmony. I felt that was two aspects of myself."
The Irish artist, poet, translator, professor of literature, and scholar has been in Japan over 20 years helping to promote the country's rich cultural heritage abroad. His translations of classic Japanese poetry and prose have won him international accolades and numerous awards. An unabashed workaholic with a penchant for quick naps, MacMillan admits that many of his creative visions form during dreaming. "When I translate poetry, I always try to depict it in a visual way so the image can be seen . . . that it's something which comes to mind," he explains. "The prints I created are deeply influenced by my study of Japanese culture and literature. So they're very informed by letters."
MacMillan's ongoing print exhibition, Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji, is a refined, tongue-in-cheek tribute to Hokusai's famous Mt. Fuji ukiyo-e woodcuts from the Edo period, augmented by his modern-day message. The series is showing until January 27 in the Ginza-district Sony Building's first floor gallery space, in conjunction with his long vertical hanging The Sun, The Moon and Fuji, which adorns the building's outdoor Art Wall. "The Sony Art Wall in particular is informed not just by letters but by literature and culture," he explains.
Mt. Fuji is a popular theme at New Years, symbolizing strength and courage. MacMillan says he created The Sun, The Moon and Fuji with this theme to inspire hope in the aftermath of the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The work is part of Sony's annual charity event Fountain of Love, proceeds from which will be donated to the RESTART JAPAN fund. The fund was co-founded by Sony and Save the Children Japan to support victims of the quake and tsunami. Sponsors for the Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji exhibition include Unilever Japan. "Ray Bremner of Unilever discovered me, and has always been so encouraging and supportive," says MacMillan. "He's a sponsor made in heaven."
MacMillan's path to artist was built in part by his father, an art dealer in London. He took up the trade for a few years while mulling the idea of taking over his father's business. A drawing he discovered by a renowned artist that sold well at auction helped launch his career as a dealer in Tokyo. But he quickly realized he had much to learn when he unknowingly purchased a fake print. "I decided that to be a better dealer I really should learn what printmaking is and be able to distinguish the difference between a silkscreen, a lithograph, an etching, and a woodblock print."
He decided to go to school to learn printmaking techniques. "I can now tell a type of print from 20 meters away," he says. MacMillan went to night school at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. In London he attended an intensive summer school art program for four summers. "That's when I started making prints, including four versions of a large silkscreen of Princess Diana that's 100 x 100 centimeters."
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From left to right, top to bottom: Highway Fuji, Plastic Fuji, Mandala Fuji, Flag Fuji, Coke Fuji, Cup Noodle Fuji, Tuna Fuji, Apron Fuji. Seisai (aka Peter MacMillan), mixed media, 2012. All images © Peter MacMillan |
His printmaking interests verged toward Mt. Fuji when he began writing a book titled A Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. As yet unpublished, it contains his translated versions of 100+ references to the iconic mountain that appear in Japanese literature. Spanning the 6th to 20th centuries, the work includes poetry from the Manyoshu, Tales of Ise, and Shinpei Kusano; haiku by Basho; tanka by Machi Tawara; portions of The Tale of Genji, and Osamu Dazai's One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.
Through the process he says he came to realize the large gap between Japan's traditional culture and its modern-day consumerism. "I decided to pick that theme in the Mt. Fuji series," he explains. He uses as his nom d'artiste Seisai, meaning "studio in the west," a play on Hokusai's name, which means "studio in the north." The prints are based on the style and motifs of traditional Japanese painting. Many of the works are mixed media, using lithography, offset printing, hand-painting and gold leaf. And while many of the 16 images are delicately layered with subtle irony and humor, a heavy message rumbles within.
"Coke Fuji" probably best translates the artist's message for foreign viewers. Based on the famous painting "Cranes Flying by Mount Fuji" by Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-99), MacMillan's mountain-shaped Coke can rises through the mist, symbolizing Japan's new fast-food culture. It's tempting to compare the work with Andy Warhol's Coca-Cola paintings and prints. Like Warhol, MacMillan takes a jab at consumerism with a decidedly cultural bent. But will "Coke Fuji" become a symbol of overpriced art consumerism, like the uber-pop artist's version? (One of Warhol's Coca-Cola paintings sold for US$35 million in 2010.) MacMillan would surely smile at the thought.
The work's timeliness is uncanny. In June this year, after many rejected nominations, UNESCO will decide if Mt. Fuji is to become a World Heritage Site. As one of Japan's most important cultural symbols and sacred sites, the mountain is a natural choice. And yet a reason cited for its unsuccessful previous bids is the tons of refuse (Coke cans included) discarded by the 200,000 tourists and climbers that venture up its paths every July and August, when the peak is open to the public. Hopefully, World Heritage Site designation would include a caveat requiring that the mystical mountain be trash-free.
In a similar work titled "Tuna Fuji," MacMillan has used the profile of a tuna. "It's hinting at overfishing and the depletion of natural resources," he explains. For "Apron Fuji," MacMillan refigured a famous painting of Mt. Fuji by Taikan Yokoyama (1868-1958) that depicts the mountain against a gold background, the black and white peak appearing above the clouds. "I took that same exact motif and in place of a black and white Mt. Fuji, I put a maid's apron to represent the maid cafes and cosplay culture in Japan."
For the Sony Art Wall, MacMillan has tried something different. "These days I've become more interested in creating new ways to present Japanese traditional culture in a more contemporary form," he says. "It's celebrating the Japanese sense of design." The work contains five vertically arranged circles that are based on the traditional design of sun and moon on a bowl by the artist Rosanjin Kitaoji (1883-1959). One moon shows a small rabbit, referencing MacMillan's signature "Peter Rabbit" motif and the Japanese legend of the rabbit in the moon. Another shows a pine sapling design based on a photograph of an actual sapling from the famous single pine tree that survived the tsunami in Rikuzentakata. On the central circle is a noshi -- a bow tied with red and white strings -- that marks the New Year celebration. The pattern of a white snake decorates the center, a symbol of purity and of 2013, the Year of the Snake. The circle at the base contains a red Mt. Fuji topped with a white peak in traditional celebratory colors.
Creating the The Sun, The Moon and Fuji has been a real learning experience for MacMillan, he says. "I made it and remade it dozens and dozens of times. And each time I learned something new about how to incorporate another aspect of Japanese culture into the image, and at the same time make it look totally simple and patternized."
MacMillan has recently been reaching back beyond ancient to prehistoric imagery for inspiration. "In Nagano Prefecture last week I found this marvelous representation of the moon on an urn that is from the Jomon period, 5,000 years ago," he says. "I believe these images have a kind of power that can give us energy in the future. The Jomon people lived in Japan for 13,000 years and had a supreme and beautiful culture that was highly sustainable."
From contemporary to prehistoric, MacMillan's literary and visual creativity brims with energy, like the man himself -- sustaining us with new and remarkable visions of Japanese culture.
Current and upcoming exhibitions of Peter MacMillan's work:
Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, 12 January - 1 February 2013
http://www.fccj.ne.jp
Tokyo American Club, 4 - 24 February 2013
http://www.tokyoamericanclub.org
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Lucy Birmingham
Lucy Birmingham is a long-time Tokyo-based journalist, scriptwriter, author, and former photojournalist. She writes regularly for TIME magazine and TIME.com and her articles have appeared in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Bloomberg News, Architectural Digest, Artinfo.com, Artforum.com, and ARTnews. She is also a scriptwriter at NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, and has published several books including Strong in the Rain and Old Kyoto: A Guide to Traditional Shops, Restaurants, and Inns. Website: lucybirmingham.com |
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