Mito Annual '94: Open System (English) / Contemporary Art Center, ATM

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Mito Annual '94: Open System

(Note: Be aware that the dates mentioned in this file reflect the perspective of 1994, when the exhibition was held, as the Web material incorporates literature distributed at the time of the exhibition.)

Period: April 2 to May 29, 1994
Venue: Gallery Room 1-7, Workshop, Plaza
Organizer: Mito Arts Foundation
Cooperation: Japan Airlines
Curator: Seiichi Watanabe
Artists: Hiroshi Kariya, Cai Guo Qiang, Ritsuko Taho, Yukinori Yanagi

The exhibition introduces new forms of expression that attempt to open the system of art by means of the dynamic relationship between society and humans. Accordingly, the title "Open System" was selected.

In recent times, it can be said that all sorts of systems are in a state of chaos or confusion, and that their state of chaos/confusion is accelerating. That applies to the crisis being experienced by the earth's ecological system, as well as the system of nation-states or systems of thought. According the Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Ilya Prigogine, the increase in chaos within a system will lead either to the termination of the system or to the creation of a new order through self-organization, depending on whether that system is closed or open to the external environment. Furthermore, when the kind of movement or dynamism seen in unstable systems -- a sort of shaking or rocking -- is intensified through interaction with external energy, the system does not became more chaotic, but instead achieves an even higher order. The term "open system" originally came from the field of logic science. This logic, exemplified by Prigogine, is believed to be applied widely now in many frontier areas in human and social sciences. The ATM exhibition applied that concept to the field of art.

All of the artists contributing to the Mito Annual '94 Exhibition retain their Japanese frame of reference as they carry out their respective activities in other cultures. Various coordinates intersect within their experiences -- axes of nationality, culture, race, gender, and so forth -- and their own artistic expression are broadly linked, as a matter of course, with the existence of other societies, cultures and human beings. Additionally, such expression is directed deeply inward inside each of the artists himself or herself, thereby becoming reinforced. Invested with such a great powerful force (of collision), their expression serves as a clear and distinct perturbation -- a kind of rocking -- amidst an uncertain social system.

Prigogine has spoken thus:
"One is able to perceive hope, as even a small perturbation can grow and change an entire system. For that reason, individual activities are not fated to be meaningless." (from "Order out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature," by Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers).

GALLERY GUIDE

Mito Annual '94 "Open System" Exhibition Catalogue
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Hiroshi Kariya
415 Palestinians
1993

Hiroshi Kariya (b. 1948)
A resident of New York since 1977, Kariya works primarily in the U.S. and Europe. The artwork he has contributed to the Mito Annual 94 Exhibition adopts his unique format of creating pictures and sculpture from news reporting, utilizing the text and images found in the kind of news that is reported daily. Through that, he explores the vestiges left by humankind through the course of time, as well as the era in which they leave their mark.

"In Memory of 9.11.2001"

Cai Guo Qiang
Project for Extraterrestrials No. 9
1992

Cai Guo Qiang (b. 1957)
Born in Fujian Province in southeastern China, Cai emigrated to Japan in 1986. Now living in Toride City in Ibaraki Province, just outside of Tokyo, he continues to pursue his craft mainly in Japan, while also traveling overseas. Cai is known for his projects that employ gunpowder. The work he presents at the "Open System" Exhibition applies the principles of feng shui -- a form of geomancy originating in ancient China and widespread throughout East Asia -- to the lay of the land in Mito City.

Ritsuko Taho
ON THE PATH
1991

Ritsuko Taho (b. 1950)
Taho has been working mainly in the U.S. since 1985. Now living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she serves as associate professor in the Visual Arts Program at MIT. Her work at Mito Annual 94 poses questions about the system of "ie" (home/house) that operates at the depths of the Japanese framework of consciousness, and also aims to explore the concept of "language" in art.

Yukinori Yanagi
The World Flag Ant Farm
1990

Yukinori Yanagi (b. 1959)
Traveling frequently between his studios in New York and Japan, Yanagi is active worldwide. The work he has submitted to the "Open System" Exhibition at Mito this time focuses on the themes of the freedom of expression, as well as state authority and the individual as the "expresser." Yanagi looks particularly at the Pacific War (World War II) and the countries of the Pacific Rim, presenting a device that encourages "relativized" consideration about those topics on the part of the postwar generation.

Translated by Paul T. Narum

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