Tokyo Big Love: correspondence
Arrive at Tokyo's Narita Airport after a long and tedious flight, and even figuring out how to get from there to the city will seem like an insurmountable problem. But how then to go about finding out what and who to see in the Tokyo art scene? In the English language guide Tokyo Journal there were one hundred and ten listings for Museums and Galleries this month, and many galleries change shows weekly. One can end up lost and exhausted, doomed to travel forever round and round the Yamanote Loop.
There's very little Government support for the visual arts in Japan, and although some interesting sponsorship programs do exist (Canon Artlab, for example), they tend, as everywhere, to be loaded with difficult expectations and conditions. And of course there are the expensive rents, the $8 for a beer, and no social security umbrella for struggling artists to fall back into. All this adds up to a sad lack of artist-initiated activities.
Probably the closest thing to an Artist Run Space in Tokyo is the 'Rental Gallery'. These are usually expensive and cramped, but they do provide valuable assistance and support in promotion and exposure. They have frequent one week shows, as well as the occasional two week invitation exhibition often financed by the gallery itself. One of the most interesting of these Rental Galleries is Lunami, which is situated centrally in the Ginza and has supported emerging artists since 1963. Director, Emiko Namikawa has played an important role in promoting Australian and Japanese art exchanges, including the Continuum '85 show at eight galleries in Melbourne, and the Inner Land exhibition of Australian Contemporary Art in Tokyo in 1993. Brisbane-based artist... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Yonekama Harumi, IT'S ON ME (mother), 1994. Leather, photograph. 390 x 130 x 50 cm. From Focusing on a New Generation in Japan, '94. Courtesy Lunami Gallery, Tokyo.
