The touring exhibition, ‘Time of Others’, jointly curated by Che Kyongfa, Hashimoto Azusa, Michelle Ho and Reuben Keehan, will have a significantly different lineup of artists for each of its participating venues. Some artists, such as Tozer Pak and Kato Tsubasa, will only be displayed once or twice, with others, such as Vandy Rattana and An-My Lê, involved in all four. Although this leaves my review limited to but one of four possible exhibition contexts, the project’s novel approach complements the show’s emphasis on diverse perspectives and, in general, the indisputably dynamic task of curating an ‘Asian’ art exhibition.
In its first outing, ‘Time of Others’ opened with Shitamichi Motoyuki’s Dusk/Dawn (2013), comparative views of a glowing, calm sunset and sunrise in Chicago and Tsunagi. As promised by the wall text, these are images captured at precisely the same moment at opposing ends of the globe. Of course, the ‘times’ at which they were recorded differ, due to the system of Standard Time. Not so long ago, each region or town determined the hour based on the subjective position of the sun, but the onset of train travel made a global standard time necessary. Shitamichi’s work is about the different views of people living in different places, yet the wide, open sky which blankets us all.
The cultivation of ephemeral beauty reached its peak in the exhibition with Miyagi Futoshi’s The Ocean View Resort (2013), a beautiful video soliloquy from the artist’s ‘American Boyfriend’ project. Over the sounds of lapping waves and a Beethoven string quartet, the protagonist tells the story of his return to his hometown on a small island in Okinawa. The work slowly but steadily