imnothinginparticular

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Sophie Taeuber-Arp & Jean Arp by various. Picked this up from the exhibition of the same name at the Artizon Museum. Major fan of the art movements between wars, kind of the foundation of my self taught journey through art in terms of aesthetics. The Arp's fit squarely within this period through De Stijl, Bauhaus, Dada, and Surrealism. So already acquainted, what interested me about this exhibition in particular was the focus on Sophie even putting her name first. Typically when you think of the time period and these creative couples the woman usually gets regulated to the back even though they typically have the wider range coming from I guess what we be called applied arts now that then were separated from fine arts. But even in considering this you look at a couple in the field with Charles and Ray Eames and even she fell to the back even though in reverse she was more the artist. So it was refreshing to see her in the front of this show and myself involved of late in more applied arts...the ideas do interest more. From there I really enjoyed the simplicity of their works that they did together in their line drawings again something so simple yet done with the perfect level of intent. I like when I can go to museums especially in America when I try to inspire my cousins and friends and anything I show them they can technically do. Reason why I hate most contemporary because the amount of money even required is discouraging and just becomes like everything else back home...too expensive and unattainable for us. When I think of Hirst's installations, I think of this...

[imnothinginparticular]

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Against Nature by J.-K. Huysmans. Ordered this one off the internet after having a conversation with a painter I had met in who mentioned Odilon Redon was her favorite. Did a dive and saw some literary inspired paintings he did of Edgar Allen Poe... and Huyemans who I hadn't actually even heard of. French and coming out with this novel in the mid 1880s you would immediately think naturalism, which is a favorite of mine...I am a huge fan of Zola and Stendhal and enjoyed Flaubert and Maupousant...so it was surprise to stumble on the author here who was a contemporary but completely went a different direction away from naturalism. Naturalism performed the unforgettable service of showing real persponages in their precise surroundings and it seems like Huysmans saw that it was doomed to repeat itself within its limitations to a sort of delineation of everyday existence and thus only succeed in creating generally average people. I wouldn't quite agree that far but immediately reading the novel you sense what he was doing. Focusing on a single character who is an eccentric aesthete, there is very little way of anything resembling a plot. Instead it is about his retreat into his own idealistic world of literature and art with a level of neurosis that is actually kind of charming. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is the only thing I could compare it to that I have read. At the time it was considered a failure even Zola tried hard to encourage the writer saying it wasn't bad, but... Course it was just ahead of its time in what again would have been a major departure from everything else at the time.

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Got this for Christmas from my dad. Carrying a page count longer than Tolstoy’s "War & Peace," this for the most part is considered the first magnum opus on the Third Reich written a mere 15 years after the war. Since, there have been more but this has the unique distinction of containing eye witness accounts as Shirer was a correspondent through much of the Third Reich (1934-1940) and present at the Nuremberg trials. A journalist by trade, any criticism that could be levied came from academic fields which for the most part was positive, although a number a German historians detract from the book. The primary point among them, is that Shirer attributes Hitler’s rise to the German national character and not more simply as yet another version of totalitarianism that was present after WWI. Either way anyone who has written on the subject since has to acknowledge this work and his references alone in the book add another 700 pages. With that, I always had a huge interest in history, but with this my primary concern was precisely how Hitler used the existing constitution to destroy it as he dismantled it in a mere 53 days…democracies are always to be treated with fragility. But before that it was a series of shocks (again Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” to some extent) with the staged Reichtag fire, oppression of opponents as a result, his ‘Enabling Act’ in 1933, followed by government purges (focusing on minorities), and finally appeasing the military by purging his own SA, not to be confused with his SS who were largely upper class in comparison to the SA, to appease the military before complete autocracy. More curious are the details and indoctrination from the university to youth programs over to the farmers. So roughly half of the book is pre-war before the Poland invasion compounding the amount of appeasement and denial that led up to the war. And even then there were so many bluffs that the west could of called and defeated the Nazis quite easily as most of his military were still at that point highly skeptical and yet everyone more or less go along with it. What becomes dark going into the turning point with Stalingrad was how simultaneously equally they were concerned with pushing the Soviet lines, but coming with the SS and immediately exterminating the Jewish and other detractors. Attending the Nuremberg trials after the war he existensivly has a chapter on all of the atrocities committed by the regime, which goes into the stasis I was in reading this. I took up what should make up my next solo exhibition that ended up taking around 280 hours while watching all of The Walking Dead, and reading this in between only listening to a curious combination of Julius Eastman, Kid A, and Motorhead. So everyday was a hangover, going to brunch for steak and eggs/ coffee reading this for an hour or so while sobering up, going straight the studio cutting only black fabric while watching the zombie apocalypse. Breaking for dinner at my local mom and pop izakaya reading for another hour and half, before going back and sewing and more Walking dead. Then night cap at my local bar where I get to hear the news back home as my father and sister were included in those government and DEI purges before going to bed and dreaming about a combination off all of this severed limbs of those both dead and undead, and me just surviving putting all these black bits together for something...it was surreal. Also just hard to read due to its shear size and giant swastika on it. I did intend to make some illusions to current affairs but meh, I will say the US has mastered the notion that political parties are nothing more than a systemic organization of hatreds.

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks The Music of Chance by Paul Auster. Got this from @elm who has a collection of novels at his jazz bar. The original copy he gave me was unfortunately stolen along with my Genba Kantoku camera and a suit overcoat I had from my eaikawa days in the late 2000s. Still pissed about that actually happened at Berry, if anyone has any info, I'd give 10,000 yen for it on principle...probably a tourist tho. Anyway I had to replace his book and took me just a day to read it. Never read Auster and seems to be compared to Beckett who I have read everything from and would disagree. He is more like noir or pulp writer...a beatnik without the over stylization but manages to inject classical allegory as he did with the novel here. This is a plot heavy book so I won't go too far into the story, but the whole time I had no idea where it was going and enjoyed it. It starts out as an aimless road novel before turning into a tale of friendship and gambling...before it actually just becomes sisphysian...and just wow did not expect it. I also like how he leaves out details within the story where nothing is resolved or explained. I am actually quite behind on books, so after I make some progress in my stack I do intend to return to him. Please leave some recommendations in the comments if you have read him. Cheers!

[imnothinginparticular]

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks The Conquerors by André Malraux. Picked this up from the free bookstore in Baltimore the last time I was home. This is one of his earliest novels and the first to be translated and published outside of France. It shares its historical setting with his most known work, "Man's Fate" so it comes off as a prelude to what became his style where social and political events are dealt with in the perspective of a philosophy of history and a metaphysics of man's fate. With that, it was the first modern novel in which the raw material of politics was subordinated to the real subject matter...that is the characters' search for the meaning of their lives. His early existential ramifications would really catch on after the war really placing him in a unique place in French literature after Gide and Proust but before Camus and the post war. Guess Celine overlaps but ended up on the wrong side politically unlike Malraux who did become the Minister of Cultural Affairs in France (he really helped the French New Wave become what it became). But the novel here is a narrative of a few months spent at the HQ of the Kuomintang in Canton. While its philosophy and scope don't go as far as "Man's Fate," unfortunately neither does his flat depiction of the Chinese people. Recall that was the knock on the latter novel and it is actually quite worse here for all his good intentions. Really nice though the thing with him was that he was very much there on the frontlines of the Chinese revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and WWII where he was captured by the Nazis and fought in the resistance. His work comes from those experiences and philosophical ramifications admist the political context...is his groping for meaning in it all.

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Le Corbusier: Synthesis of the arts 1930- 1965 by various. Picked this up at the recent Tokyo exhibition of the same name. Developed this habit of always buying the exhibition catalog of shows I go to but kinda realized with Le Corbusier...I already have quite a few books on him already that are certainly more encompassing. But I guess that was the charm of the show focusing on his 1954 essay "Everything Finally Reaches the Sea" envisioning a world interconnected through technology that heavily influenced what most would consider his late period of work. Mostly known for architecture, I always appreciated how he would divide up his days in the morning half painting etc and the afternoon designing (or vice versa forgot exactly the order) but always thought that special. I find dividing time amongst my mediums a bit tricky at times...but appreciate how Le Corbusier really just attributes to a way of thinking. Particular to the exhibition, I loved how they edited long time photo collaborator Lucien Hervé's photos of Le Corbusier work to Kadinsky's abstract work for these loose yet perfect compositional juxtapositions. In the book they unfortunately separated the two mediums, but made sense to me in the way I like to find similar juxtapositions between my collages and photography. And guess my only complaint about the exhibition was the fact most of the work came from a former Le Corbusier show about 12 years ago that was actually held at the Ueno Museum he designed. At that show the impact from looking at the works and allowing your eye to trail all around the building for one single uniform expression. I can't think of any other experience I have in my life with such a complete singular expression...which is hard to follow with the exhibition here but was in my mind throughout.

[imnothinginparticular]

+iron sculpture

Figured I would share some of my sculptures. This was apart of a set of 3 I exhibited in 2022 for my "Nothing in Particular" solo exhibition. Really just approached it in a similar manner as my ikebana with an appreciation for the dichotomy of materials. Guess also 3-D collage since they are scrap materials...

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks 33 1/3 Kid A by Marvin Lin. Saw this on @_revoxx_ 's shelf next to another coffee table size book on Kid A. Flipped through that and was like nah I need to buy this, so asked if I could borrow this 33 1/3. This series examines important albums that I only heard about from @mia.kitorahowe who has been promising her J Dilla one forever😭 With that it seems every book features a different writer, writing in a much more laudatory sort of early Pitchfork style. I have a read a lot of music books, mostly with a musicology skew, and more in the realm of jazz, blues, and classical in fact the only rock (guess you could say) books I have read were either on Ian Curtis or Bob Dylan (love their lyrics). Never really read anything on Radiohead, so going in I didn't really understand the environmentalist skew it carried that actually comes in direct regards to Naomi Klein who I have read extensively. Makes sense now with the "ice age coming" etc. I personally just saw it more existentially with a sarcastic optimism that was heavily rooted in realism. Which is always artistically amazing when there is enough space for anyone to bring what they can to your music. in another way I don't listen to "Ok Computer" as much because it was more straight in its messages. The writer goes into York's writing approach that was on the oblique strategies manner of Brian Eno comparing it to the Talking Heads album, "Remain in the Light." I really just like the repetitions that why not quite a blues structure as there is no response to the repeated calls of "where did you park the car" or cutting the kids in half that impact is quite similar. Which in addition to the general empty industrial soundscape always made it not only my favorite Radiohead album. But ya think I will elaborate more when I get the coffee table book on Kid A.

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Black Threads by Kyra Hicks. Received this from my father for Christmas after seeing it at the African American Smithsonian for quite a lot of cash the last time I was home. It was behind glass and my introverted ass knowing I didn't have the money anyway just took a photo to remind myself later. With that it is not at all what I expected... though I wasn't sure what I expected really when I ordered it. There is an extreme poverty of black quilting books, so this serves as a comprehensive resource book to everything related to African Americans practicing the medium from phone numbers to black quilters guilds across the states to even art work that just revolves around black quilters. And thinking about it, I have never actually even met another black quilter in person, although through my hashtag I have since befriended a few on instagram. The ideas that I derive from their work hits just a bit closer to home which is really the importance of representation. Think I have mentioned it before but I only got into quilting in 2021 upon actually seeing an improvised Gee's Bend. I was left entranced...and I just wanted to wrap myself in it and thank it....as it literally warms you. I only managed to see it in Minneapolis because I won an artist grant for black artists (the institutions first of their kind) and post-George Floyd was really the only time I could see extensively collections of black art. Going into 2020 only 1.3% of the art in US museums was made by black artists. And now with DEI initiatives just as we were actually approaching 2%, they now cut funding to a lot of federal institutions if they even cared in the first place to exhibit our art. Aside from the fact statistically white women benefit the most from DEI, it just continues to make things more difficult after some marginal progress and really in the end we all lose. With art all these perspectives just expand our pool that we can be inspired by and create from as I get inspiration from everywhere...but they systematically restrict ours. So blessed I had a chance to see that quilt.

[imnothinginparticular]

+Aye new quilt post. This one I also made during my artist residency in Kagawa around this time last year. It is purely improvised using a simple technique of layering 2-3 squares of fabric on top of each other and randomly cutting curved lines out of them. Then just mixing the patterns and sewing the opposites together. The quilt measures out to roughly the size of a baby quilt (ok I didn't measure it lol) and the batting is made from 50% recycled plastic from the ocean. The fabric I bought specifically for this in wanting a pseudo military look off set by the floral pattern.

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy. Picked this up from the free book store in Baltimore the last time I was home. I thought I had read all of Tolstoy (that is in translation) and fun fact I actually have not. There are four stories in this collection that are actually novellas making up the 350 some pages. The title story is often cited as a perfect example of what a novella should be starting after Ivan's death from the perspective of his co-workers who have to replace his position. From there we see his whole life and in particular his slow agonizing death that perfectly written just puts so much into perspective in regard to the inevitability of death the meanings we grope to find before. Such a intense meditation on death, I missed my stop on the Yamanote line and just decided to ride the full circle to take it all in ....the crux of the story is the consequences of living without meaning. For cinephiles, this is the story Kurosawa used for his 50s film "Ikiru." But on that same Yamanote train, I immediately launched into the next novella I really liked from this collection "The Kreutzer Sonata" that takes place entirely on a train beginning on a conversation between strangers on love. Through everyone's talking points on the matter you get fully fleshed out characters as they wait for their respective train stops. Finally one character goes so deep into the very carnal nature of love that he details what led him to actually murder his wife. The whole time I was just enthralled with such perfect writing...it is like not having seen a Jean Renoir film in a while, or listened to Beethoven's Eroica, or sat with an Atget photo...

[imnothinginparticular]

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Kadensho: The Book of Flowers by Teshigahara Sofu. This was the other book I picked up at the Sogetsu kaikan and definitely the better out of the two. I orginally read this around 2012 borrowing from @laura who's out of print version was much better constructed (bilingual) book that fetched an astronomic price.... so I am just really happy to finally own a version of it. This really the general aesthetic philosophy and history of ikebana whereas the previous was like a quick bulletin points (why I loathe self help books) which is never a way to really learn anything more than to remind oneself. I really forgot how much he goes into the idea of setting ikebana in that it is taken from nature and therefore shouldn't be replicated but humanized...that is given form. Isamu Noguchi (a close collaborator of Sogetsu) had a beautiful quote, " If you set a pine, it should not look like a pine. It is very difficult to make it not look like a pine." Appreciate the simple eloquence of that. Teshigahara goes on to apply his idea of "one flower, one leaf" which doesnt refer to a single leaf but signifies how the single elements of a plant can express the totality of nature. There is a notion that I do agree with that you have to begin with a dislike for nature as it means you are not free from it...for example a chrysanthemum is no longer a chrysanthemum after it is set, it is reborn in an ikebana setting who utilizes chrysanthemums. It is the work of the person that is their expression through the chrysanthemums. He does go into some more traditional Japanese aesthetic ideas such as "shin, gyo, so" which for those uninitiated describe the varying degrees of artistic refinement bridging the poles of art and nature. "Shin" is the most refined while "so" is the closet to nature... "gyo" is somewhere in between. All in all a solid reread and for 1,120 yen not a bad purchase to even have a philosophical notion of ikebana.

[imnothinginparticular]

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Matsutani: Currents by various. Picked this up at the artist's show at Tokyo Opera City. They didn't yet have the exhibition catalog for that show but an older one. For artists like this you really just try to get what you can before the prices raise. Also, you could pre-order the exhibition catalog but unlike the other exhibitions where I pre-ordered by just paying cash and giving them my address, they wanted me to download a clunky app and I just gave up. With that he is a member of the Gutai movement distinguishing himself by applying vinyl glue to his relief paintings before going into graphite. He came to this from Gutai's head, Jiro Yoshihara, who emphasized, "Do not copy anyone! Do something no one's ever done before." I feel he further distinguished himself by volunteering for a student exchange to Paris where he ended up staying solidifying himself representing Japan as an international artist. This is very similar to another Asian avant- garde art group who I incidentally also saw at Opera City over a half decade ago in the Korean movement, Dansaekhwa. I feel like they became lesser known than what one could loosely call their contemporaries in gutai and mono-ha. With dansaekhwa, most of the artist remained in Korea essentially all but one in Lee U-Fan perhaps the only artist most would know from the group that comes precisely from going west. The pros and cons of which are certainly debatable but the resulting exposure is evident. And specifically to Matsutani, he picked up from other artists particular Hayter and his method of printmaking in France and in New York Ellsworth Kelly. He eventually came back being reenamoured by his own country's traditions especially the blacks in calligraphy and brush strokes involved that was evident at the exhibition. But also just big shout to Opera City for introducing these artist as for me an American I certainly wouldn't have to many other chances otherwise.