Co-existence -Migration Dialogue through lacquer binding-
Kenta TAKESHIGE + collaborators: Lennert BOUWENS & Fabian ESPINOSA-DIAZ
Theme: Migration Dialogue, Fusion of Crafts and Social Issues
overview:
This work expresses the stories of immigrants in a cabinet. The cabinet itself is a disciplined, square social norm, and the drawers that fit into it each represent the stories of immigrants. Some blend into society, while others stick out from the cabinet and cannot be contained. Each story is visualized and firmly connected by Asian Urushi lacquer art. However, Urushi is weak to bending and is a hard joint, so it cracks when force is applied. The illusion and fragility of mirror-like lacquer expresses the double-edged sword of modern society.
background:
The cultural and technological exchange between the East and West through the Silk Road can be said to be one of the most magnificent movements experienced by humanity. However, the information obtained through this network was closer to "glocalization," or regionalization, rooted in the local area, than to modern globalization. In the exchange between the East and West through the Silk Road, Western lacquer art gradually broke away from the Asian lacquer art that was initially dominant, and developed into its own unique art form.
In my another project "Jolités von België" (Belgian urushiware), I created a series of works that combined Belgian regionality with Urushi. This project can be said an extension of that. The idea is to create Antwerp urushiware by imitating the techniques of Antwerp lacquer craft, which flourished in the 17th century. Just as Western society has long admired, accepted, and imitated Asian lacquer art, I am now going against the flow of time by imitating Western lacquer craft in a modern context using Asian lacquer. This is the basis of this project.
crafts:
Traditional crafts are declining day by day. As a woodworker, lacquer artist and restorer, I am looking for ways to connect traditional crafts to the next generation. I believe that by fusing crafts with social design, new possibilities can be created and new life can be breathed into them.
social issue:
As an immigrant living in Belgium, I decided to tackle the issue of immigration. I am sure I am not the only one who feels a sense of crisis about the current state of the world. I cannot save the conflicts and disasters that occur every day with the superpower of a hero. My role is to visualize the dialogue between immigrants through crafts and express in my work the coexistence that is being forgotten.
Let's take the Silk Road as an example. We once mixed different cultures and developed them into our own culture. Rather than removing foreign substances, we lead them to further evolution by mixing them. This coincidentally matches the idea of "mixing well," which is the secret of Urushi art.
methodology:
In Belgium (Flanders), urushi becomes a medium that connects us and integrates people into society/community. The concept design is nine subjects of interacting visual language. At least nine interviews are conducted, keywords are collected from each individual and expressed in the designed visual language. These people backgrounds are nine immigrants living in the neighborhood of my living environment. By interweaving the keywords with the images on the front panels of the drawers, the interviewees become participatory in the design. The fronts of the "interactive drawers" become the carriers of exchanges: coming and going, give and take, expressions and impressions, subject and object.
whole stories ➝ sentences ➝ keywords ➝ images:
- Western & Eastern Lacquer Art ➝ Exchange
- Gratitude ➝ Humanity Fusion
- Finding Family ➝ Meeting Point
- Anonymity ➝ Diversity
- Home ➝ Dream of Motherland
- Mixing ➝ Harmony
- Language, Work, Dreams ➝ Tower of Babel
- Social Interaction➝ Melting Pot
- Hard Junction ➝ Kintsugi
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