Research Project | Kenta Takeshige

Co-existence -Migration Dialogue through lacquer binding-

collaborators: Lennert BOUWENS & Fabian ESPINOSA-DIAZ

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.
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.

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

These immigrant documents are placed in the "10th drawer". The cabinet has only 9 drawers. So I made one extra drawer. The inside of this 10th drawer is finished with Roiro-nuri technique, which acts as a mirror and reflects the person looking in. After storing the immigration documents in each of the nine drawers (returning each image of the immigrant to its corresponding drawer), the 10th drawer becomes empty.

I give it to you and ask, "What do you see?"...
Most of them might answer, "I see myself."

This drawer will be then stored in a way that pushes out the middle drawer, which is an imitation drawer of the Antwerp Scagliola technique. The Scagliola drawer is pushed out through an opening in the back panel, and people who see themselves reflected in the Roiro mirror can participate in the "Migration Dialogue".

Jolités von België

The ultimate secret of lacquer art, a traditional Japanese craft, is to "knead well". By mixing Asian lacquer and Belgian elements, I intend to fuse and evolve the East (Japan) and the West (Belgium) in lacquer art.

Visit regions in Belgium and collect raw materials, landmarks and historical backgrounds. Get relevant information from artists, designers, curators, etc. at the places I visit. Mix Asian lacquer with local Belgian raw materials, and produce lacquerware with the design images of landmarks in each region. The lacquerware to be produced is not an object, but a work that can withstand practical use.

Ostend → material: mussel shells, design image: Fort Napoleon
Rumst → material: Rupel clay, design image: clay bread
Genk → material: Terril soil, design image: C-mine crane
Spa → material: Spa spring water, design image: Jolités de Spa

Traditional crafts are ecological and sustainable creative activities rooted in regions. However, because they protect tradition, they cannot keep up with the trends of the times, and the current situation is that some of them continue to decline. Crafts need further evolution. By mixing Asian lacquer and Belgian locality, you find new vitality in traditional lacquer art. It is necessary to "break tradition with tradition".

Crafts are an added value. By creating works in which lacquerware tells its own story, I would like to make the viewers reaffirm the added value of crafts.

Furthermore, I recommend craftsmanship that does not burden the global environment. By developing works that incorporate the regional characteristics of Belgium, my work will contribute to the rediscovery of the diversity and history of Belgium.
(KASK graduation exhibition at the Ghent Design Museum)

Prototype for "Relational Design" by Royal Academy of Ghent (KASK)

This prototype was made for the project "Relational Design" of Ghent Academy of Arts (KASK). I was invited to participate in the research team by Professor Dirk van Gogh of the Department of Product Design and project manager. The project aims to design sustainable manufacturing. We reconsidered the concept of recycling by incorporating reassembly based on three elements: Furoshiki (textile), Origami and woodworking joints.

In my search I thought of adding more functions. Furniture can be roughly divided into boxes and legged furniture. I have incorporated these two different types into one package. In other words, it's a transformer.

Assemble the parts that fit neatly in the Furoshiki into a box. The Furoshiki fits into the lid. The parts can be rearranged into an altar. In my eagerness, I even added a third shape: a desk. It is a great deal, three in one. On the downside: this prototype does not contain any Origami elements.