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Michiko SHOJI: Location
Reviews
Written by Tomohiro MASUDA   
Published: August 31 2009

Courtesy of Michiko Shoji, Photo: Takashi Arai, Cooperation: Yumiko Chiba Associates, copy right(c) Michiko SHOJI

Courtesy of Michiko Shoji, Photo: Takashi Arai, Cooperation: Yumiko Chiba Associates, copy right(c) Michiko SHOJI

Courtesy of Michiko Shoji, Photo: Takashi Arai, Cooperation: Yumiko Chiba Associates, copy right(c) Michiko SHOJI

     There are sixteen footballs hanging neatly in midair at almost the same level as the ground. The balls seem to be brand-new ones and have no damage because they are in factory-fresh condition. At a glance, and even if we look at the balls closely, we cannot grasp easily what message they are intended to convey. I am not sure if it is because of the wind blowing from the air conditioning system, but they are swinging slightly. In contrast to my sweating brain, this work gives an extremely cool impression.

     On the patterned parts on each football, photographs are fixed, apparently taken by the creator. Most of the pictures are of things which remind us of the ground, such as grass or traffic signs on roads. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority are photos of roads paved with asphalt and concrete buildings next to the roads, which seem to have been taken from an elevated angle. These pictures seem to have been used to impress onto the balls images of the towns in which they will soon find themselves used.

     Needless to say, footballs are ready-made items. They are mass-produced in the same shape through the same process by using the same materials. We will never find a hand-made football made of old cloth unless we live in a favela in Brazil. In Japan, we use the same type of football, regardless of where we live, whether we are in Tokyo or Hokkaido. In other words, we find no individual characteristics and originality in the balls. And the photographs fixed to the balls also reflect the characterless aspects of towns.

     As we hear often in our daily lives, globalization is proceeding and today’s world is rapidly becoming more homogeneous. We are surrounded by Simulacre - copies without any originality. Mass-produced goods are distributed all over the world and we no longer find anything special anywhere. In such a society, a mass-produced football is obliged to face the same fate without any characteristic as that of others. Nonetheless, is this true?

     Indeed, the pictures fixed on the balls show scenes in towns which have no specialties of their own, but we find different aspects among all of them. Looking at the photos closely, we notice that there are slight differences or individual characteristics among them. For example, in one picture, there is a signpost on a road which seems to have been marked by tires. In fact, such a scene can be seen everywhere, but the extent to which the road has been marked makes us imagine an irreplaceable and specific place. And at the same time, it evokes for us the existence of a person who is playing with a football at that certain place. Indeed, it may be true that the present world is on the wave of globalization and rapidly becoming more homogeneous. Anywhere in the world, we can eat at McDonald's and enjoy the afternoon at Starbucks. In addition, we can play with a football, which looks the same as any others, with people having the same type of facial expression in a similar alleyway. Nevertheless, even in such similar situations, we can find small differences, just like the differences in the pictures on the footballs.

     In this exhibition, Shoji may require us to look at the ground - the detail - to discover such slight differences by showing the footballs hanging in midair above the ground. I suppose that this would represent the resistance of art or Shoji against an extremely convincing but strange and accepted notion of the homogenized world. The footballs are not shouting such a message to the viewers. They are waiting for us to find their tiny differences, while swinging silently.

     By the way, I live in an apartment located in one corner of a cluster of ordinary apartment blocks, which were mass-constructed from the 60s to 70s. I am not sure it is because the district around the apartment was originally a marsh, but during the rainy season every year, countless worms, which look like house centipedes, appear around the entrance of the apartment on a rainy day. This unnatural phenomenon does not occur in the adjoining building, which has the same color and shape as that in which I live.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)


Related Exhibition

Michiko SHOJI: Location
26/Jun/2009 - 19/Jul/2009
Zuishoji Art Projects

Last Updated on July 05 2010
 

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