"etude for everyday life" mamoru, 2013.3.15
The following text is based on the Japanese text published on the catalogue of OVER THE RAINBOW exhibition at the Fuchu Art Museum.
In the morning, I wake up, choose something to wear, do a little exercise, make and eat my breakfast, drink a cup of coffee, read some books, check my emails, and then go out to meet someone or stay at home to do some work. This is my morning routine and there is nothing special about it, and in fact, it could be done almost automatically after turning myself on. However, if you take a very close look at on what is actually happening here, you may realize that I am making series of micro-decisions/choices and varying them according to the following; the weather of the day, my physical condition, what is left in my fridge, and what I am working on. I even have to take my unreasonable feelings into consideration; let’s take a break and do nothing today, for example. It seems to me that I digest all the choices to some extent, not perfectly, and make my own path for the day. Some of it is planned, and the rest is improvised.
I am curious to know the creative process and tactics behind this automation; its rules and structure if there is such. I am also strongly interested in the “unchosen routes", the uncovered world, as well. Most of the time, they are not even found out simply because I have never imagined them, or I am not able to realize it because of some kind of physical limitation. So, it is about my capability. Capability? Then, I can practice and make improvements to liberate myself a little more. Although practice may not make me perfect, I could become familiar with the elements that are involved in the process as I cotinue doing it.
Morning after morning making my coffee, for example, I may make a good one. Then, I may realize that I am getting good at measuring a spoon of coffee beans, which means I learned something about the weight. The next day, I may hear the music from the kettle. I don’t know what it means, but it feels great listening to it. Then I would look for a way to make it better, and start analyzing it. A new investigation begins. I observe that the quantity of water changes the tone color and time frame of the boiling. How about a small pan instead of a kettle? or an electric kettle. Does the voltage make any difference? and it goes on as long as my interest lasts.
It is like discovering a little branch road off the very familiar street of your own neighborhood. Eventhough, it could be a detour and only take you to another familiar street, it would still surprise you and give your mind a chance to wonder about the other possiblities hidden all around you. Then you might look around, start walking down the street trying to find another alley, get away from the routine, then you are already making your own way into somewhere else. I am not sure where the branch road of coffee making that I name “etude no.1 kettle” leeds me/you to. To nonesense? Good coffee? Good sound? Dead end? Unknown field?
In one way, my “etude for everyday life” is a set of branch road that stems out from streets of our daily life. Some of them are quite well known, and some of them are hidden and too subtle to be recognized. After learning about each little details of the alley/sound, they become componets to construct my own route of life, which were unimaginable before.
My etude performances, installations, and videos are the results of my quest of uncovering some of the hidden routes. Here is one example that I found; I go grocery shopping, buy a bottle of water, make ice cubes with rubber thread in them, hang them from the ceiling, place glass jars under the ice cubes, LISTEN to the drops of water from the ice hitting the glass, take a piece of paper towel, scrunch it, put it in a small cup, pour a spoon of water from the glass jar, cover your ear with the cup, LISTEN to the paper absorbing water, take out the paper towel from the cup, open it, turn on an electric fan, dry the paper, LISTEN to the music that the wind makes, a very subtle one from the plastic bottles that have just become empty, and another one from the hangers as they touch each other when the wind passes through. The water dissolves into the air, much later on it may rain somewhere, at certain point become a part of a stream of water, somehow bottled again in a factory, and it may come back to the grocery. I combine things and behaviors taken out from the original context, employ daily products and everyday behaviors that are conected to the social systems and the economy of the world; sometimes as they are, sometimes I customize and juxtapose them to create the change to a time and space for delicate listening. What I am talking about? I am talking about practicing freedom. No freedom is packaged and sold in any store. It is only found when you start customizing it by yourself. |