Second wave of Japanese warriors

By RICHARD DALE

Coming to Taranaki hard on the heels of The Last Samurai is a second wave of Japanese, but this time the culture is decidedly contemporary. Mediarena is the largest exhibition of Japanese art to visit New Zealand, opening in New Plymouth on Saturday at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

This is new work by more than 20 of the best contemporary artists in the region and it will be a highlight of the art calendar.

One of the artists, Noboru Tsubaki, came to Auckland last weekend with Govett-Brewster director Greg Burke, and I met them at a Ponsonby cafe for breakfast before they did the gallery circuit. Tsubaki, looking "Alternative Tokyo" dressed in black with a chic quasi-punk Union Jack shirt, had an array of personal electronic equipment spread over the table.

I was treated to a DVD survey on his laptop of an extraordinary range of installations, sculptures and performance from the past 15 years, all large-scale, witty and political. One of his sculptures was a giant, bright green grasshopper made of cloth and attached to the exterior of the Yokohama Intercontinental Hotel, looking like it had walked off the set of a 50s horror film.

For New Plymouth he is installing something a bit more subdued - traditional Japanese cookers on the foreshore. There will be 30 lined up by the Len Lye Wind Wand, a row of shiny steel flues producing thick, pure white smoke. The really cool thing about it is that anyone can come and cook on them this Sunday afternoon, a hangi-meets-the-barbie happening. This type of kiln is buried in the ground and uses bamboo as its fuel - hopefully, joked Tsubaki, leftovers from The Last Samurai set.

Bamboo charcoal is a purifier, bringing out the more serious side of the work. In a series called UN Applications, Tsubaki has used these cookers in Bangladesh to provide a cheap and efficient means of cooking and to purify water, showing his concerns for global warming and ecological pollution.

While Tsubaki's installation recalls traditional Japanese culture, the outrageous and provocative glam rock duo Gorgerous have a more recent cultural signature, to say the least. Their publicity images say it all: urban disaffection, hard core musicians, excessive electronica, gadgets and lots of screaming. Burke describes them as "Bruce Nauman meets Kiss", indicating their crossover status between conceptual artists and multimedia musicians.

Their instruments, called "Love Arms", remodel existing electric guitars, like the Gibson Flying V, pushing them towards sculpture. A Gorgerous performance has been described as a full-on, jarring spectacle with hyper-graphics, animation and more energy than is probably good for you.

There is a chance to see Gorgerous perform on Wednesday night at the 420 bar, above the aptly named Rising Sun on K Rd.

It is a shame the exhibition is not coming to Auckland in total. The last contemporary Japanese show, Zones of Love, came to New Zealand 13 years ago. That much smaller show was organised in Australia and made it only as far north as Hamilton.

It is to Burke's credit that the performance and lecture component of Mediarena is coming to Auckland. More impressive is that the exhibition is entirely the Govett-Brewster's initiative. Burke has been working for the past four years on this exhibition with Fumio Nanjo, one of Japan's most celebrated curators, and Tokyo-based curator and DJ Roger McDonald. Both will be presenting lectures in Auckland and Wellington, and McDonald will perform at 420.

One of my favourite artists, Yayoi Kusama, has work in the exhibition. Kusama is possibly one of the most significant artists coming out of Japan. Her performances in New York in the 60s are legendary, as are her polka dot installations and sculptures. A comprehensive survey of her video art will be available and there are two installations in the gallery.

Burke tells me that Kusama, who has influenced successive generations of artists in Japan, is pivotal for Mediarena. Saki Satom's performances, for example, where she wanders in a crowded city dressed in a crisp twin set, are inspired by Kusama.

The curators aim to show a much wider range of concerns and historical influences than the dominant art export from Japan, the manga-influenced, Neo-Pop artists, such as Murakami, who are very much flavour du jour in the global art market.

Mika Kato will present oil paintings of slightly unnerving dolls. Each painting apparently takes a year and they are beautifully finished. There is a tendency in Japanese culture towards a kind of exaggerated cuteness, called "kawaii", which you can see in these paintings. But if you look closely, there are odd details, like an apparently burst blood vessel staining the white of an eye, that take you to another place.

There is another side of Japanese culture that embraces disturbance and contradiction, as anyone will testify who has seen the films of Oshima, or The Ring, or Tetsuo cult films. No one should be too surprised, then, by Tadasu Takamine, formerly of the group Dumbtype, if he straps a metal cage to his head, smashes glass panels and grinds the shards with his forehead, as he has done in a previous work.

Or by Kyoko Sawanobori when she plays havoc with well-known pop songs by licking honey dripping on to a rotating record.

There are also more reflective works, such as that of renowned photographer Naoya Hatakeyama and the LED computer and installation artist, Tatsuo Miyajima. Or the photography of Tomoko Sawada who, in Cindy Sherman style, makes herself up to look like 30 different people in one work. Unlike Sherman, her guises are distinctively Japanese.

The artist Tabaimo will present interactive animation. Her images bear a resemblance to Hokusai and the old wood cut or ukiyo-e colour style. The viewer uses a joystick and can interact with the work. While you get a sort of "Old Japan" sentimentality on the screen, its subject matter is modern Japanese society, which she presents in dark and subversive visions.

Japan is no more or less complex and contradictory than any other society. It is one deeply embedded in tradition and yet at the same time at the forefront of modernity. It will be intriguing to see how these artists tackle these issues and a chance to see such significant work should not be missed.

In addition to the exhibition in New Plymouth, Mediarena comprises a video programme, a touring lecture and performance series.

Exhibition

* What: Mediarena: Contemporary Art From Japan

* Where and when: Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, March 13-June 7

* What: Co-curator Fumio Nanjo will present a talk at Auckland Art Gallery on March 16 at 6pm

* What: Mediarena Lounge, 420, 373 K Rd, above the Rising Sun, March 17, 8pm.