Shingo Francis is an American/Japanese artist well known for the minimalist paintings of colors and light, and Christian Awe is a German artist who employs a dynamic and experimental approach to colorful murals and actively engages in social activities. The two artists of completely different backgrounds collaborate with Sam Francis, father of Shingo Francis and one of the great masters of abstract art in “Layers of nature   —— Beyond the Line”, a group exhibition just opened at Sezon Museum of Modern Art in April 2018.

Shingo and Christian met us at a cafe in Shibuya, right next to one of the busiest crossings in the world one afternoon and passionately told us about their current exhibition, the role of art in the society, and how it is important to have your own values in this digital based world of today.

Please tell us about this exhibition.

Christian: I feel like this exhibition is a new start and a big contemporary step into the now for Sezon Museum. The museum has a beautiful collection loved by many in Japan and I hope it contributes to become as known internationally. The museum is starting to be more experimental, as you can see with this exhibition, giving us (contemporary artists) the chance to react to one another’s work.   Having nature as the main theme and displaying the relationship to Sam Francis’works is very interesting for me. Knowing that Shingo’s works would be a beautiful calm paper installation, I used the opportunity to create a likewise site specific work.

I started to think about what nature is based on, and I thought of water. For me water represents life. So I created this abstract waterfall installation, which worked out great visually, and also there happen to be a waterfall right by the museum so that tied in nicely for the community as well. Shingo gave me information about the waterfall near the museum when he came to visit my studio in Berlin in March.

Another main connecting theme going on between Shingo and I is that our works are both on paper.  My waterfall installation is made up of nine paper webs, each about 10m long. The piece is called Seazon.

Sea as in the ocean, zon = zone, both a word play of Sezon Museum.  The curator of this exhibition originally liked me to do something site specific having seen the outdoor paintings I have done in the past, but unfortunately, there was no time for me to start from scratch in Japan. To make this still a site specific piece,  I worked on it for four months in Berlin, shipped them over in rolls and finished it off in Japan in five days.  I would paint, rip them apart, destroy, doing collage, recreate, rip again and again. This process was very unusual for Sezon Museum because they are used to things being conserved for eternity and neatly kept in order. An artist coming in, creating inside the museum not knowing how it will work in the space must have been very bizarre among the masterpieces of the collection. But they were extremely supportive.

For all of my works, I have a very experimental approach. I love to dig into the materials and see what art can be.  Previously I enjoyed layering paints and then dig into the work, being my own artistic archaeologist. The current water series have a different technique which I have been working on for the past three years. This technique developed accidentally.

I was working on the terrace of my studio one day. When I had to leave I asked my assistant to put the painting back indoors at the end of the day but then he forgot, and it rained that night and destroyed the painting. I was very angry at first but then after a week, I saw that the rain had left some marks on the work. This led me to wonder if I can play with the theme of water. Water represents life, but also for me, coming from Germany where many refugees struggle, water also stands for the Mediterranean sea, the sea they cross to come to Europe. So I use water to make a point about the social issues of today as well.

Shingo: Christian and I have been in a group show together in Seoul so we knew about each other since 2010, and I recently realised that Christian was the one who invited me (put my name forward) for the residency I did in Berlin in 2012!

So I was not worried about doing a show with him. For me preparing for this exhibition was more about how to push the boundaries. When we found out that my father is going to get involved in the show as well, Christian and I each picked a painting of my father’s from the Sezon Museum collection and decided to do a response to that. So two contemporary artists taking the very well known images of an established artist and restyle in our own way.

I have shown with my father before but this is actually the first time doing such thing. I chose Untitled 1978  because I love the works of my father from that period and I also wanted to work in large scale. I think it is always good to challenge myself with scale and since it’s a museum show with large walls, and having Christian’s large waterfall installation, I thought this would be a good opportunity. As Christian said, the museum didn’t know what they were getting but they were great as a receiver of our experimental works. They were very open.

My large circular work is also a large piece of paper as well. Talking of nature, mine is a little bit of a different type of nature. Not nature as in trees and forests but more about time and space. The title of this work is called Bound for Eternity (red). The line in the centre wraps around. This line is like a horizon, and it is either going back or coming forward. The line is the eternal boundary that keeps going and the circle refers to time.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 30 days a month, 365 days a year…we are constantly going through the time in the same way like a loop and it is going to eternity. Space is infinite and time is the eternity. And that’s nature as well, different kind of nature to grass and trees.

It’s nice to see two works on paper together.  Christian’s strong, passionate and intense and dynamic…

Christian: and Shingo’s work is quiet and calm and Sam’s work really embraces both.

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To be continued to the latter half.
Shingo Francis and Christian Awe Interview “LAYERS OF NATURE  -BEYOND THE LINE”

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“LAYERS OF NATURE -BEYOND THE LINE”

Sezon Museum of Modern Art
21st April 2018（Sat） – 2nd September（Sun）
Open 10:00−18:00（Admission is 30 minutes before closing）
Closed every Thursday（7 days a week in August）

Admission:General¥1,500（¥1,400） College Student ¥1,000（¥900）Student ¥500（¥400）
*()In case of more than 20 people.
—
EVENT

WORKSHOP”Light・Color・Action”Painting experience with Christian Awe and Shingo Francis
Date/Time：11st August 10:30-12:00
Target：first-third grade of elementary school children and parents
Number of positions：10 people
Admission：Free（need a day admission）
How to apply：Call or Fax, please tell your 1.Name, 2.Number of people, 3.Contact information（Telephone/E-mail/Number of FAX
Apply to：03-5579-9725（TEL）03-5579-9726（FAX）

Artist Talk：Shingo Francis, Christian Awe
Presenter：Roger McDonald（NPO Arts Initiative Tokyo[AIT] Deputy Director/Curator）
Date/Time：11st August / 14:00〜
Place：Exhibition room
Number of positions：30 people
Admission：Free（need a day admission）,Reservation is not required.

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Saka Matsushita
Artist
Born in Japan, raised in New York City, Tokyo and Toronto.She trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course, London UK.
Prior to Motley, she gained a BA Hons in Costume Interpretation from Wimbledon School of Art (University of the Arts).Throughout and after her studies, she worked on variety of film, theatre and installation projects as a costume/set designer.
She has been working on personal projects since the beginning of 2012 and currently based in Tokyo.

www.sakamatsushita.com
instagram: @sakamat