More than Human
More than Human brings together artworks by students from eco art studio: Hangpeng Lu, Sota Sasaki, Arisa SG, Takumi Itagaki, Rinichi Takumi, Takuto Kawakami, Hannah Wu, Katerina Allegracia. Through diverse mediums ranging from painting to sculpture to animation, this exhibition seeks to consider ‘human-ness’ in its different forms and limitations.
For some artists, this has meant turning into the animal world for answers, imaginatively exploring what it means to be human through our animal counterparts and their often mythilogical dimensions. For others, this process has involved self-introspection, looking in the mirror and thinking about how we truthfully appear to ourselves, and the methods we devise of hiding our wounds from the world.
Through this exhibition, we hope visitors can themselves reflect upon their forms and limitations as a human in the environment and society.
(January 16-22, 2024)
For some artists, this has meant turning into the animal world for answers, imaginatively exploring what it means to be human through our animal counterparts and their often mythilogical dimensions. For others, this process has involved self-introspection, looking in the mirror and thinking about how we truthfully appear to ourselves, and the methods we devise of hiding our wounds from the world.
Through this exhibition, we hope visitors can themselves reflect upon their forms and limitations as a human in the environment and society.
(January 16-22, 2024)
Exhibition
More than Human brings together artworks by students from waseda eco art studio. Through diverse mediums ranging from painting to sculpture to animation, this exhibition seeks to consider ‘human-ness’ in its different forms and limitations. For some artists, this has meant turning to the animal world for answers, imaginatively exploring what it means to be human through our animal counterparts and their often mythological dimensions. For others, this process has involved self-introspection, looking in the mirror and thinking about how we truthfully appear to ourselves, and the methods we devise of hiding our wounds from the world. Through this exhibition, we hope visitors can themselves reflect upon their own forms and limitations as a human in today’s environment and society.
「モア・ザン・ヒューマン」展では、エコ・アートスタジオの学生による作品を展示しています。絵画、彫刻やアニメーションなどの多様な種類の芸術を通して、本展は「人間らしさ」について、そのさまざまな形態と限界の中で考察しま す。あるアーティストは、動物界に目を向け、動物の形や神話的な次元を通して、人間であることの意味を想像力で探求します。他のアーティストは、内省を通して、鏡に映る自分を見ながら、ありのままの自分がどこに現れるのか、他者からどのように傷を隠そうとしてしまうのかについて考えました。この展覧会を通して、来場者が環境や社会の中での人間としての自分の形態や限界について考えることができればと思います。
Works
‘玉兔’ ink on washi, 2024, 37 secs. Direction and animation by Hannah Wu, music by Bruno van Dycke. Painted frame by frame with ink on calligraphy paper, 玉兎 reimagines the ancient Chinese and Japanese myth of the rabbit and the moon. Alluding to the Japanese version where the rabbit pounds mochi on the moon, this animation plays with themes of form and formlessness, harmony, disruption and metamorphosis, realised through the wetness and spontaneity of ink. artist: Hannah Wu
Video that questions the boundary between sea and land and visualizes the relationships between the creatures that exist between them.
海と陸との境界を問い、その間に存在する生き物同士の関係を視覚化する映像 (
Nianxi Yang,
)
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The Exhibition
"More than Human” and New “Humanity”
ー Hiroko Shimizu
I had the opportunity to see More than Human, a fascinating exhibition that could be called the germ of ecological expression, featuring works by students of the eco art studio.1 According to the exhibition concept, the aim is to re-examine "humanity" through various media. This seems to be in line with Morton's idea that "to be ecological means to thoroughly rethink human existence.2 As the title More than Human suggests, "humanity" here means to sharpen our ecological attitudes and senses, and to discover a new (or original) "humanity" to face the world of the future through dialogue with the various species surrounding us.
The exhibition was a place of communication where the lives of humans and other species resonate, an attempt to grasp the complex entanglements and encounters of a real environment where each species comes to life.(See the captions of "Works" for a brief introduction to this unique and surprisingly rich
collection of works.)
The works explore the boundaries of mutual connections with their rich sensibilities that touch, distance, open and close, interpenetrate, blend, and detached from yourself. These are powerful movements that challenge to break down the dualism between different species such as passion and impulse for contact and friction, dialogue and contemplation for harmony, questions and struggles, surprise and intuitive reactions to the unknown, and dynamism filled with fresh sensibility.
There were diverse attitudes that sincerely respects the fact that each species lives in its own time and space and rhythm, and tries to approach the subjectivity of other species. The sensations, attitudes, and expressive language are shared by transforming invisible relationships into perceivable and visible states. Furthermore, they also have the potential to open up cross-disciplinary and open dialogue with scientific knowledge and other fields.
The diversity of the works in this exhibition is as great as the number of encounters with other species, and it seems that through the collective works and dialogues between the participants and viewers, a sense of mutual care and ties emerge between different species and even among human beings. This may be the process of rediscovering "humanity" and "interconnection” throughout this exhibition.
The exhibition was a place of communication where the lives of humans and other species resonate, an attempt to grasp the complex entanglements and encounters of a real environment where each species comes to life.(See the captions of "Works" for a brief introduction to this unique and surprisingly rich
collection of works.)
The works explore the boundaries of mutual connections with their rich sensibilities that touch, distance, open and close, interpenetrate, blend, and detached from yourself. These are powerful movements that challenge to break down the dualism between different species such as passion and impulse for contact and friction, dialogue and contemplation for harmony, questions and struggles, surprise and intuitive reactions to the unknown, and dynamism filled with fresh sensibility.
There were diverse attitudes that sincerely respects the fact that each species lives in its own time and space and rhythm, and tries to approach the subjectivity of other species. The sensations, attitudes, and expressive language are shared by transforming invisible relationships into perceivable and visible states. Furthermore, they also have the potential to open up cross-disciplinary and open dialogue with scientific knowledge and other fields.
The diversity of the works in this exhibition is as great as the number of encounters with other species, and it seems that through the collective works and dialogues between the participants and viewers, a sense of mutual care and ties emerge between different species and even among human beings. This may be the process of rediscovering "humanity" and "interconnection” throughout this exhibition.
Notes
1. eco art studio, James Jack, Department of Intermedia Science and Art, Waseda University, January 16-22, 2024
2. Shinohara Masatake, The Ecology of Plurality: An Environmental Philosophy of What Is Not Human, Ibunsha, 2016: 13.
1. eco art studio, James Jack, Department of Intermedia Science and Art, Waseda University, January 16-22, 2024
2. Shinohara Masatake, The Ecology of Plurality: An Environmental Philosophy of What Is Not Human, Ibunsha, 2016: 13.
展覧会 「More than Human」と新たな「人間らしさ」
ー 清水裕子 「エコロジカルである表現」の萌芽ともいうべき興味深い展覧会、エコ・アート・スタジオの学生による作品を紹介する「More than Human」展を見る機会を得た註1。展覧会コンセプトによると「人間らしさ」をさまざまなメディアによって考察することをめざしているとのこと。これは、モートンが考える「エコロジカルであるとは人間存在を徹底的に見直すことを意味する」註2ということに通じるようだ。ここでの「人間らしさ」とは、タイトルの「More than Human」からも分かるように、エコロジカルな態度や感覚を研ぎ澄まして、我々を取り巻く多種と対話を通じて、未来の世界に向き合うための新たな（あるいは本来の）「人間性」を発見するということだろう。展覧会は人間と他種との生命が共振する、複雑な絡み合いを捉えようとする交信の場、それぞれ
の種が生き生きと浮かび上がり出会うリアルの場となった。（ユニークで意外性に満ちた作品群の簡単な紹介は“Works”のキャプションを参照のこと）
接触、摩擦への情熱や衝動、あるいは対話、融和への沈思黙考、問いかけともがき、未知への驚きと直感的なリアクション、みずみずしい感性に満ちたダイナミズムなど、自分らしい豊かな感性で、触れ合ったり、遠ざかったり、開閉したり、相互浸透したり、融和したり、無化したりする相互連環の境界を探っているようだ。それらは異種間の二元論を打ち崩そうとする力強い運動だと言えるだろう。
そこにはそれぞれの種が独自の時空間やリズムで生きていることを真摯にリスペクトして、他の種の主観にアプローチしようとする多様な態度があった。それらの感覚と姿勢、そして表現言語は見えない関係性を知覚できる、見える状態へと変換して共有される。さらには科学的な知見などとの領域横断的でオープンな対話をひらく可能性を持っている。
多種との出会いの数だけ作品の多様性があるのだが、この展覧会のコレクティブな作品と、参加者や鑑賞者が出会い互いに対話することを通じて、異なる種同士、さらには人間同士が気づかい、つながっている感覚が立ち上がってくるようだ。それがこの展覧会において「人間らしさ」や「自分らしさ」を再発見するプロセスになるのではないだろうか。
接触、摩擦への情熱や衝動、あるいは対話、融和への沈思黙考、問いかけともがき、未知への驚きと直感的なリアクション、みずみずしい感性に満ちたダイナミズムなど、自分らしい豊かな感性で、触れ合ったり、遠ざかったり、開閉したり、相互浸透したり、融和したり、無化したりする相互連環の境界を探っているようだ。それらは異種間の二元論を打ち崩そうとする力強い運動だと言えるだろう。
そこにはそれぞれの種が独自の時空間やリズムで生きていることを真摯にリスペクトして、他の種の主観にアプローチしようとする多様な態度があった。それらの感覚と姿勢、そして表現言語は見えない関係性を知覚できる、見える状態へと変換して共有される。さらには科学的な知見などとの領域横断的でオープンな対話をひらく可能性を持っている。
多種との出会いの数だけ作品の多様性があるのだが、この展覧会のコレクティブな作品と、参加者や鑑賞者が出会い互いに対話することを通じて、異なる種同士、さらには人間同士が気づかい、つながっている感覚が立ち上がってくるようだ。それがこの展覧会において「人間らしさ」や「自分らしさ」を再発見するプロセスになるのではないだろうか。
註
1. 早稲田大学表現工学科ジェームス・ジャック研究室エコ・アート・スタジオ、2024年1月16日〜22日
2. 篠原雅武 『複数性のエコロジー──人間ならざるものの環境哲学』以文社、2016、p.13.
1. 早稲田大学表現工学科ジェームス・ジャック研究室エコ・アート・スタジオ、2024年1月16日〜22日
2. 篠原雅武 『複数性のエコロジー──人間ならざるものの環境哲学』以文社、2016、p.13.