E-Issue 07 –– AUH
Winter 2023-24

January 29th, 2024



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in Abu Dhabi/Dubai
  3. Cover Interview: Shaikha Al Ketbi on Darawan
  4. Rapport: Public Art in the Gulf and a Case Study of Manar Abu Dhabi
  5. Hashel Al Lamki’s Survey Exhibition Maqam Reflects on a Decade of Practice in Abu Dhabi
  6. “You Can’t Stand on a Movement”: Michelangelo Pistoletto Interviews Benton Interviewing Pistoletto

E-07++
Winter/Spring 2024



About ––

    What We Do
    Mission
    Calendar
    Editorial Board
    Contributors
    Contact

Interviews ––

    Selected Archive

Open Call ––

    Policy
    E-08 Seoul

Newsletter ––




Chronological Archive ––

    Selected Archive

Artist Interview November 18th, 2016
AUH Raed Yassin in Abu Dhabi

Editorial March 1st, 2018
AUH Abu Dhabi Is The New Calabasas

Exhibition Listing May 22nd, 2018
DXB Christopher Benton: If We Don't Reclaim Our History, The Sand Will

Artist Interview June 15th, 2018
TYO An Interview with BIEN, a Rising Japanese Artist

Artist Interview July 17th, 2018
TYO Rintaro Fuse on Selfies and Cave Painting

Artist Interview August 28th, 2018
BER Slavs and Tatars: “Pulling a Thread to Undo The Sweater”

Artist Interview September 1st, 2018
NYC Shirin Neshat In Conversation with Sophie Arni and Ev Zverev

Artist Interview September 1st, 2018
PAR Hottest Spices: Michèle Lamy

E-Issue 01 –– AUH/DXB
Summer 2020

August 1st, 2020



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in the UAE
  3. Pop(Corn): Hashel Al Lamki
  4. Tailoring in Abu Dhabi
  5. Rapport: Dubai
  6. Michael Rakowitz From the Diaspora


E-01++
Fall/Winter 2020-21


Artist Interview August 23rd, 2020
LHR/MCT Hanan Sultan Rhymes Frankincense with Minimalism


Artist Interview August 24th, 2020
DXB Augustine Paredes Taking Up Space

Artist Interview August 26th, 2020
AUH Sarah Almehairi Initiates Conversations

Market Interview August 28th, 2020
AUH/DXB 101 Pioneers Ethical and Curious Art Collecting


Exhibition September 1st, 2020
DXB Alserkal Arts Foundation Presents Mohamed Melehi


Market Interview September 4th, 2020
DXB Meet Tamila Kochkarova Behind ‘No Boys Allowed’


Artist Interview September 7th, 2020
DXB Taaboogah Infuses Comedy Into Khaleeji Menswear

Artist Interview September 10th, 2020
LHR/CAI Alaa Hindia’s Jewelry Revives Egyptian Nostalgia

Curator Interview September 14th, 2020
UAE Tawahadna Introduces MENA Artists to a Global Community

Exhibition Review September 24th, 2020
MIA a_part Gives Artists 36 Hours to React


Artist Interview September 27th, 2020
AUH BAIT 15 Welcomes New Member Zuhoor Al Sayegh

Market Interview October 14th, 2021
DXB Thaely Kicks Off Sustainable Sneakers


Exhibition Review October 19th, 2020
DXB Do You See Me How I See You?


Exhibition October 22nd, 2020
TYO James Jarvis Presents Latest Collages at 3110NZ


Exhibition Review October 22nd, 2020
AUH Ogamdo: Crossing a Cultural Highway between Korea and the UAE


Book Review October 28th, 2020
DAM Investigating the Catalogues of the National Museum of Damascus


Exhibition Review November 13th, 2020
DXB
Kanye Says Listen to the Kids: Youth Takeover at Jameel Arts Centre


Exhibition Review November 16th, 2021
DXB Melehi’s Waves Complicate Waving Goodbye


Exhibition Review November 19th, 2020
DXB Spotlight on Dubai Design Week 2020


Exhibition Review November 21st, 2020
DXB 101 Strikes Again with Second Sale at Alserkal Avenue


Exhibition Review
November 23rd, 2020


AUH SEAF Cohort 7 at Warehouse 421


Exhibition Review December 9th, 2020
SHJ Sharjah Art Foundation Jets Ahead on the Flying Saucer


Curator Interview January 25th, 2021
DXB Sa Tahanan Collective Redefines Home for Filipino Artists


Exhibition Review February 21st, 2021
GRV MIA Anywhere Hosts First Virtual Exhibition of Female Chechen Artists  

🎙️GAD Talk Series –– Season 1 2020


November 1st, 2020
1. What is Global Art Daily? 2015 to Now

November 16th, 2020
2. Where is Global Art Daily? An Open Coversation on Migration as Art Practitioners


November 29th, 2020
3. When the Youth Takes Over: Reflecting on the 2020 Jameel Arts Centre Youth Takeover

December 20th, 2020
4. Young Curators in Tokyo: The Making of The 5th Floor

January 27th, 2021
5. How To Create Digital Networks in The Art World?

E-Issue 02 –– NYC
Spring 2021

February 21st, 2021



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in NYC
  3. Pop(Corn): Zeid Jaouni
  4. You Can Take The Girl Out Of The City
  5. Rapport: NYC
  6. Kindergarten Records Discuss The Future of Electronic Music
  7. Sole DXB Brings NY Hip-Hop To Abu Dhabi
  8. Wei Han Finds ‘Home’ In New York
  9. Vikram Divecha: Encounters and Negotiations

E-02++
Spring/Summer 2021

Exhibition Review March 3rd, 2021
DXB There’s a Hurricane at the Foundry


Exhibition Review March 7th, 2021
AUH Re-viewing Contrasts: Hyphenated Spaces at Warehouse421


Curator Interview March 21st, 2021
DXB Permeability and Regional Nodes: Sohrab Hura on Curating Growing Like a Tree at Ishara Art Foundation


Exhibition March 28th, 2021
DXB Alserkal Art Week Top Picks


Exhibition Review April 1st, 2021
DXB A ‘Menu Poem’ and All That Follows


Exhibition Review April 5th, 2021
DXB A Riot Towards Landscapes


Exhibition April 16th, 2021
RUH Noor Riyadh Shines Light on Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Art Strategy


Artist Interview April 26th, 2021
CTU/AUH/YYZ Sabrina Zhao: Between Abu Dhabi, Sichuan, and Toronto


Exhibition Review April 27th, 2021
TYO BIEN Opens Two Solo Exhibitions in Island Japan and Parcel


Artist Interview April 28th, 2021
DXB Ana Escobar: Objects Revisited


Exhibition May 9th, 2021
LDN Fulfilment Services Ltd. Questions Techno-Capitalism on Billboards in London


Artist Interview May 11th, 2021
BAH Mihrab: Mysticism, Devotion, and Geo-Identity


Curator Interview May 20th, 2021
DXB There Is A You In The Cloud You Can’t Delete: A Review of “Age of You” at Jameel Arts Centre

Market Interview May 26th, 2021
TYO Startbahn, Japan’s Leading Art Blockchain Company, Builds a New Art Infrastructure for the Digital Age

Exhibition June 11th, 2021
TYO “Mimicry of Hollows” Opens at The 5th Floor


Exhibiton Review June 20th, 2021
AUH “Total Landscaping”at Warehouse 421


Artist Interview June 30th, 2021
OSA Rintaro Fuse Curates “Silent Category” at Creative Center Osaka


Exhibition Review August 9th, 2021
DXB “After The Beep”: A Review and Some Reflections

E-Issue 03 ––TYO
Fall 2021

October 1st, 2022



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in TYO
  3. Pop(Corn): Nimyu
  4. Ahmad The Japanese: Bady Dalloul on Japan and Belonging
  5. Rapport: Tokyo
  6. Alexandre Taalba Redefines Virtuality at The 5th Floor
  7. Imagining Distant Ecologies in Hypersonic Tokyo: A Review of “Floating Between the Tropical and Glacial Zones”
  8. Ruba Al-Sweel Curates “Garden of e-arthly Delights” at SUMAC Space
  9. Salwa Mikdadi Reflects on the Opening of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Arab Center for the Study of Art

E-03++
Fall/Winter 2021-22


Market Interview October 6th, 2021
RUH HH Prince Fahad Al Saud Discusses Saudi Arabia’s Artistic Renaissance


Exhibition October 7th, 2021
RUH Misk Art Institute’s Annual Flagship Exhibition Explores the Universality of Identity


Curator Interview October 15th, 2021
IST “Once Upon a Time Inconceivable”: A Review and a Conversation


Exhibition Review October 16th, 2021
AUH Woman as a Noun, and a Practice: “As We Gaze Upon Her” at Warehouse421



Exhibition Review February 11th, 2022

Artist Interview February 26th, 2022
TYO Akira Takayama on McDonald’s Radio University, Heterotopia, and Wagner Project


Artist Interview March 10th, 2022
DXB Prepare The Ingredients and Let The Rest Flow: Miramar and Zaid’s “Pure Data” Premieres at Satellite for Quoz Arts Fest 2022


Exhibition March 11th, 2022
DXB Must-See Exhibitions in Dubai - Art Week Edition 2022


Exhibition Review March 14th, 2022
DXB Art Dubai Digital, An Alternative Art World?

E-Issue 04 –– IST
Spring 2022

March 15th, 2022



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in IST
  3. Pop(Corn): Refik Anadol
  4. Rapport: Istanbul
  5. Independent Spaces in Istanbul: Sarp Özer on Operating AVTO

E-04++
Spring/Summer 2022


Curator Interview March 21st, 2022

Market Interview March 28th, 2022
DXB Dubai's Postmodern Architecture: Constructing the Future with 3dr Models


Exhibition April 23rd, 2022
HK Startbahn Presents “Made in Japan 3.0: Defining a New Phy-gital Reality”, an NFT Pop-Up at K11 Art Mall


Exhibition May 6th, 2022
IST
Istanbul’s 5533 Presents Nazlı Khoshkhabar’s “Around and Round”


Artist Interview May 13th, 2022
DXB
“We Are Witnessing History”: Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian On Their Retrospective Exhibition at NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery

Artist Interview June 13th, 2022
DXB “Geometry is Everywhere”: An Interview and Walking Tour of Order of Magnitude, Jitish Kallat’s Solo Exhibition at Dubai’s Ishara Art Foundation


Exhibition June 21st, 2022
DXB Art Jameel Joins The World Weather Network in a Groundbreaking Response to Global Climate Crisis

Exhibition June 27th, 2022
UAE
What’s On in the UAE: Our Top Summer Picks

Curator Interview July 9th, 2022
IST Creating an Artist Books Library in Istanbul: Aslı Özdoyuran on BAS

E-Issue 05 –– VCE
Fall 2022

September 5th, 2022



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in VCE
  3. Pop(Corn): UAE National Pavilion
  4. Rapport: Venice
  5. Zeitgeist of our Time: Füsun Onur for the Turkish Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale
  6. GAD’s Top Picks: National Pavilions
  7. Strangers to the Museum Wall: Kehinde Wiley’s Venice Exhibition Speaks of Violence and Portraiture
  8. Questioning Everyday Life: Alluvium by Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian at OGR Torino in Venice

E-05++
Fall/Winter 2022-23


Market Interview June 28th, 2022
HK
How Pearl Lam Built Her Gallery Between China and Europe


Exhibition November 11th, 2022
TYO
“Atami Blues” Brings Together UAE-Based and Japanese Artists in HOTEL ACAO ANNEX


Exhibition December 2nd, 2022
TYO Wetland Lab Proposes Sustainable Cement Alternative in Tokyo

Artist Interview December 9th, 2022
DXB Navjot Altaf Unpacks Eco-Feminism and Post-Pandemic Reality at Ishara Art Foundation

Artist Interview January 8th, 2023
TYO Shu Yonezawa and the Art of Animation

Artist Interview January 19th, 2023
NYC Reflecting on Her Southwestern Chinese Bai Roots, Peishan Huang Captures Human Traces on Objects and Spaces

Exhibition Review February 9th, 2023
DXB Augustine Paredes Builds His Paradise Home at Gulf Photo Plus

Artist Interview February 22nd, 2023
DXB Persia Beheshti Shares Thoughts on Virtual Worlds and the State of Video Art in Dubai Ahead of Her Screening at Bayt Al Mamzar

E-Issue 06 –– DXB/SHJ
Spring 2023

April 12th, 2023



  1. Editor’s Note
  2. What’s On in the UAE
  3. Pop(Corn): Jumairy
  4. Rapport: Art Dubai 2023
  5. Highlights from Sharjah Biennial 15
  6. Is Time Just an Illusion? A Review of "Notations on Time" at Ishara Art Foundation
  7. Saif Mhaisen and His Community at Bayt AlMamzar









DXB Christopher Joshua Benton to Debut Mubeen, City as Archive at The Third Line Shop in Collaboration with Global Art Daily

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Mark

Rintaro Fuse on Selfies and Cave Painting


By Sophie Mayuko Arni

Published on July 17, 2018

        Rintaro Fuse (b.1994) is a multimedia artist based in Tokyo, whose work oscillates between digital dissonance and art historical research. Concerned with selfies, Iphone visuals, and the fabric of postmodern society, Fuse graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He is currently a postgraduate student at the Department of Media Studies, pursuing an MFA in Film and New Media. Fuse participated in numerous group exhibitions in Tokyo including 'In the air', 3331 Arts Chiyoda (2015), 'Anzai Prize Scholarship Recipient Exhibition', Tokyo University of the Arts Yuga Gallery (2015), 'Room with a good view' at Turner Gallery (2016), 'LANDSCAPE: detour for White Base' at Bambinart Gallery (2017) and 'Ginza 24h Squad' (2017). His solo shows include 'iphone mural (iPhone's cave wall painting)' at Block House, Tokyo (2016). He participated in ‘Model Room’, a two-artist exhibition and collaboration with Yuta Akiyama at SNOW Contemporary (2018), and curated ‘Mapping Loneliness’, a group exhibition at Yotsuya Unidentified Studios (2018).

His artistic practice stems from studying prehistorical cave paintings and modern social life, which he doesn't see as separate. His point of view is one of creating links between various practices. As you'll read in this interview, he thinks of selfies are the 'most accelerated form of reverse engineering'. As subject and object become one, the symbiotic relationship between artist and viewers takes today on a more fluid shape, a less concrete separation, and that confusing space is exactly what Fuse tries to capture in his complex cave-like installations. It is indeed in the dark and with a certain distance that he succeeds in producing visual experiences that showcase the cruel lack of depth and desire to move beyond the superficiality of our information age.

1. Rintaro Fuse, Installation of existence creation and annihilation, 2017. Dimensions variable.




- English translation follows -


S.A. - 今日は、インタビューありがとうございます。あなたは,Media-fluid インストール・アーティストです。でも、また、日本の最もセレクティブなプログラムである東京藝術大学の油絵科からの学位を持っています。 最初にどんな絵に魅力を感じていましたか? そして、どのようにして、インスタレーション・アートの方向へ移動しましたか?

Rintaro Fuse ー 高校時代から絵は描いていました。漫画やアニメーションが好きで、特に"AKIRA" のようなSF的なランドスケープをよく描いてました。当時、日本でCHAOS*LOUNGE という現代アート集団がデビューして、世間を騒がせました。最初は、インターネット上にアップされている画像を素材として再使用したり、オタクカルチャーを搾取的に、あたかも自身のコンセプトとして使う彼らの表現に対して怒りを覚えました。でも、僕らは、インターネット世代であり、インターネットがアートになっていく彼らのコンセプトに次第に惹かれて行きました。僕はオタクカルチャーやオタククリエーターの作るイメージがすきです。日本では、絵画からシンボルを表現するという内面からくるシンボルは出てこないような気がして、諸外国からくるものや宗教とかいう、外からのシンボルの表現に成り代わってしまう、だから日本人は、キャラクターだけは作れると言われてしまう。コンテンポラリーイメージとして、アニメキャラクターを使っている彼らを見て、自分が絵を描いて表現する目的について考えました。アーティストとして、新しいシンボルを作り出すべきだと思いました。でもそれを"Tableau" の上で表現することはできないと思い、Media-fluid インスタレーションに移動していきました。絵画からシンボルを表現するというような西洋的なコンセプトよりは、絵画を見ていなくても、そこに絵が存在する空間をアートとして捉えてみたい、それがインスタレーションにつながりました。芸大の油絵科は、あらゆるメディアを選択できます。

S.A. - 私はあなたの作品を、建築家秋山ゆうた氏との2人展「Model room」で発見しました。 あなた達は壁紙に女の子の肖像画とベッドの上のカメラ「ルシダ」の在るアパートメント ステューディオを建てました。 それは今日のソーシャルメディアに夢中になった若い女の子たちのモノローグのようです。 コンセプトについてもっと教えていただけますか? "モデルルームは建築家のコンセプトですか、それともある一つのモデルとしての部屋を表現していますか?

Rintaro Fuse ー その両方です。簡潔に言えば, "How to dream a dream" ということになります。アパートメントの各部屋の間には、壁と壁の間に存在する隙間があります。その誰のものでも無い空っぽな隙間の空間を秋山氏が演出し、僕の場合は、その空っぽなスペースの内側をIphoneの空間にたとえて、それがどう広がっていくのかを描きたかったのです。

S.A. - あなたのレチナ ペインティング(Retina painting)は、とても美しく、興味深かったです。抽象的なセルフィー写真のように見えます。 あなたはインスピレーションとしてソーシャルメディアにある実際の写真を使用しましたか?

Rintaro Fuse ー 基本的に僕のコンセプトとして、キャンバスとかスクリーンに直接タッチした絵は描きません。だからスプレーを使って描きます。まず、カメラ・オブスクラ(camera obscura /暗室)としてテントを使い、小さな穴を通して前にいるモデルを投影像として捉え、そして素描をする工程をとりました。実際に肉眼で見て描いたものもあります。セルフィーやインスタグラムのイメージを使用することもあります。

S.A. - あなたはセルフィー写真と3つのセルフのコンセプトについて書いていますね。 セルフィーの写真では、撮る人、被写体、鑑賞者は同じです、それは自己です。 今日のソーシャルメディア時代の3セルフついての意見を聞かせてください。

Rintaro Fuse ー 見る人の数じゃなくて、誰に見られるか?という時には、リバース エンジニアリング(reverse engineering)の最も加速された状況がセルフィーだと思っています。僕としては、セルフィーから多くのインスピレーションを得ています。アーティストは、いろいろなものを繋げていく作業をするけど、例えば、僕のIphoneとcave paintingのような、何をどう繋げていくか?というのがクリエイティブなポイントだと思っています。その時に、セルフィーには繋ぎ方のバリエーションがものすごく多くて、何を繋げていってもダイナミックなものに見えてくるところが面白い。セルフィーにおいての三つのセルフ、 撮る人、被写体、鑑賞者を一人で実現すること、そしてその中で、加速したリバースエンジニアリングをしていく、そんなところが洞窟壁画にも似ていると思います。これが解体再築していけばいいなぁと考えています。

セルフィー作品において僕が大切にしたことは、3セルフが移動し続けることを鑑賞することができる点で、その動いているサークルを鑑賞することの面白さだと思います。言い換えれば、サークルの中で動いている閉じられた運動を人々は外側からIphone越しに見ることができるということです。

S.A. - 2016年には、ブロックハウス・トーキョーでの個展「Iphone Mural」を発表しました。 あなたは、洞窟の絵やソーシャルメディアのプラットフォームの「タイムライン」を取り上げました。 FacebookやTwitterのタイムライン上での時間と動きの概念について詳しく教えてください。 洞窟でのマーク・メーキングは、「存在する」ことを証するためのパブリックな永久的なサインでした。デジタルプラットホームの静止画像はどうですか? どんな風にFacebookのステータスは静的で永久的ですか?

Rintaro Fuse ー まず、洞窟壁画は、静止画像では、ありません!ドイツのWerner Herzog 監督によって3Dで撮られたフランスのラスコー洞窟壁画のドキュメントフィルム "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (2010) を見てもらうとよく解りますが、洞窟壁画を見る時は、暗がりの中、松明を照らしながら見て回るので、イメージも動いているような感じがします。GIFイメージに似ていて、アニメーションのような気がします。洞窟壁画は、もともと動画の始まりとさえ言われています。見るためにライトが必要だから、それによって動くということ、近くにあるものしか見えず遠くに行くとまた違うイメージが見えてくる、そこがTimelineに近いと思ったのです。Twitterの場合、言葉自体が刻まれ縮小化され、さらに他者の言葉も割り込んできて、一つの流れの中に複数の流れがどんどん含まれて行く点が、洞窟壁画においても、複数のいったい何人の作者が描いているのさえ分らずに人々が描き足していった点が、Twitterにすごくシンクロしていて近いなぁと思います。Twitterにおいて、自分がポストしたテキストが他者の介入によってその主体がTimelineとしてバラバラになって行く点も、時を隔てて描き重ねていった洞窟壁画に似ていると思います。僕は、主体がバラバラになった美術作品がどんなフォルムになって行くのか?ということにとても興味があります。

S.A. - あなたはグラフィティアートにインスピレーションを得ましたか? 古代の洞窟壁画は世界で最初のグラフィティーであったという人もいます。 あなたはFacebook、Instagram、Twitterを "Street"として見ていますか? あるいはスピードと自己主張のアイデア、Instagramの瞬間的な性質に関心を持っていますか?

Rintaro Fuse ー はい、僕はグラフィティーアートも見てきましたし、インスピレーションも得ました。でも、Streetは、屋外に存在するものであって、気候の変化や昼夜の光の変化などを含むところが洞窟とは大きな違いだと思います。洞窟では、雨だろうが天気だろうが変わらない、時の流れさえ変わらない、普遍的なホワイトキューブになっている。もしアートに普遍的な条件があるとしたら、時間の流れに関係がないこと。僕は、洞窟壁画の気候とか時間の変化に全くさらされてない点に注目することが大事だと思っています。僕は、普遍的なアートというものに興味があって、実際それが実現存在しているということに、さらにとても興味を注がれます。そんな意味で、僕は、Street の外壁に描くということは好きではありません。

S.A. - "Iphone Mural" では、壁の2D作品を見るために人々が歩くことができる洞窟を作りました。 また、たくさんのスクリーンと建設的オブジェが展示されていました。 そのようなインストールを作る上で、何があなたを魅了しましか? なぜあなたは、鑑賞者が実体験のように感じる作品を作ったのですか?

Rintaro Fuse ー その時代のコンテンポラリーな複雑さを複雑なままに体験できるということ、鑑賞者に複雑さを体験させることが、僕の自分のアートの一つの機能だと思っています。"Iphone Mural" においては、僕自身がキュレイトし、13人のコラボレーターと作り上げました。それぞれ違った分野から、アーティストだけではなく、作り手のダイバーシティーを示すため、グラフィックデザイナー、ミュージシャン、コメディアン などと一緒に作ったものが展示されています。

S.A. - あなたは、今日のソーシャルメディアのメタファーの欠如について話をしています。それについてもっと教えてください。Instagramの写真やTwitterの引用文をあまりにも本当のことのように取り扱かっていると思いますか?

Rintaro Fuse ー メタファー を使うには、何か体系が必要です。もし僕がメタファーを使うとしたら、ある種の言語体系を理解しなければなりません。でも、今のソーシャルメディア エイジにおいて、どんな言語の体系が機能しうるのか?それが機能するような言語体系が現在一つもないのではないか?と考えてしまいます。だからそれがメタファーの欠如につながっていきます。メタファーに行くには、オルターナティブなシステムを作るためのきっかけが必要なんじゃないかと思っています。昔なら宗教とかが体系を作る際に役立ってはきたけれど、今では、新しいシステムが生まれるためには、書き言葉とかアート作品とかををシンボル化していって、それが徐々に体系になって行くのでは?と考えます。新しい、コンテンポラリーなアート作品がそのコンプレックスな流れの中でのスターティング ポイントになってくれれば、そしてそれがオルターナティブなきっかけと成り、アート作品がシンボルの生まれてくる場所になってくれればと思っています。

もし、シンボルが現れていたら、アートはアレゴリーを持って解体して行く、それはシンボルとアレゴリーがお互い入れ替わってあらわれて行く現象として知られていることです。現代において新しいシンボルを打ち立てることは、新しいナショナリズムやラディカル運動になってしまうし、これは危惧するべきだと思います。あえて僕が"Iphone Mural" などで、複雑さを表示したのは、シンボルの構築とアレゴリーの構築とを同時にパラレルに実装できる空間が作れたらと考えたからです。僕の場合は、アート作品としての空間でそれらを表現できたらと思ってます。こういった考えが生まれてくるのも、今の世の中においての新しいシステムへの創造力なんだろうなぁと思います。

S.A. - さて、最後にレチナ・ペインチングに関する技術的な質問です。 あなたが使用したメディアは何ですか、なぜモノクロの色とぼかしを使用しましたか?

Rintaro Fuse ー レチナ・ペインティングでは、スプレーを使って、距離をとって描きました。油絵の具ではありません。セルフィーを見ながら描いてましたが、テント型のカメラ・オブスクラを使って描いている場合は、どんなものか暗くてよく分からなくなることがあります。スプレーを使って描く時はキャンバスとの距離が大事になってきます。あまり近ずきすぎるとスプレーペイントが泣いたように垂れ流れてしまいます。セルフィーを撮る時もバランスのとれた距離が必要です。そういった意味も含めて、サブジェクトとオブジェクトの距離を表現するために、スプレーで、距離をとって描きました。

S.A. - 色に関する最後の質問ですが、あなたのwebsiteにはコバルトブルーの背景があります。 この色についてもっと教えていただけますか? あなたにとって、どういう意味がありますか?

Rintaro Fuse - 私はブルーが人間の本性と最も離れていると思っています。それはレッドの反対です。 たとえば、Windowsのエラーページ、Twitter、Skype、Facebook、Instagramの古いバージョンなど、機械色のようなもの。 また人間が色を選びたいと思ったとき、青を選ぶことがよくあります。 青は、浮遊感を覚えさせる色でもあると思います。

S.A. - "イヴ・クライン(Yves Klein)の青 "は、どう思いますか?

Rintaro Fuse - 私はイヴ・クラインが大好きです! 僕にとって、彼は現代の洞窟画家であるとさえ思っています。

S.A. - 今日は、とても興味深いお話ありがとうございました。新しいアイデアに満ちた次の作品を楽しみにしています。

Rintaro Fuse ー こちらこそ、色々お話ができて楽しかったです。ありがとうございました。


2. Rintaro Fuse, Retina Painting, 2018. Mixed media (acrylic and oil paint, spray paint). Courtesy of the artist.

S.A. - Thank you for accepting to do this interview. You are a media-fluid installation artist. But you also have a degree from the oil painting department of Tokyo University of the Arts, which the most selective painting program in Japan. Were you first attracted to painting, and then turned to installation?

Rintaro Fuse - I've been drawing pictures since high school. I've been drawing pictures since high school. I like Mangas and Japanese animations, I especially liked the SF landscapes of "AKIRA". I didn't draw portraits. At that time, the contemporary art group called CHAOS * LOUNGE debuted in Japan, and to be honest I was first annoyed by it. At first, I felt angry about their expression which reuses the image uploaded on the Internet as a material and somehow exploits the Otaku [geek] culture for its own concept. But we are the Internet generation, and I was gradually attracted to their concept that the Internet becomes art. I like the image made by Otaku culture and Otaku creators.

In Japanese painting, it seems that the emphasis is not placed on domestic, interior symbols. Instead, these are replaced with expressions of outside symbols, such as the ones coming from other countries or religions. I've heard this phrase before: 'Japanese people can only make characters'. I thought about the purpose of drawing and painting and using animation characters as contemporary images. As an artist, I thought that I should create a new symbol. But these thoughts, I couldn't express them on a tableau. So I moved to this 'Media-fluid' installation. It feels more natural than the western-style concept of expressing symbols from paintings. I'd like to capture the space where paintings exist as art, which leads to installation. Anyway, at my university, students don't need to stick with one medium only. You can choose any medium from the oil painting department.

S.A. - I found your work in a two-person exhibition 'Model room' with Yuuta Akiyama. You built an apartment studio with a girl portrait on the wallpaper and a camera lucida on the bed. It seems to be a monologue of young girls who were crazy about today's social media. Could you tell us more about the concept? Is the 'model room' a concept of architectural showroom, or is it literally a bedroom of a fashion model?

Rintaro Fuse - It's both. Showroom and model room. Briefly, it refers to the concept of "how to dream a dream". Between each room in the apartment, there is a gap between the white cube wall and the apartment-style wallpaper. Mr. Akiyama produced the empty gap space, not in anyone's possession, and on my side I wanted to describe how this empty space relates to the Iphone spreads, comparing the inside of this physical empty space to the space of the Iphone.

S.A. - Your Retina Painting was very beautiful. It looked like an abstract selfie picture. Did you use actual photos on social media as an inspiration?

Rintaro Fuse - I use selfie images or images from Instagram or Twitter. But I mainly use a live model. Basically my concept is that I don't draw a picture by directly touching a canvas or screen. I want to maintain a certain distance. As such, I paint with a spray can. First of all, we used a tent to create a camera obscura - a dark room - and captured the reflection of the live model through a small hole as a projected image. And then, I traced the image. Actually there are things that I painted looking with the naked eye, too.

S.A. - You wrote about the selfie and the three selves. In a selfie, the photographer, the object, the viewer are the same, they are three versions of themselves. Please tell us your opinion about narcissism and social media today.

Rintaro Fuse - I think that the selfie is the most accelerated situation of reverse engineering. If we take into account who sees it, not the number of viewers. I am getting a lot of inspiration from selfies. Selfies have a lot of variations on how to connect, so it is interesting to see how dynamic it is. I think that it is similar to the cave painting in that it is a space that realizes three selves: the photographer, the object, and viewer is alone in a selfie, and reverse engineering is accelerated in the quick process of taking a picture. I think that this quick snap should be disassembled and rebuilt. What I cherish in a selfie is the fun of viewing the moving circle, the three selves that keep moving. In other words, people can see, from the outside, the closed-loop that is going on through the Iphone.

S.A. - In 2016 you presented your solo exhibition 'Iphone Mural' at Block House Tokyo. You juxtaposed the notion of "timeline" in cave pictures and social media platforms. Can you tell us more about the concept of time and movement on Facebook and Twitter timeline? Mark making in the cave was a permanent, and public sign to state that 'I exist'. What about the fleeting images on a digital platform? How is a Facebook status static and permanent?

Rintaro Fuse - First, the cave painting is not a static painting. I recommend watching the documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) by German director Werner Herzog. It shows the French Lascaux cave painting in three dimensions. When illuminating the cave paintings with a torch in the darkness, the image feels like it's moving. It looks like a GIF image, it feels like animation. Cave paintings are also said to be the original start of the animation. Because we needed a light to see it, and it moved because of it, only closed images could be seen. But if you are inside the space and take some distance, you can see a different image. I thought that the concept is similar to the timeline. In the case of Twitter, the words themselves are engraved and miniaturized, the words of others are interrupted, and multiple streams intermingle in one flow. With cave paintings, I think that people painted over each other's drawings without even knowing how many authors drew in this space beforehand. It is very close to Twitter and the way information is synchronized. On Twitter, the text I post is similar to the cave murals painted over time. My principal message becomes unimportant. It goes towards a timeline with the intervention of others. I am very interested in which form the artwork takes when its author falls apart.

S.A. - Have you inspired by graffiti art at all? Some say that ancient cave paintings were the first graffiti in the world. Are you viewing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter as a form of "street"? Or are you more concerned with the idea of speed and self-assertion? The instantaneous nature of mark-making?

Rintaro Fuse - Yes, I've been looking at graffiti and got inspiration. However, the street exists in the outdoors. I think that a place that naturally includes climate and daylight change is very different from the cave. In the cave, whether it is rainy or sunny, the setting doesn't change. Even the flow of time doesn't change, it is universal, unchangeable. It is a white cube in that sense. If art has universal conditions, it would stand apart from the flow of time. It is important to pay attention to the fact that cave paintings are not exposed to changes in the climate or time. I am interested in universal unchanged art. I am more interested in that it actually exists. In that sense, I don't like to paint on street walls.

S.A. - In Iphone Mural, you built a cave that people can walk through to see your 2D works on the wall. Also, you displayed a lot of screens and construction objects around. Did you think of creating an immersive experience for the viewer?

Rintaro Fuse - I wanted to make the viewer experience the complexity of our contemporary era, that is one of the functions of my art. In Iphone Mural, I created work but I also curated 13 other collaborators' work. Everyone is from a different field, they were not only artists but also graphic designers, musicians, comedians. I wanted to show the diversity of creators.

S.A. - You were also talking about the lack of metaphor in today's society. Please tell me more about it. Do you think that Instagram photos and Twitter quotes are understood too literally?

Rintaro Fuse - In order to use a metaphor, some system is necessary. If I use a metaphor, I must understand some sort of language system a priori. But what kind of language system can work in the social media age today? I think that there is currently no linguistic system. That automatically leads to the lack of a metaphor, to the language being understood too literally. It is necessary to create opportunities for an alternative system. That's how metaphors will keep existing. In the past, religion helped in making a system. But now, in order for a new system to be born, we'll need to symbolize written language or artwork. If new contemporary artworks become a starting point in the complex flow, then that will be an alternative opportunity. I hope that artworks will become the place where symbols are born. Creating new symbols in the present age will lead to a new nationalism or radical movement and I think that this should be a concern. Now if a symbol appears, the art will be disassembled with an allegory. This is known as a phenomenon in which symbols and allegories are mutually exchanged. Why I displayed complexity with Iphone Mural is because I wanted to create a space in which symbols and allegories can be constructed simultaneously. In my case, I want to be able to express these thoughts in space as an artwork. All these thoughts, they are mirroring the complex world we live in today. Thanks to this complexity, thoughts are born and the power to create exists.

S.A. - Well, lastly I want to come back to the Retina Painting. I really like that work. What was the media you used, why did you use a monochrome palette?

Rintaro Fuse - In Retina Painting, I used a spray and painted a distance. It was not oil paint. As I told you before, I painted in a tent-type camera obscura, so it was somewhat dark and sometimes I couldn't see very well. You know, when painting with a spray, the distance to the canvas becomes important. If it is too close, spray paint will drip as if the spray paint was crying. A well-balanced distance is necessary when taking selfies too. In a way, painted with a distance to express the distance between the subject and the object.

S.A. - Final question about colors, your website, and a lot of your artworks have a cobalt blue background. Can you tell us more about this color? What does it mean to you?

Rintaro Fuse - I think blue is the most distant color to human nature, it is the opposite of red. It's a kind of like machinery color: the color of Window's error page, of Twitter, Skype, Facebook, even the old version of Instagram. When humans wanted to choose a color, quite often they choose blue. Also blue make anything float.

S.A. - So you like the Yves Klein blue?

Rintaro Fuse - I like Yves Klein very much. I see him like a cave painter.

S.A. - Thank you very much for sharing your interesting stories. I am looking forward to your next work full of innovative ideas.

Rintaro Fuse - Thank you, I enjoyed our conversation.

The following interview was originally published on Global Art Daily’s main website in 2018. The interview was made possible by Yuu Takagi.

Rintaro Fuse (b.1994) graduated from the Oil-Painting Department of Tokyo University of the Arts. He is now enrolled in a Master's course at Tokyo University of the Arts' Graduate School of Film and New Media. He began from studying prehistorical cave paintings and modern social life with cloud sourcing comparatively, keep creating installation and conducting exhibition with searching forms of artworks which can reflect and criticize the time. His solo exhibition “Iphone mural (cave paintings by iPhone)” (BLOCK HOUSE / 2016) caught much attention with his concept in which he compares the new “natural environment” which emerged after we started using our smartphones with ancient people`s attitude against nature.  

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