荒川修作ARAKAWA Shūsaku

Arakawa Shūsaku was born in 1936 in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. After graduating from the Fine Arts Course at Aichi Prefectural Asahigaoka Senior High School, he attended Musashino Art School (now Musashino Art University, Tokyo) in 1956, although he later dropped out. From 1957 to 1961, he presented works at the Yomiuri Independent Exhibition, an unjuried event held annually at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. His “Ningen: Suna no Utsuwa” 人間－砂の器 (Human: Container of Sand) of 1958 gained considerable attention, and thus he became acquainted with the art critics Takiguchi Shūzō and Tōno Yoshiaki. In 1960, with Yoshimura Masunobu, Shinohara Ushio, Akasegawa Genpei, and others, he co-founded the avant-garde group Neo-Dadaism Organizers and participated in their showings, known as the “Neo-Dada Exhibitions,” that year. However, he withdrew from the group after some members took exception to his scheduling his first solo exhibition during the same period. In the latter exhibition, “Another Graveyard” (Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo), he presented an important early work commonly referred to as the “Kan’oke” 棺桶 (Coffin) series. Each piece consisted of a lump of cement placed on a futon mattress-like fabrication laid inside a wooden box. The exhibits were reportedly designed so that visitors opening the lid would be confronted by these eerily suggestive arrangements. The following year, his second solo show (Mudo Gallery, Tokyo) again featured 15 “Coffin” pieces, each bearing the name of a scientist or philosopher. The event marked the start of the artist’s self-identification as a “coordinologist” (a neologism he subsequently coined to describe someone who integrates science, art, and philosophy). The arrow-like symbols on the pieces also foreshadowed his future progression to “diagrammatic paintings.” Among the exhibits were “Kōseibusshitu to Shiin ni Hasamareta Ainshutain” 抗生物質と子音にはさまれたアインシュタイン (Einstein Between Matter’s Structure and Faintest Sound), “Wakkusuman no Mune” ワックスマンの胸 (Waksman’s Chest) (both 1958–59, The National Museum of Art, Osaka), and “Wakusei ni Notta Tonbōshi” 惑星に乗ったトンボー氏 (Mr. Tombow on a Planet) (1961, The Miyagi Museum of Art). He made the following comment on his creative activities at the time: “To look at death, which is strange, terrifying, and too flabby to grasp, and give death form in order to overcome it: I have no task other than this to live for.” (“Yomiuri Shimbun,” evening edition, October 27, 1961). In December 1961, Arakawa moved to the United States alone. It is said that the first thing he did on arriving at the airport in New York was to telephone Marcel Duchamp. This led to a meeting. The following year, he encountered Madeline Gins, who would become his chief artistic collaborator and life partner. The research project they began together in 1963, “The Mechanism of Meaning,” formed the basis of their subsequent architectural experiments. Thus, while it may seem at first that the unique, three-dimensional work “Diagram with Duchamp’s Glass as a Minor Detail” (1963–1964, Nagoya City Art Museum) aims to pay homage to Duchamp, it should probably be understood as a declaration of intent to push beyond the master and seek a new form of art. Thereafter, deliberately inverting the “viewer makes art” approach of Duchamp, Arakawa focused on creating a “place for constructing the perceiver.” From around this time, “diagrammatic paintings,” incorporating words and symbols, became the mainstay of his art. A series of solo exhibitions followed in various countries including the United States, West Germany, Italy, and France. He admired Duchamp — they were photographed chatting together at Arakawa’s New York exhibition in 1966 — but he was steering his own art in a radically new direction. Recognition for the artist in his homeland also grew in the late 1960s, and his paintings earned a succession of awards. For instance, “Sakuhin” 作品 (Work) (note 1), exhibited at the Eighth Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum) in 1968, won the Grand Prize. He also participated that year in Documenta IV in Kassel, West Germany, while his series “The Mechanism of Meaning” presented at the 35th Venice Biennale in 1970 earned praise from the German physicist Werner Heisenberg. From this point on, he deepened his relationships with scientists and philosophers. In 1971, the first edition of “Mechanismus der Bedeutung [The Mechanism of Meaning],” co-authored with Madeline Gins, was published (Munich: Bruckmann), and an exhibition toured West Germany under the same title the following year. During this period, a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) enabled him to stay in West Berlin, France, Italy, and Switzerland, where he interacted with physicists and biochemists. The second edition of “The Mechanism of Meaning” was published in the United States, France, and Japan in 1979. The artist now returned to Japan for the first time in 18 years for solo exhibitions at the Seibu Museum of Art (Tokyo), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art (present-day Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art), the National Museum of Art, Osaka, and other venues. The visit also enabled him to be present at the deathbed of his friend, the critic Takiguchi Shūzō. Developing “The Mechanism of Meaning” concept further, Arakawa and Gins began to move toward architectural practice. In 1983, they were commissioned by the city of Venice to install “the most spiritual apparatus in the world” on the islet of Madonna del Monte, and in 1987, they embarked on a project to build a huge “experiential apparatus” in the form of a bridge over the Moselle River in Épinal, France. While neither of these actually materialized, it is possible to identify in the 1/10 scale model prepared for the Épinal Project, “The Process in Question/Bridge of Reversible Destiny” (1973–1989, Reversible Destiny Foundation), certain elements present in future architectural projects. “Constructing the Perceiver — Arakawa: Experimental Works,” a retrospective exhibition that opened in 1991 at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and later traveled to Kyoto and Nagoya, featured works from the artist’s transitional period between the “diagrammatic painting” and the “experiential apparatus.” In “Repetition of What. Transposing. Ground, no, but Many Instant Ones. Return to the World of Discontinuity Unchanged. The Process in Question.” (1987–1988, Nagoya City Art Museum), for example, the artist placed images evocative of life, death, and history on a sloping mount, drawing the viewer’s attention to conventional notions purely in order to transcend them, while at the same time activating the perception of gravity and generally engaging the physical senses of the viewer. In 1994, the first architectural work by Arakawa and Gins, “Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryōanji, Architectural Body” (Nagi Museum of Art, Okayama; designed by Isozaki Arata) (note 2) was realized. The following year, the outdoor experiential facility “Site of Reversible Destiny-Yoro” (Gifu) was completed. Both works employed tilted ground to make those entering them feel physically heavier, thereby disturbing the user’s normal body sense. In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum SoHo held the exhibition “Reversible Destiny (We Have Decided Not to Die),” offering an overview of the two artists’ projects extending from “The Mechanism of Meaning” to their architectural works. The architectural experimentation of Arakawa and Gins was also directed toward urban planning, with unique concepts being conceived and developed in various parts of the world. Their submission to the Rainbow Town (Tokyo Waterfront Subcenter) Urban Design Competition won a special award, and many other plans were created for the Japanese prefectures of Aichi, Fukuoka, and Kochi, among others. A number of projects for everyday living spaces were undertaken. Their first, the private residence “Bioscleave House” at East Hampton in New York State, was not completed until 2008. Two others, “External Gene House” (Shidami, Nagoya) and “Reversible Destiny Lofts MITAKA (In Memory of Helen Keller)” (Mitaka, Tokyo), although started later, were completed in 2005. As indicated by his 1961 statement about the “Coffin” series, previously quoted, while Arakawa constantly contemplated “death,” he made it his mission to resist the “destiny” of death. Beginning by exploring the concept of “death” philosophically, and then analyzing the scientific systems of “life,” he eventually discovered the possibility of architecting a “life that would not die.” On the other hand, he no longer referred to himself as an “artist” but as a “coordinologist” — possibly to prevent his creations being regarded as empty and unrealistic theorizing in the name of “art” — and continued to advance the notion of “reversible destiny” and pursue the realization of this idea through lectures, symposiums, and writings. In 2010, while the exhibition “Funeral for Bioengineering to Not to Die: Early Works by Arakawa Shusaku” (The National Museum of Art, Osaka) was being held in Japan, the artist passed away in New York. Gins died there four years later. The Reversible Destiny Foundation (note 3) established by the artists in 2010 carries on their legacy. (Hirabayashi Megumi / Translated by Ota So & Walter Hamilton) (Published online: 2024-04-01) Notes 1. The ARAKAWA+GINS Tokyo Office now refers to this work as “Sakuhin (Madobe nite)” (Work [At the Window]), since Tōno Yoshiaki had called it “Madobe nite.” See the June 1968 issue of “Gendai no Me.” 2. The work’s initial title was “Henzai no Ba, Nagi no Ryōanji, Kokoro [Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryoanji, Heart],” before its change to the present one. 3. The foundation’s website is https://www.reversibledestiny.org