Jiga Daizessan at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Jiga Daizessan – My Artwork Amazes Me
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
November 23, 2011 – March 20, 2012

In today’s society, with its passion for efficiency and ease of understanding, are we not inclined to seek guidelines—even in our creative activities, which by nature should be spontaneous and free? Are we not inclined to seek reasons and standards of evaluation for what to make and how to make it?
The “gallant club members” of The Ossu! Shugeibu are men having no handicraft skills or experience, assembled by Bucho (Captain) Shoichi ISHIZAWA, a skilled creator. Proclaiming, “The Untrained Hand is Beautiful!,” they have continuously launched activities that value, above all, the spirit of fun and the individual’s desire to create. Their relaxed, humor-filled Bukatsu workshops, centered on seven core members, nimbly overturn the conventions we all unconsciously associate with handicrafts.
Working in design, art, music, and event production, artist Hideki TOYOSHIMA has captured attention with activities that freely traverse genres. Discovering creative opportunities in his encounters with people and places, he creates new events out of relationships arising between things, people, and places. A mediator as well as a creator, he conceives his category-defying activities from his unique perspective as such.
In this exhibition, The Ossu! Shugeibu and Hideki Toyoshima will meet for the first time. Toyoshima will interpret the spirit of The Ossu! Shugeibu’s artwork in creating an exhibition space where their activities can unfold.