EXHIBITION: SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE
It’s time for a confession. I am obsessed with all things Japanese, excluding wasabi peas and whaling. And so is Amelia Groom, the curator of the upcoming video art show at Black & Blue gallery entitled Spooky Action at a Distance. You may recognise Amelia’s name as Arts Editor in the pages of this here paper, and we’re so excited about her latest venture.
Can you explain the title of this show?
It is a phrase taken from a letter Einstein wrote to his lifelong friend Max Born, the Nobel Prize winning atomic physicist who shall be remembered as grandfather to quantum mechanics and to Olivia Newton-John (whose plea, “Let’s get into physical” probably had nothing to do with physics). Basically Einstein wasn’t too happy with quantum theory in its current form; he felt it went against his own theory of Locality and, he said, it, “Cannot be reconciled with the idea that physics should represent a reality in space and time, free from spooky action at a distance.” I like the idea of Albert Einstein in a theoretical pickle over quantum mechanics, and I like the word spooky.
What does it have to do with the artists in the show?
Possibly very little. Really I want the artists to stand on their own rather than be blanketed by this phrase, but there is a loose running theme of action and physicality in the works, from the movements of the anonymous KATHY dancers or Kiiiiiii performers to the way Yukihiro Taguchi invests floorboards and furniture with choreographed movement, the electrically manipulated body movement of Daito Manabe, the more subtle kinetic movements in Tetsushi Higashino’s highly restrained series of works, or the banal domestic action of vacuuming transported to fantastical worlds by Ine wo Ueru hitu. There’s also the idea of geographic and cultural distance, and Japan being seen this perplexing and eccentric faraway place of mysterious action.
You just returned from a residency in Japan. What kind of arts scene did you encounter over there?
An exciting but kind of dispersed one that takes a bit of time to start to penetrate. There’s so much in Tokyo, I guess a good place to start is with some of the new independent spaces, such as Magical Artroom and Gallery αM, which are doing some really interesting things. I was struck by how collaborative everything is – there are so many joint ventures across various fields and the act of working as part of something bigger than yourself is really valued. Yokohama is an interesting city for contemporary art, just 40 minutes out of Tokyo it has some of the most exciting new spaces and artistic communities.
What interests you about ‘video art’? I know you have a gripe with the term ‘time-based art’; but is ‘video art’ any more accurate?
I did say that I thought ‘time based art’ was a vague and slightly annoying term. Actually most of the artists in this show are not strictly video artists – I’ve included dancers, programmers, musicians, installation artists – these just happen to be some works on video, either created as video art works or, in some cases, as documentation of something else. But yes video can be an interesting medium, I think there is still a lot of things to be explored with it, especially the live and/or interactive possibilities.
How does the website initiative ‘Big in Japan’ factor into this project? Can you tell us a little about that?
The website www.biginjapan.com.au was launched six months ago, as part of an initiative by Ksubi for Kirin. The idea was to create a platform for cultural exchange between Japan and Australia, so I use it to profile a broad range of things from contemporary Japan including art, fashion, film, architecture, music, design and so on. The exhibition is part of the first series of Big in Japan events, including a huge event at CarriageWorks on Wednesday 2nd December featuring some amazing live acts who are coming out from, of all places, Japan.
Spooky Action at a Distance is presented by Big in Japan, a cultural exchange program created by Ksubi for Kirin. Dec 4-19, Black & Blue Gallery, 302/267-271 Cleveland Street Redfern, blackandblue.com.au
