I am very much looking forward to coming to Japan this autumn and to living and working in Moriya City.
My work is focused on public participation and the crossover between visual and performing arts. I hope to develop a project that will engage local people directly in its creation. I am particularly interested in the issue of human usage of increasingly limited environmental resources. Issues of sustainability, particularly in relation to material culture, the recycling of materials and the use of found objects in art, will form the main focus of my investigations. I am also interested in way objects act as intermediaries between everyday life and art practice.
It seems that in Japan, both these issues – recycling, and everyday rituals – are highly developed and I would like to research and learn from the Japanese cultural model.
The emphasis on the recycling of domestic and commercial waste in Japan far exceeds provisions in the West, certainly than in the UK. I am very interested to note the Civil Affairs and Environmental Division of Moriya City garbage collection schedule, which in many ways reads like an inventory of artistic possibility.
As artist-in-residence, I would like to research these two distinct areas of recycling and everyday rituals, both of which are connected by the way we use objects in our daily lives.
By the end of the residency I hope to have learnt more about Japan, produced a new work, made some new friends in Moryia City, and have eaten a lot of delicious Japanese food.