Satellite Voices

Tokyo

Ashley Rawlings and Craig Mod's Art Space Tokyo

February 8

We delve into the contemporary Japanese art scene with the duo behind the stunning new Tokyo art tome

• Text by Alexandra Plesner

Ashley Rawlings and Craig Mod scoured the city for months, aiming not only to showcase great galleries and museums, but also those that are architecturally impressive and/or historically important too in the book "Art Space Tokyo". The international art world is basically defined by white cube-style galleries, so the two wanted to avoid any potential monotony for the reader by focusing on Tokyo's more eclectic art spaces.

London-born Ashley was always fascinated by multiculturalism. He majored in Japanese and moved to Tokyo in 2005, where he worked as a translator for "Tokyo Art Beat". Craig grew up in a blue collar, super multicultural suburb of Hartford (yes, such a thing exists in Connecticut!). Studying computer science and fine arts, he always harbored a love for books, and has been applying all of his technical and visual knowledge to their now rapidly changing world. 

Satellite Voices: You believe in the process of art, rather than focusing on the end product?
Ashley Rawlings: Most of what's written about art exhibitions in newspapers and magazines focuses on the end product, the artwork and its mode of display. When publications do explore the artistic process, it's usually from the artist's point of view. You don't often hear much about the process behind the creation of the institutions that shows art. We wanted our readers to learn more about how these art spaces developed.

SV: How does Tokyo foster the creation and consumption process of art?
Ashley Rawlings: It's a fairly conventional process, compared with other countries. Students go to art school, they graduate. and most of them slowly establish themselves. They have some kind of day job while making their work aside. Some pay out of their own pocket to show their work at Tokyo's many rental galleries. Others are lucky and get picked up by one a gallery that covers their costs and strive to sell their work at home and abroad.

At the moment, the commercial galleries and the privately owned museums, particularly the Mori Art Museum, The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art and the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, are the most influential force in shaping the global perception of contemporary Japanese art. In the past eight years Japanese culture magazines have put a lot of effort into opening the appeal of contemporary art to the general public. 

Craig Mod: I'll just add one point to Ashley's answer: Tokyo is shockingly affordable. Everyone has an image of Tokyo being the most expensive city in the world. Certainly, if you want to spend $30,000 per month on rent, you can. But you can also, without much trouble, find $300 a month apartments in great parts of the city. They're small, but if your art is what's driving you, the hyper-affordable cost of living gives you no excuse not to produce. Combined with cheap noodle shops, the ability for a recent art school graduate to continue producing full-time is extremely high. You can derive all the inspiration of living in a big city like Tokyo, while paying a cost of living similar to rural Ohio. 

SV: What role does contemporary art play in Japanese society today?
Ashley Rawlings: Mostly contemporary art exhibitions are a form of entertainment like going to the cinema. Unlike in China, Korea, India, Indonesia, Australia, the Gulf Arab states, Europe and the US, where there are stronger bases of domestic collectors, there aren't many Japanese collectors buying contemporary Japanese art.

SV: Where does the Japanese art world stand in relation to Asia and the rest of the world?
Ashley Rawlings: Historically, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the Japanese have been the pioneers of the Asian art world. Japanese artist groups such as the Gutai Art Association, Hi Red Center and Mono-ha created a remarkable legacy shown world wide. There was plenty of fascinating art being made in other Asian countries, but until recently it was only the Australian art world that was paying any attention to it. The manga-inspired art that was coming out of Japan during the 1990s (like the work of Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara) continued to eclipse everything else in Asia, as far as the West was concerned. Only in the past twenty years European and American audiences have started to look at contemporary art from the rest of Asia, particularly China.

SV: What makes you happy?
Ashley Rawlings: I feel exhilarated when I'm traveling. In terms of professional fulfillment, when I hear that something I wrote made a difference to someone. That means a lot to me. A couple of people have told me that reading "Art Space Tokyo" prompted them to visit Tokyo and use the book to navigate the city. This makes me deliriously happy.

Craig Mod: Culture hopping, bouncing between Palo Alto, New York City and Tokyo is unbelievably illuminating. These three cities have such different takes on the importance of books and publishing. Also: perfect pizza crust. 

SV: Are there other upcoming artists whose work you follow right now?
Ashley Rawlings: Lieko Shiga's photographs are unforgettably haunting. She is based in the Tohoku region and lived through the earthquake and tsunami in March last year. I can only imagine what a massive impact that will have on her work to come. Lyota Yagi has made some intriguing work that explores the degradation of sound, such as records made of ice that melts, while it plays classical music. 

Craig Mod: I love what Sam Winston is doing with books and words. Numabooks a Tokyo based Japanese book-as-object artist is also doing endlessly fascinating stuff right now, Spoon Tamago.

SV: What does Tokyo mean to you, what inspires you about this city?
Ashley Rawlings: It's the dream-like ebb and flow of life in Tokyo that I love. It's the ultimate place to drift. There aren't many street names, so you have to recalibrate your sense of space and direction. If you want to find your way around, you have to remember landmarks, both major and minor. In that process you come to pay more attention to the details of the urban landscape. For all the noise, light, and movement you see in major hubs like Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro, the vast majority of the city is serenely calm and quiet.

Craig Mod: Tokyo is a drug. For some, the drug takes, others it doesn't. When it does, it wraps you in its strange warmth the moment you get through immigration. Like any good drug it can be dangerous if overused, but inspiring in the right dose. There is an impossibility to this city, an endlessly sprawling density devoid of danger. All the parts of the machine working (usually) with uncanny precision. Perhaps all cities are miracles, but Tokyo is one of the most enigmatic of them all.