Art, Performance & Activism in Contemporary Japan 

Yamashiro Chikako , 2010

Art, Performance & Activism in Contemporary Japan

Art, Performance & Activism features the work of artists/activists based in Japan who push the boundaries of where art, performance and activism intersect. Presenting visually powerful and pioneering works from the mid-1990s to the present the exhibition explores differing strategies of intervention that seek to engage in contemporary debates and to change how we think and act.

Engaging with contemporary themes of art and action, private and public, memory and identity, the exhibition is the first to present their work in the UK and to provide a context for their interventions. Works include Teiji Furuhashi’s mesmerising solo production, The Lovers (Dying Pictures, Loving Pictures) and S/N performance by the Kyoto-based art collective DumbType, the print-based activist work of Yoshiko Shimada, and the visceral performance-based film work of emergent artists Soni Kum and Chikako Yamashiro. Provocative, beautiful, haunting, disturbing…moving.

Curated by Professor Fran Lloyd of Kingston University, London and Professor Rebecca Jennison of Kyoto Seika University, Japan,


Performance and Activism in Contemporary Japan has been kindly supported by:
POLA Art Foundation
Japan Foundation
Japan Foundation Endowment Committee
Japan Society
British Council
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
The Saison Foundation
Kingston University
Kyoto Seika University

DumbType work is presented with cooperation of Shiro and Yoko Takatani, DumbType, Kyoto & Shinya Yamaki, Kyoto Seika University; Chikako Yamashiro’s work is presented with cooperation of Yumiko Chiba Associates; Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu de la Madeleine courtesy of Ota Fine Arts.

http://www.pumphousegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/currentexhibition