ART-TRIBUTE: Another Energy-Power to Continue Challenging, Part III

In contemporary art for the past decade or so, attention has turned increasingly to female artists who began their contemporary art careers between the 1950s and 1970s and continue to stay active as artists today. The exhibition “Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World” shines a light on female artists, who began their careers in the turbulent postwar years from the 1950s to 1970s, and who remain active today in 2021.
This Tribute is in four parts, focusing on four artists each time.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Mori Art Museum Archive

Ranging in ages 71-105 with their careers spanning over 50 years, the artists, of the exhibition “Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World” are originally from 14 different countries, and equally diverse in their current locations. Nonetheless, what these women share regardless of recognition or evaluation by art museums and the art market is a determination to pursue their own distinctive creative paths in turbulent environment and times. Showcasing their wide array of powerful works from paintings, video, sculptures, to large-scale installations and performances, 130 works to total, this exhibition contemplates the nature of the special strength or what one may call the driving force – “another energy” – of these artists. Amid the unprecedented condition of the world, perhaps the sight of 16 artists, who all have spent their lives walking their own paths with such immovable conviction, may offer us just the strength to tackle the ongoing challenges and to face the future with resilience and determination.

After studying art at the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, Kim Soun-Gui moved to France in 1971. Working in diverse multimedia art including video, performance, installation, sound, sculpture, photography, she conducts international artistic activities and has undertaken studies in semiology and aesthetics. Deeply influenced by Buddhist and Taoist philosophies and Wittgenstein’s investigation on language, she through her works explores the nature of time or the language game, and questions of life and art. In recent years, she has developed an interest in science and technology, expanding her creative output to encompass installations employing robotics and AI.

Suzanne Lacy, an educator and author, is considered a pioneering figure in the realm of so-called Socially Engaged Art. Based mainly in Los Angeles since the 1970s, through her dialogue with communities there she has addressed social issues such as feminism, racism, aging and violence, and other urban problems. She’s been extremely proactive; employing performance, video, photography, community activities and other media in a vast output diverse in both scale and mode of expression, from personal works taking her own body as the subject, to ambitious projects involving hundreds of performers.

Mishima Kimiyo first garnered attention for her highly-experimental two-dimensional works in the late 1950s, including oil paintings and collages made from printed and waste materials. Since 1973, she has made sculptural pieces with silkscreen printing on ceramics where the incongruity between surface and materials – the likes of newsprint and empty cans being reproduced on the non-disposable material of clay – serves as a critique of then newly growing consumerist, digital society. She continues to make art at a prolific rate, turning out large-scale installations and three-dimensional works, and in recent years has enjoyed a burgeoning reputation both in her homeland of Japan and beyond.

After graduating from the Gendai Bijutsu Kenkyujo (Contemporary Art Research Studio) in 1964, Miyamoto Kazuko moved to the U.S., where she attended the Art Students League, settling in New York. Continuing her studies on Minimalism while working as an assistant to Sol LeWitt, she also began to address her own personal identity in the melting pot of New York, and became heavily involved in the activities of the A.I.R. Gallery set up in 1972 by a group of female practitioners. In addition to her string installations based on meticulous drawings, Miyamoto continues to work in a variety of media including sculpture and performance.

Participating Artists: Etel Adnan, Phyllida Barlow, Anna Boghiguian, Miriam Cahn, Lili Dujourie, Anna Bella Geiger, Beatriz González, Carmen Herrera, Kim Soun-Gui, Suzanne Lacy, Mishima Kimiyo, Miyamoto Kazuko, Senga Nengudi, Nunung WS, Arpita Singh and Robin White.

Photo: Nunung WS, Installation view: Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2021, Photo: Furukawa Yuya, Photo courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

Info: Curators: Kataoka Mami and Martin Germann, Mori Art Museum, 52F/53F Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Duration: 22/4-26/9/2021, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-20:00, Tue 10:00-17:00, www.mori.art.museum