My Old ‘New Town’ – Recollections Vol.3 April 26 - May 21, at Ceres Gallery#2
Masayo Nishimura
My old ‘New Town’ – Recollections Vol.3
Artist Note
In the summer of 1971, my family moved into a newly constructed house in a corner of Senri New Town, just north of Osaka City. I still hold the childhood memory of how excited my entire family was when we moved into our new home. After all, it was our first real house after years of living in an apartment complex in downtown Osaka. And naturally, the prospect of our future in New Town thrilled us.
The New Towns—“cities of the future”—were large-scale residential satellite towns systematically constructed throughout Japan in the ’60s by the government. They were originally devised to meet the housings needs for Japan’s growing post-war population. Ours, Senri New Town, was the first of those New Towns, and it was developed in the hilly, bamboo-wooded land adjacent to the site of the 1970 Osaka Expo—the first world exposition held in Asia.
Senri New Town consisted of a dozen small communities. Each typically had tree-lined roads, parks, community shopping centers, schools, medical offices, and two different sections of residential housings, one with multi-unit residential buildings (Danchi), the other a single-family housing zone, such as the one where my family moved. There were also several train terminals. The biggest one, Senri-Chuo station, was about a 20 minute bus ride from our house, surrounded by department stores, multi-story shopping malls, and office buildings.
Just like the name suggests, everything in New Town was new, clean, and organized. I was awestruck: I had never seen such clean roads in my life. In our former neighborhood in downtown Osaka, roads were muddy and dirty. Although Senri New Town was also in Osaka prefecture, I viewed New Town as akin to the foreign cities that I saw in American TV sitcoms.
Our neighbors were very different, too. Senri New Town was filled with classic nuclear families—married couples in their thirties or forties, usually with two kids under 15. Most people dressed neatly and parents placed a high value on their children’s education. Everyone kept a bit of distance during neighborly interactions and they spoke with little or no Osaka accent. That, too, was starkly different from our old neighborhood, where people dressed less formally, were overtly friendly, and spoke with strong local accents.
Well, the original glow from our move dimmed. Gradually I found the people and environment too dull and monotonous. After my 18th birthday, I set out on my own to go to college in Tokyo. From there, I moved to New York City and I barely returned home for the next three decades. While I felt no real attachment to New Town, it was my parents’ one and only final home. They seemed content with spending their twilight years in this quiet, safe, and green-filled New Town. They lived for 40 years in the same house, until my father’s death in 2008 and mother’s in 2011.
It was during my parents’ final years that I began returning home frequently. Around that time, the one thing I noticed was New Town’s rapidly growing senior population and its lack of children. In my neighborhood, wherever I went, I seldom saw anyone but grey-haired people walking alone or riding in wheelchairs. When I got on the local bus, nearly all the passengers seemed over 70. In the nearby children’s playground, I saw no children but rather large groups of senior citizens playing gateball—a croquet-like sport. I knew that Japan’s declining fertility rate and rising life expectancy created a large senior population. But New Town seemed way too grey compared to other cities.
Where were the children? I wondered. When we moved there forty years earlier, children’s lively voices filled our neighborhood, but I did not hear them. Just a few steps away from our house, there was a public elementary school that proudly boasted the biggest schoolyard in the prefecture. But even there, I had seen only a few pupils. I learned that their student body shrunk from more than 2,000 in mid-1970s to less than 200 in 2008. The school became known for having the smallest number of pupils in the prefecture.
In 1970s, thousands of families with young children migrated to New Town. Just like me, those children grew up, left home, and never came back. But their parents stayed, just like mine. That was the cause of this peculiar generational polarization. It was a unique phenomenon of Japan’s New Towns overall and it seemed particularly evident in Senri New Town.
Sadly, most of my parents’ generation reached old age in last decade and are now passing away at a rapid rate. The number of vacant houses without a living soul is increasing. By the time of my own mother’s passing, both of our next-door neighbors’ houses already stood vacant. Selling property in Senri seemed challenging, not least because of strict town regulations. The old apartment buildings (Danchi) in our neighborhood, which were mostly five-story walk-ups, were also showing more vacancy.
So, will Senri New Town eventually become a ghost town?
Maybe not. While my neighborhood was continuously losing its population, there have been many high-rise condos popping up around the Senri-Chuo station in last few years. These modern developments are now sought by families with small children recently relocating to Osaka from other cities. Because of its convenient commute to Osaka City’s main stations, as well as its safe, family-oriented environment, the area enjoys high popularity among the new child-rearing generation. Indeed, in the station mall, I saw more and more mothers with small children or pushing baby strollers, besides grey-haired men and women.
Even in my neighborhood, I saw the construction of new condo buildings following the demolition of Danchis. Some of the destroyed Danchis had stood right behind my junior high school. The area is now completely modernized with new, tall condo complexes that feature pergolas and paved courtyards. While looking up at these towering new buildings, I imagine that eventually all the Danchis will be completely reconstructed like this to attract new residents, if there is enough demand. After all, to keep its namesake, Senri New Town must remain forever “new.”
My Old ‘New Town’ – Recollections Vol.3 April 26 - May 21, at Ceres Gallery
Masayo Nishimura
My Old ‘New Town’ – Recollections Vol.3
Photography
April 26 - May 21, 2016
Opening Reception, Thursday, April 28th, 6pm - 8pm
Ceres Gallery is pleased to present Masayo Nishimura’s solo exhibition, My Old ‘New Town’ – Recollections Vol.3. The artist will be present at the opening reception on Thursday, April 28th, from 6pm until 8pm.
This exhibition features color photographs that Nishimura shot in her hometown, Senri New Town located just north of Osaka City. The town was the first of the “New Towns”—large-scale residential satellite towns designed by the government throughout Japan in the ’60s. It was developed in the hilly, wooded land adjacent to the 1970 Osaka Expo - the first world exposition held in Asia.
With its posh single family homes, neat apartment complexes, parks, schools, shopping centers, and tree-lined roads, from the start Senri New Town attracted many young families with children. Fifty years later, however, the town’s population now has a high proportion of senior citizens and very few children. Scores of houses stand vacant. In order to regenerate the community, re-development is the major issue in New Towns everywhere. As Nishimura began returning to the town after her parents passed away a few years ago, she noticed this transformation and started to document the many faces of this aging “model city.”
In this series, Nishimura focuses on capturing the broader, everyday look of the town. This includes the “pedestrians only” road marker standing next to a school zone sign, both erected beside a single family home; the election campaign poster board standing alone under a pile of autumn leaves; a group of seniors playing Gateball—a croquet-like sport—at a children’s playground; a girl reading a book while crossing a long footbridge overlooking high-rise office buildings; and shoppers roaming a gigantic outdoor mall while a handful of children play in small recreation space.
Each of Nishimura’s images looks ordinary at first glance. Yet they are somehow otherworldly and eerily quiet, even when the photograph reflects the seemingly mundane or teems with a crowd. There is also a sense of irony in the images, such as shopping malls whose modern architecture and sheer scale overshadow and overpower scattered human figures. It looks as if people are frozen while gazing with uncertainty into the unknown.
As in her previous work, including of the New York City subway, Nishimura captures these images casually and spontaneously: a distant observer who does not interact with her subjects. These everyday scenes transform themselves into a unique expression and unexpectedly tell stories by themselves, revealing Nishimura’s ability to uncover the unseen in city life.
For more information please contact:
Ceres Gallery
547 West 27th St Suite 201 New York, NY 10001
phone: 212-947-6100
fax: 212-202-5455
art@ceresgallery.org
http://ceresgallery.org/
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm - 6pm and Thursday 12-8pm.
Masayo Nishimura:
mniart@aol.com
http://multisoup.com
A sable colored Sheltie dog
I shot these photos at my mother's house in Japan on March 18th 2011, a week after a giant quake and tsunami struck the northern Japan, some 600 miles away from my home town. After my mother died of cancer in June same year, my elder brother who lives nearby took "Choko" and he had been well cared for by my sister-in-law.
Since then, "Choko" grew old - at 15, a human age of 90. He was losing mobility and getting weaker every day. When I saw him last time in February this year, he looked so frail that he could hardly walk. I knew that the end of his life was near.
And this morning, on the way to the West 86th subway station, I saw a small white butterfly flying around the sidewalk garden. And next moment, I saw an elderly lady in a wheelchair with a caregiver, heading towards me. The lady was hugging something on her lap. First, I thought she was holding a small dog on her lap. Then I noticed that it was not a real dog. It was a stuffed animal - a sable colored Sheltie dog, which looked so much like "Choko".
I knew then that "Choko" passed away. Before even I opened the E-mail from Japan later that day, I somehow knew it.
Rest in Peace. I miss you forever,
“OUT and OUT” six visual artists working in art photography today JAN.6 – 31, 2015
Clockwise from top left:
Heidi Sussman, Another Cracked Face, Archival Pigment Print, 20" X 16"
Trix Rosen, Changed Landscapes, Silver Gelatin Print, 72" X 48"
Ellen Denuto, Woman With Large Crucifix
Alice Jacob, The Pleasure Seekers, Archival Print, 18" X 22"
Masayo Nishimura, The Crossing at Noon - Tokyo, June 2014 #3, Digital C-print, 33.5” x 25”
Pauline Chernichaw, Waiting For The Train, 2014, Archival Pigment Print, 22" X 28"
“OUT and OUT”
JANUARY 6 – JANUARY 31, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 8, 2015 6 – 8 pm
Ceres Gallery New York is pleased to present “Out and Out”, a group exhibition on view January 6 - January 31, 2015.
Curated by Pauline Chernichaw, the show brings together six visual artists working in art photography today.
The works by featured artists Trix Rosen, Ellen Denuto, Heidi Sussman, Alice Jacob, Masayo Nishimura, and Pauline Chernichaw explore individual and communal identity transfigured within the framework of public and private spaces.
For more information please contact:
Stefany Benson
Director, Ceres Gallery
547 West 27th St Suite 201 New York, NY 10001
phone: 212-947-6100
fax: 212-202-5455
art@ceresgallery.org
http://ceresgallery.org/
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm - 6pm and Thursday 12-8pm.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“OUT and OUT”
Ceres Gallery New York is pleased to present “Out and Out”, a group exhibition on view January 6 - January 31, 2015. Curated by Pauline Chernichaw, the show brings together six visual artists working in art photography today. The works by featured artists Trix Rosen, Ellen Denuto, Heidi Sussman, Alice Jacob, Masayo Nishimura, and Pauline Chernichaw explore individual and communal identity transfigured within the framework of public and private spaces.
Trix Rosen’s evocative photographs examine individual identity and gender ambiguity pressing beyond the public and private parameters of self-liberation. In the portrait “Changed Landscapes”, Rosen expands the convergence of unconfined boundaries querying “what should be made public and what should remain private”. In her photograph, “Ravaged”, Rosen explores the plausibility of male and female transposition within the home environment. Her work elegantly exposes her subject’s transformations into self-validating portraits of alternate selves. What haunts Rosen is “finding the essence of a visible and invisible timeline; finding the quintessential moment that can be revealed in the stillness of a portrait, or in the melding of male and female imagery.”
Equally captivating, Ellen Denuto’s alluring photographs examine gender identity by incorporating personal self-portraits within her private spaces. Denuto’s exploration and emphasis on portraits of self, tempered by solitary and self-contained cryptic rooms, create constructed narratives bursting with psychological meaning. In Denuto’s entrancing photograph, “Woman with Large Crucifix”, the symbolic crucifix embraces the contour of the female body, occupying a disquieting spatial void that clearly engages, directs and masterfully holds the spectator’s attention. Instead of seeming as intruders, Denuto invites the outside world into her secluded refuge, not only to witness her self-discovery but simultaneously summon the viewer to partake in an openly visual exchange of self-examination.
Heidi Sussman’s riveting images depict subjects, whose identities are not observantly and clearly delineated, compelling the viewer to take a closer look. In Sussman’s close-up photograph, “Another Cracked Face”, Sussman elicits an allegorical portrayal of seemingly scorched human surrogates, replicas of unsettled beings amid indistinct spaces. Her fossilized portraits, reminiscent of classical sculptures, appear distant and abandoned in secretive locations. Sussman scavenges randomly deteriorating and out-of-the-way locales, often discovering body ‘breakables’ like mannequins with their unpreserved expressions. Her images of illusive, life-like figurative forms exist in their own space and time. Sussman’s moving photos are a guessing game that requires more questions than answers.
Similarly, Alice Jacob’s images focus on people in publically identifiable spaces. Jacob worked in the past as a Carney girl in an Illusion Show for a traveling circus, and gained insight into the unfamiliar world of the strange and unconventional. This experience has influenced her work, especially the time she spent photographing ‘Carnival’; the masquerade of the voluptuous and mysterious in Venice, Italy. This 16th century tradition plays out where identity and gender are unresolved. In Jacob’s “The Pleasure Seekers”, beauty becomes unclear and unsettling. Shadowy figures with faces concealed by masks, rendezvous in the backstreets of Venice. Jacob invites the viewer into a secretive, guarded and paradoxical city that seems self-contradictory or absurd and meant to be ‘guessed at’. Her photographs spellbind the spectator with an overall sense of mystery and drama.
While Alice Jacob captures elusive figures that diffusely appear in the alleyways of Venice, Italy, Masayo Nishimura photographs portray people traversing Tokyo Japan’s open cityscapes. Her sequential series of photographs, “The Crossing at Noon”, are checkered with pedestrians scattered and on a scramble crossing busy business streets seemingly unaware of one another’s presence. Her successive depictions denote a clear and precise period of time when the traffic signals at intersections change from green to red. Nishimura’s quick–fire succession of shots, and paused frames, capture a time-based march of pedestrian traffic at city crosswalks, vying for the same public corridor as the vehicular traffic. At first glance Nishimura’s people seem removed and robotically detached. On closer examination, these paused frames reveal engaged expressions of a percolating populace on the move, appearing to fuse with Tokyo’s densely populated “corporate” backdrop.
Pauline Chernichaw’s eye-catching pictures call attention to individual and communal identity as they relate to the New York area’s openly urban environment. In Chernichaw’s engrossing photograph, “Waiting for the Train”, she intrudes on the public’s usable space, intentionally creating an unintentional physical intimacy among strangers. Unknowingly, these disconnected individuals form a geographical identicalness, an egalitarian camaraderie, due solely to the surroundings in which they find themselves. In her thought-provoking street photograph, “Upper East Side”, Chernichaw reveals a disparate division of disengaged human beings who avoid any eye contact, collective acknowledgement or mutual identification. Chernichaw’s self-absorbed figures co-exist as organically sprouting visual markers, carefully placed and synchronized within the pictorial and architectural framework of the city’s sidewalks.
The photographs in this provocative group exhibition bring to light an awareness of unconstrained individual and communal identities, unbound by the Out and Out constraints of public and private spaces. The show allows the viewer an entry point into how we live our lives. We survive in our own malleable and sacred safe havens that we knowingly or unknowingly continue to create for ourselves.
Pauline Chernichaw, Curator
“Out and Out”, a group photography exhibition, January 6 - January 31, 2015
“OUT and OUT”
JANUARY 6 – JANUARY 31, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 8, 2015 6 – 8 pm
Ceres Gallery New York is pleased to present “Out and Out”, a group exhibition on view January 6 - January 31, 2015. Curated by Pauline Chernichaw, the show brings together six visual artists working in art photography today. The works by featured artists Trix Rosen, Ellen Denuto, Heidi Sussman, Alice Jacob, Masayo Nishimura, and Pauline Chernichaw explore individual and communal identity transfigured within the framework of public and private spaces.
For more information please contact:
Stefany Benson
Director, Ceres Gallery
547 West 27th St Suite 201 New York, NY 10001
phone: 212-947-6100
fax: 212-202-5455
art@ceresgallery.org
http://ceresgallery.org/
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm - 6pm and Thursday 12-8pm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
