[Title] MEGURUMEGURU – Around and Around the Neighborhood –
~ 25th June – 31st July, 2015~
[Artist] Sayaka Akiyama
[Date] September 17 to November 16, 2015
The flâneur (rambling dawdlers) of Paris and other French cities often turned to painting, music, prose and other means to portray their own wanderings around town. Acting much like maps, their distinctive works fulfilled the role of bringing the scenes of the city into clearer focus.
Contemporary artist Sayaka Akiyama strives through the act of “rambling” around travel destinations, along with that of taking needle and thread in hand to “embroider” her excursions into tangible works of art. The choices of the expressions intrinsic in the stitching, thread color and other aspects of those works serve to convey her particular sensations in making those rounds, intimately articulating her mindset on those occasions.
In undertaking the project to design this latest Maison Hermès window display, Akiyama resided for over a full month in Shimbashi, a district just down the street from Ginza. She used that period and access to pay daily visits to Maison Hermès. Strolling through the noise and clamor that defines the Ginza scene, largely banishing time from her mind, the details of the district emerge in greater depth. For example, the lines of sightseeing buses normally parked along Harumi-Dori Boulevard, the lights in the Maison Hermès window switched off as night wears on, the unobstructed view of the Maison window from a certain coffee shop located corner to Sukiyabashi intersection, and other images. In this way, the frolicking storylines of Akiyama’s own random flâneur outings come to life.
As she proceeded along these leisurely jaunts, Akiyama constantly kept her trusty Nautilus fountain pen and aerogramme stationery Grain d’H in hand. She could be seen jotting down thoughts and impressions while moving through pedestrian crossings, holding an umbrella open on rainy days and otherwise remaining in perpetual motion. Based on this process, the writings on her writing paper take on the appearance of patterns and designs. During that month, she made it a habit to drop off those letters into mailboxes along the streets of Ginza, day and day out. Each missive was addressed to herself, at her temporary Shimbashi abode.
The right-side window of this display contains a sofa, conspicuously covered with a huge number of letters. As expected, these are some of the messages that Akiyama penned and mailed to herself. The spiral staircase depicted in the left window, in the meantime, truly comes off as one part of the envisioned passage to the Ginza. In this way, a landscape in which the artist casts off her former self, in the quest for self-renewal, is played out within the window space. It is as if the very existence of artist, who repeated wandered around the neighborhood with that mission in mind, has been captured and enclosed within these glassed-in dimensions.
Sayaka Akiyama
Born in 1971 in Hyogo Prefecture. Akiyama has lived in numerous different locations over the years, where she makes it a habit to walk the streets and back alleys. She then depicts the journeys from those wanders in intricately crafted images. From the cataloging those efforts, she searches out images that most effectively convey the “footprints of time” for inclusion in her creative works. Last year she presented a one-woman exhibition in Shanghai under the title of Mozu-no-Hayanie, utilizing installations to boldly stage the day-to-day vicissitudes of her own wayward lifestyle. With this intriguing endeavor, she clearly broke new ground in her artistic vision and calling.