AIR Exhibition
Encounter
by Shiro MASUYAMA
Ever since I started my residency at the Lostgens’ Contemporary Art Space, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I deduced that community divisions are the biggest issue here. In Malaysia there are three main communities: Malay; Chinese; and Indian. As the Lostgens’ is ran by people from the Chinese community, I have had more opportunities to meet Chinese people.
One day, the director of Lostgens’, Yeoh Lian Heng, invited me to go on a day trip, along with some friends of Lostgens. “Why not” I replied. In addition to many local Chinese people, one Malay man joined the trip. I talked to him a lot throughout the journey. On the way, we went to a Chinese restaurant, but he didn’t join us. Later on I heard that he couldn’t join us and eat with us due to his Muslim beliefs. I was sorry that he couldn’t join us. It made me realise how different food cultures were acting as a barrier to society here.
As I think eating food together is one of the most important ways for us to understand each other, for the opening of my solo exhibition, I decided to hire the Indian Muslim chef Mamak to make food for my opening which everybody in this society would be able to eat. For the event, I designed logos signifying no pork and no beef. I had them printed them onto a table cloth for the dinner table and onto the aprons which the chefs will use for the opening event.
I hope that the works in my exhibition, and the opening itself, will encourage encounters between the many local communities here. Throughout my residency, I have had a wide range of unexpected encounters.
Bio
Shiro Masuyama (b. 1971, Tokyo, Japan) who is currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland since 2010 through the international residency program with the Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin (2006) and Flax Art Studios (2009). His artistic practice has mainly developed through numerous residencies undertaken all around the world. With a MA in Architecture, his art projects therefore have been much influenced by, and mainly manifest as site-specific interventions.
Lostgens’ Artist Residency Project 2018
Date of Exhibition
24th – 29th Mar 2018
Opening (with free food)
24th Mar 2018 , 7.00pm
Closing Talk
24th Mar 2018 , 8.00pm
Venue
Lostgens’ Contemporary Art Space
