JAPAN FOUNDATION WORLDWIDE

The Japan Foundation Sydney’s exhibition series Facetnate! which began in April 2008 to showcase various works by five individual or group of young artists has concluded.

The project was set up to foster young artistic talent who will be a future bridge between Australia and Japan and sought applications from young artists who influenced by Japan in the field of visual arts in Australia. Five individual or group of artists selected from 30 applicants held monthly exhibition at Japan Foundation Gallery.

As planners of the project, we were also looking forward to the monthly exhibitions, observing the artists’ preparation and wondering what kind of artwork they would display. The exhibition series is shown in the table below. The series was unique and diverse, including pop art using a toy called Gachapon, photos and films featuring life in Japan from the Australian’s point of view, sculpted garden created from candy wrappers and waste materials, and installation of Japanese paper and thread precisely reflecting the impact of human gesture.

• April　William “BIL” AndersonJr. 　"Totally Flat Consumer Camo"
• May　Peter Humble 　 "Flights into Foreign"
• June　Kevin Vo & Haline Ly 　"NEOSYDNEY + NEOTOKYO"
• July　Ben Ernst　"The Garden of Love"
• August　Ainslie Murray 　 "An Architecture of Thread and Gesture"

The very best artist selected from the participants by an outside judge will be awarded the Japan Foundation’s New Artist Award. Round-trip plane ticket to Japan will be provided to the awardee as a supplementary prize so that he/she will see the Yokohama Triennale 2008, held from September 13 to November 30. The Japan Foundation’s New Artist Award ceremony will be held on September 25 at Japanese-Consul General’s residence in Sydney. Be sure to check our website for details of the first winner of the award! For details of Facetnate! series, please visit: http://www.jpf.org.au/02_events/facetnate/

 

A two day Japanese-language education leadership workshop took place from June 27 to 28 at the Japanese Embassy’s Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington D.C.

The participants in the workshop were six up and coming individuals who are active members in Japanese-language Teacher’s Associations in the United States. They came from nearby states such as Virginia to as far away as Hawaii and represented a very diverse group. The workshop featured lectures followed by discussions among the participants based on the current conditions (of Japanese-language education) around the country and focused on topics concerning Advocacy and Networking, which is an oft-forgotten aspect of teaching Japanese in the United States.

Maki Watanabe Isoyama, the Academic Specialist from the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, was the main lecturer and focused her presentation on the following five topics: “the importance of Japanese-language education and how/to whom one should make it appealing,” “advocacy activities and the importance of networking,” “types of networks for Japanese-language education and how to make connections,” “ways to request outside support/aid for Teacher’s Association activities,” and “important aspects to managing a Teacher’s Association.”Guest speakers were also invited including Ms. Ashley Lenker Program Manager for the Joint National Committee for Languages & the National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS), which politically expedites aid for foreign language education and international education resource and innovation, Education Councilor Satoshi Nara from the Embassy of Japan in the United States, Ms. Juliet Mason from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and Dr. Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku from the University of California, San Diego, who is also the president elect of The Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ). Each presenter focused on their area of expertise including the following: policies regarding foreign language education in the United States (Ms. Lenker), initiatives for Japanese language education from the Japanese Government (Mr. Nara), introduction of activities by ACTFL (Ms. Mason), and challenges of Japanese Language Education in the United States (Dr. Tohsaku).

This summer our office held an exhibition of works by Ms. Yuri Okamoto, a Japanese artist living in France, using one of our seminar rooms, which are vacant during summer break of our Japanese language course.

Ms. Okamoto discovered the beauty of Japanese papers while she lived in France and, as an “artist of paper,” has been pursuing possibilities of “papers” for 25 years. The original and representative series of hers is “Coffrets d’image [Small boxes of images]”, inspired by the tradition of Japanese origami.The works of this series, such as “Circus”, “Izakaya (Japanese-style pub)”, “Corner of Tokyo” and “Parrot and Poet” amaze us with vivid worlds represented in miniature boxes. It is somewhat similar to wonders and delights we get in opening a jack-in-the-box.

Including several works other than this series, this exhibition showed 17 works. All the worlds represented in these works were created through impressions, imaginations and sketches Ms. Okamoto collected since her childhood.Since she has lots of connections with Hungary and its people, the worlds she creates are perceived as something nostalgic for both Hungarians and Japanese. Visitors admired original tastes and subtle craftsmanship of her works, which she created only from papers, making full use of their original colors and textures. One of the visitors wrote in a questionnaire that he or she could know a lot about Japan, although the works are very small.

Through the works of Ms. Okamoto we could introduce the tradition and possibilities of Japanese papers and made another links between Hungarians and Japanese.