Exhibition at the Embassy:
triple take current works in art and architecture
6-21 May 2004

On May 6, the Embassy of Japan in London launched the opening of its latest exhibition entitled triple take, featuring work by Wuon Gean Ho, Jason Hayter and Alexandra Blum - all three artists were recipients of a Japanese government scholarship. The show encompasses a diverse range of media, formats and themes, and provides a fascinating insight into exactly how much the Japanese experience has had an impact on the three.


Jason Hayter's speech
Thank you all for coming this evening to see our work. The thing that links the three of us is, not only the fact that we got scholarships to study in Japan, but also that we were in Kyoto at the same time. Although I knew Alex at the time, this is the first time that I got to know Wuon Gean. I exhibited with Alex while we were in Kyoto as well. It was a great opportunity, and coming back, there is this chance to reassess where we are at in our particular field. My actual field is architecture and there were many obvious reasons for choosing Japan: its very beautiful traditional architecture and a general sensibility that is seen throughout. My own work is just on the boards in the middle there. These are drawings taken from a monastery extension that I designed together with architect David Richmond when I came back from Kyoto. It's Douai Abbey which is a Benedictine monastery just out in the countryside in West Berkshire. It was a great project to work on, especially after having sat in temples for three and a half years out in Japan, contemplating theses spaces. And it was a great pleasure to work with the monks as well. Father Oliver Holt has come out here this evening so if you have any questions about the monastic life, I'm sure you can address Father Oliver!

So generally, hopefully in this work, something of the experience is conveyed. There are quite explicit references in a certain sort of aesthetic that may come out, but basically I think my two minutes have come to an end. So, I'll pass you on to Wuon Gean who's going to give you a quick basic description of her work. If you'd like to come and talk to me afterwards I'll answer you questionscPlease enjoy yourselves this evening.

Wuon Gean Ho's speech
Good evening everyone, and thank you for coming. I feel very privileged to be part of this show. I just wanted to put some of this work that you see on the walls here today into context. A lot of pieces that I've made are of dead animals, probably due to my training in Veterinary Medicine at university. I graduated about 6 years ago.

The horse on the wall is the first woodblock that I made when I went to Japan. I went to study under a very renowned woodblock printmaker, who was my key to understanding the technique. The story is of a horse that I saw in a fertility unit and it was about 23 years old. The lecturer was keen to show us the most efficient way to dispatch an animal. He was talking about how lethal injections available in the US were an extremely inhumane way of dispatching an animal because it takes about 20 minutes in total, way too long. Having done this kind of preamble, telling us about how is important it is for an animal's death to be elegant, he walked up to the horse and pulled a pistol out of his pocket. He shot her dead.

I guess it was this, along with many other very surreal images, which just lodged in my brain and got under my skin, making me want to create these pictures that you see today. They are very much about the fact that humans choose which animals live and which die. The images are also about how all the animals in these works are anonymous. None of them had names. They didn't really have owners, or tragically, anyone to mourn for them. So I made these pictures as a kind of homage, plaque, description, or more substantial object so that I could reflect on the fact that they had gone. In some cases they died without us even having realised that they existed.

Over there, there are some kittens which were only about 6 or 7 week foetuses, not yet born. It brings me onto the idea that a lot of animals that are not yet born that are then killed have a kind of soul that never really realises its potential. Some of the work around the corner, the Baby series, explores further this kind of embodiment of the soul, or the substance which distinguishes between life and death. The Babies, which I have depicted, have no ethical or religious connotations. The colours and poses that were used are, however, symbolic. They embody emotional states and fragments of narrative. I am happy for the viewer to make up their own stories about the situations that they appear to be in.

It's quite difficult for me to explain my ideas fully in this limited time. Please talk to me personally later. I will be happy to answer your questions.

Alexandra Blum's speech
I'd like to give you a bit of background about my work and outline some of the ideas that influenced me while I was in Japan. I spent 18 months living in Kyoto and during that time there were 2 main areas which influenced my work. Firstly, the actual space within the city of Kyoto itself, and secondly, depicted space within Momoyama period paintings. Living in Kyoto seemed to heighten my awareness of the space that I was in. For example, within domestic architecture, with the change in materials as you move through a house. You might start with stone between the street and the house, and then move to wood in the corridor and then tatami mats in the living areas. It's like this change in materials creates a kind of route through the house into the heart of the house. I also felt that this change in materials seemed to delineate the boundaries between one space and the next, so I simultaneously felt very aware of the change in function and nature of each space as you enter into it. I think my interest in, and awareness of, space was also in the space of the city as a whole. I spent a lot of time cycling from my flat to the studio and noticed contrasting areas of the city. For example, in the area where I lived, there were a lot of small family-run businesses and a variety of one off domestic buildings in a network of small streets. In addition to that, there was the grid structure of the main thoroughfares of Kyoto, and this structure seemed to be reinforced by the repetition of almost identical convenience stores - mainly at the junctions and corners across the city. There were also other repeated units, like vending machines and electricity pylons. I was interested in the contrast between these two systems and also in the way that these repeated units seemed to mark out the space across the city. Again it made me even more aware of the amount and type of space that I was travelling through.

My interest in urban spaces continued on my return to England. I've made images based on several locations in London. All the works here are based on a tunnel made of hoardings and scaffolding over a pavement in Kingsland Road. I like the way that in that area at the moment, because there are so many building sites, there are lots of strange temporary structures springing up. I really like the appearance of them ? the type of structures that they are. They're transparent structures made up of repeated units. There seems to be a sense of movement within the forms ? especially within tunnels, ladders and railings, where a sense of movement is actually embodied in the form itself. Another thing I'm interested in is they way that those structures divert pedestrians and traffic ? how this alters an individual's perception of the space they are in by suddenly disorientating them, and so suddenly making them very conscious of the space that they are inhabiting. It's that moment of sudden awareness, when you're very conscious of the space you're in, and the consequent transformation from a space that was apparently very mundane into a dynamic space, that I'm trying to explore in these paintings.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say, on behalf of all three of us, thank you to the Embassy for inviting us to have this exhibition and for all the support they've given us along the way and again thank all of you for coming along tonight.

Counsellor Motai delivers a speech (L-R: Jason Hayter, Wuon Gean Ho and Alexandra Blum)	Guests enjoying the exhibition

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