During March 2012 a group of ten Masters students, studying on a variety of courses at Camberwell College of Arts, Chelsea College of Art & Design and Wimbledon College of Art - collectively CCW - were based at Tokyo Wonder Site’s residency building in Aoyama, Tokyo. They used it as a point from which to explore the city and to research artistic, design and cultural precedents that would extend and inform their working practices. This exhibition brings together work produced by that group of students in response to their time in Tokyo and their visit to sites affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The exhibition highlights the fact, that for all the confusion and multiplicity of the communities in London and Tokyo, these two great cities are hubs for creative people gathering and generating ideas, each developing their own work through a multiplicity of exchanges. It shows that one’s own work only gains meaning through the interaction with others.

The title of the exhibition takes the name of the residency and uses this invented word to frame a series of pieces that deal with key themes around ideas of 'site' - materials that refer to locations: maps, buildings, objects on table-tops and objects in the city; thoughts on geographical displacement and exchange: through walking and travel, the urban environment and town planning, and the global exchange of materials and signs; and artefacts that play with the body as a functional site - all of these themes are questioned in the exhibition in acts that seek to wonder what they could be.

Prof. Chris Wainwright (Head of Colleges, CCW, University of the Arts London) said, "We feel very privileged to be in a position to show student work from CCW at the Japanese Embassy. These young artists have been generously funded by the British Council to visit Japan and have been inspired by their time spent in Tokyo and also by their visit to the North of Japan. This is the 5th year that CCW has sent students to Japan and whilst the exhibition only shows work of this year’s students it is indicative of our commitment to continue to find opportunities for our students in Japan and to further our links with Tokyo Wonder Site and a whole range of artistic communities in Japan."

JICC