Events by year: 2005

5 December 2005

Still Moving: A Sculptor’s Response to Working in Japan - a lecture and discussion by Antony Gormley

Over the last 25 years, Antony Gormley has revitalised the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation, using his own body as subject, tool and material. Since 1990, he has expanded his concern with the human condition to explore the collective body and the relationship between self and other in large-scale installations like ‘Allotment’, ‘Critical Mass’, ‘Another Place’, and most recently ‘Domain Field’ and ‘Inside Australia’.

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16 November 2005

The Yasukuni Shrine: Religion, Politics and the Legacy of War

Yasukuni shrine, constructed after the Restoration in mid 19th centuryJapan, is dedicated to the 2.5 million Japanese who gave their lives for their country. The Prime Minister’s patronage of Yasukuni is controversial both because of the enshrinement there of war criminals and because of the Constitution’s provision for the separation of religion and state.

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2 November 2005

Out of the Darkness: Mezzotints by Katsunori Hamanishi

Katsunori Hamanishi, born in Hokkaido in 1949, is one of a group of Japanese artists who have explored and developed the rich, three-dimensional effects achievable with the centuries-old European mezzotint (literally “half tone”) technique. ‘Out of the Darkness’ follows the artist’s development from his characteristically dark and elegant early works, featuring natural objects emerging from shadows into stark twilight, to his recent more colourful abstract and geometrical compositions

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28 September 2005

The Japanese Employment System: Adapting to a New Economic Environment

This comprehensive study looks at how the employment system is adapting to its new economic environment. Using the latest statistical evidence, the book focuses on the growing use of part-time and other forms of atypical employment relationships, and illustrates how this is expressed in several different parts of the labour market. Particular attention is given to the changing situation of women, the decline of the family enterprise, the problems faced by older workers, the poor prospects for recent high school graduates, and the recent rise in unemployment.

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21 September 2005

Does Heritage Matter? Is the past serving the present in Japan and Europe?

In both Europe and Japan, though, while spending on heritage is at record levels, heritage practitioners are being forced to be innovative in making heritage of relevance to the contemporary world. The speakers considered the justification for public support for heritage projects, the efficacy of heritage policies, and the appropriateness of heritage in contemporary society.

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19 September 2005

Wings of the Cicada: textiles and kimono by Takeshi Kitamura and the Usuhata Group

Woven from silk, ra is a delicate material and was highly prized in ancient China; few examples of it have survived. The ra garment was included in a touring exhibition of Chinese artefacts in Japan and one of the people to see it was Takeshi Kitamura. He was profoundly moved by it and began his own experiments to rediscover the lost knowledge of how to weave ra. After several years of study and experimentation, he finally succeeded. For this achievement, he was honoured by the Japanese government as a Living National Treasure (Important Intangible Cultural Property) in 1995.

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16 June 2005

The Performing Arts: Culture and Practice in the UK and Japan

The touring of international productions, the training of performers in different methods and techniques, and the lessons that are learned, both artistically and culturally, were explored by our speakers and chairperson who have each worked in an international performance context and are involved in ongoing initiatives to encourage and support collaboration in the performing arts.

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