How do artists reimagine cultural traditions?
The artists featured here reimagine historical and traditional references into new, contemporary forms.
![Blue Sheet and Yellow Flowers [left of a pair]](https://1.api.artsmia.org/full/117114.jpg)
![Blue Sheet and Yellow Flowers [right of a pair]](https://1.api.artsmia.org/full/118686.jpg)
Introduction
Cultures are often defined by the values, traditions, beliefs, and practices shared by a group of people. But culture does not remain stagnant and unchanging. Whether it’s through the food we eat, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear, or the art we make and more, individuals within a society or cultural community express our relationships to and experiences of that culture differently. Even traditions—the longstanding customs or beliefs that are transmitted across generations—evolve over time. They are dynamic and malleable in that they connect us with the past and at the same time allow for new forms of expression. It is the very essence of culture to change. To study cultures is to understand which elements of tradition have been carried on and continue to exist. The artists featured here demonstrate this by reimagining history and tradition and reworking them into new, contemporary forms.
Mori Chihiro
Picture of Money (Sanjūsangendō) is a mixed-media artwork by Mori Chihiro. From afar, the details blend into a picture of Japanese currency. Looking closer, you’ll notice a sea of smiley faces that represent religious icons in the Sanjūsangendō, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto that houses 1,001 life-size statues of the Thousand-Armed Kannon (a Buddhist deity embodying compassion). Mori playfully visualizes a clash of opposing forces—sacred (the Thousand-Armed Kannon) and profane (smiley faces and money), order (organized religion) and chaos (capitalism)—to express her frustration with cultural pressures to conform. You can see a rare image of the inside of the Sanjūsangendō temple in this lesson in the work Untitled, from a photograpy album with images of Japan.
© Chihiro Mori.
Mori Chihiro was born in 1978 in Osaka, Japan. She grew up during Japan’s so-called bubble economy (1985–90), which was a time of unmonitored and unmatched economic prosperity and growth. Some consider it a period of extravagance and greed that stands in stark contrast to the frugality and austerity of postwar Japan. In 1990, the Japanese economy crashed and many businesses went bankrupt. Mori is part of a generation of artists known as the Micropop generation, who came of age during Japan’s bubble economy and experienced the harsh realities of the economic collapse as young adults. Mori’s artwork includes references to consumerism, capitalism, and Buddhist iconography that together examine and critique society and culture in modern Japan.
Yamamoto Tarō
Yamamoto Tarō (born 1974) first developed his idea for “Nippon-Ga” painting when he moved to Kyoto to attend university. Kyoto is a Japanese city with a reputation for preserving and protecting its ancient cultural traditions and historic urban landscape. But it’s also a bustling, modern city with a large population of young people—a city where convenience stores and fast food restaurants stand alongside traditional buildings and temples. This dichotomy inspired Yamamoto’s style of “Nippon-Ga” painting, which uses the traditional techniques of Japanese pictorial art to create contemporary scenes with references to popular culture. He aims to capture the strange, funny, and complex landscape of everyday Japanese life, where traditional and contemporary elements of Japanese and Western culture intertwine.
In his screen painting Blue Sheet and Yellow Flowers, Yamamoto makes a reference to Ono no Komachi, a Japanese poet from the Heian period, considered one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals. Her work and life inspired many writers of Noh, a form of classical Japanese dance-drama, one of whom featured her as a character in a play, in which she devolves from a great beauty to a wandering beggar. Yamamoto depicts her here seated in a blue tent that actually refers to the type used in Japan by people experiencing homelessness. Activists report that official government data do not accurately reflect the real number of homeless people in Japan, and the shame and hostility they face from government agencies and society prevent solving the root causes of homelessness and providing many people with the care they need. Yamamoto’s painting brings the character of a beggar into the context of modern-day Japan and reminds the viewer of an important social issue that is often ignored.
The Propeller Group
The Propeller Group is a cross-disciplinary artist collective founded in 2006 by Phunam Thúc Hà, Matthew Lucerno, and Tuan Andrew Ngyuen and based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Los Angeles. Its members collaborate with artists around the world on large-scale projects that blend fine art and digital media and incorporate strategies from advertising and marketing to explore topics such as politics, power, and propaganda in Asia and globally.
© The Propeller Group, courtesy the artist and James Cohan NY.
Their twenty-minute film The Living Need Light, the Dead Need Music takes viewers on a fantastical, dreamlike journey to the festive funeral traditions of southern Vietnam. Featuring sword swallowers, fire breathers, snake charmers, kung fu dancers, professional mourners, and a brass band, the film centers on the relationship between the living and the dead and the spaces and practices created by the living to honor the dead. Unlike the solemn, hushed, and private funerals familiar to Westerners, the ones in this film spill out onto the streets and into the beautiful surrounding countryside of Vietnam. Performances and mourning rituals can go on for many days. This film blends footage of real funerals with performances filmed in a studio. The group made the film for the 2014 New Orleans Biennial, suggesting a shared identity between the spirited funerary traditions of the Mekong and Mississippi river deltas.
Video: Pounding Hooves
Inspired by the music of the Taiko Drummers?
Check out this lesson, What makes something a musical instrument?
Video Discussion
The video opens with the explanation that this performance “Pounding Hooves” is about horses running in the wild. Listen closely to the introductory narrative. As you watch the performance listen for the moments described including a wide open field with horses, the horses coming together, and then the horses galloping proudly.
What devices do the drummers use to create the illusion of a proud group of horses running “for the joy of it?”
What do you think feels traditional about the performance? What feels contemporary to you?
Why keep traditional practices alive?
How is the passage of time suggested in the video?
How does the placement of the performance in the rotunda of Mia, surrounded by European paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries impact your experience of the performance?
Teaching and Learning Strategies
Ask students to find examples of cultural traditions in their own families and communities. Look for new cultural traditions as well as historical traditions that have adapted to modern times or new places. What are the ways students are able to feel rooted in cultural tradition in their own lives? Have them reflect and share their experiences with the rest of the class.
Many artists across disciplines make references to the past through techniques such as remixing (in visual art) or sampling (in music). Lead students through an activity in which they take an artwork of choice and remix it to reflect their perspective on everyday life.
The film The Living Need Light, the Dead Need Music by the Propeller Group provides the opportunity to discuss with students the different ways people around the world perform memorial ceremonies, celebrate and remember those who have passed on, and process emotions of grief and loss. Students can conduct more research about this video, or other artworks in Mia’s collection to learn more about funerary practices and traditions around the world. What are the similarities and differences among customs from around the world? What can we learn about different values and belief systems through these examples? Ask students to consider why it is important to remember the past and those who have departed.