It appears that Tokyo curators have assumed a new duty as of late: that of thinking up catchy, metered titles for their exhibitions. First we had "Point of Purchase" at Parco, then "The Gift of Hope" at MoT, and now "The Place of Happiness" at the Watari-Um Museum of Contemporary Art in Aoyama.
Of the three, "The Place of Happiness" turns out as probably the most ironic. While the phrase implies that sort of playful and feckless fluff one sees too much of in Japanese contemporary art, the reality is that on first impression, only one of the show's four participating artists, Moshekwa Langa of South Africa, seems to have had any kind of fun in putting together his contribution, having opted to install a self-serve cocktail bar amid his collection of pencil and crayon drawings.
Langa's crude drawings, about 150 of them, are of things like rabbits and skeletons and the seaside, giving the walls the look of a kindergarten. And then there is the bar.