With its current exhibition, "Index #2 -- Life Styles," Tokyo Wonder Site in Ochanomizu has mounted a worthwhile survey of recent Japanese art-school graduates. Prolific critic Kentaro Ichihara, in association with Kyoto University of Art and Design, selected five Kanto- and five Kansai-region artists to provide an indication of where the next generation of Japanese artists are headed.
First, you have to find Ochanomizu Wonder Site, which is more a drab than a wonderful site -- the exterior suggesting a derelict warehouse, walls painted institutional gray, windows shuttered closed. Even the potentially attractive architectural features have been disregarded -- the long display case beside the entrance, for example, sits empty. The only vital thing about the three-story building is the proliferation of leafy ivy across the southern wall -- you can only hope this will one day engulf the entire structure. That said, there is a nice expanse of exhibition space inside, and for this show two of three floors are being used.
The first impression of "Life Styles" is of an educational environment. Drawings graffiti the stairway, and Maho Yamada's installation "Mahtan Club" suggests scholastic escapism -- with a "Twister" playing surface (or, in this case, "Twist Game" -- perhaps the game manufacturer Hasbro isn't getting a licensing fee) laid out on the floor before a row of hall lockers. Peeking behind the half-open doors, inside the different lockers you discover a wallpaper of sex-club adverts, an army of action figures and a stash of junk food. The piece likens school to a naughty playground, but I don't know if the intent was nostalgic or ironic.