Month: December 2019

National Museum of Nature and Science

From December 17, 2019 (Tuesday) to March 1, 2020 (Sunday), the “Journey through Life with Picture Books” is being held at National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo.
The press briefing was held the other day, so I will report on the situation.
We will introduce the highlights of the exhibition and the hottest exhibits.

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What is the special exhibition “Journey through life through picture books”?

An evolutionary process that began on the earth and emerged on Earth about 3.8 billion years ago.
It is no exaggeration to say that people and various creatures continue to exist because their evolution has continued without interruption.
There are many picture books on science and nature that focus on the evolutionary process of such creatures.
“By combining science and nature-based picture books with museum exhibits, we hope to stimulate interest in natural science and provide a different way of enjoying the National Science Museum.” This exhibition.
In a picture-story show format, the origin of life will be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner.

Highlight

We will introduce the highlights of the special exhibition.

① You can experience a new picture book at the National Science Museum !?

At the special exhibition, scenes selected from seven picture books are displayed together with specimens such as fossils and foil.
You can trace the history of life evolution with specimens while enjoying the world of picture books.

② You can feel the evolution from fish to human!

In the exhibition, the main events of life evolution for about 500 million years, from fish to humans, are explained in a particularly easy-to-understand manner.
Feel the connection of life that continues from our distant ancestors to the present, the evolution that remains in our bodies.

③ If you want to know more …

If you want to know more about this exhibition and want to know more widely, please visit the permanent exhibition.
There is a corner that introduces research and research conducted at the National Science Museum and related permanent exhibits.

You may encounter a new picture book!

Near the entrance of the exhibition, there is a reading corner with over 100 picture books related to natural science and the evolution of life.
Reunite with nostalgic picture books, you may be able to meet your favorite new picture books.
Picture books in languages other than Japanese are also available.

Main picture books used in the exhibition

The following seven works are used in the exhibition.

(1) “Some no Kiyoshi”	Virginia Lee Burton Sentence / picture, Iwanami Shoten
② “Long journey”	Motofumi Matsuda, Kazuo Kawakami Picture, Kodansha
③ “I’m the grandmother of everyone’s first evolution”	Jonathan Tweet text, Karen Lewis picture, Iwanami Shoten
④ “Totori became a story” revised edition	Eitaro Oshima, Gospel Museum Bookstore
⑤ “The Origin of Species” Darwin’s First Evolution Theory	Sabina Ladeva, painting and painting, Iwanami Shoten
⑥ “Expanding Life”	Keiko Nakamura, Tatsuhide Matsuoka Picture, Gospel Museum Bookstore
⑦ “13.800 billion times”	Osamu Sakai product, picture, Kobunsha

Introducing main exhibits

Anomalocaris, a predatory animal that inhabited about 508 million years ago (mid-Cambrian)
It is said that he was given a scientific name in the sense of a strange shrimp.

A head fossil that inhabited about 360 million years ago and is presumed to be an ancient fish eustenopterone. , Donated to the National Museum of Nature and Science.
You can actually touch it.

Here is the whole body of Eustenopterone.

Deinonyx, which inhabited about 115-118 million years ago.
It often appears in movies and animations.

A fossil of the carnivorous mammal hyenodon that inhabited about 30 million years ago.
Mammals up to the dinosaur had ribs on their stomachs and could not hug them even if they wanted to hug a child.
Later, when the diaphragm was formed and the way of breathing changed, mammals could now hug and feed their baby.

In life from 7 million years ago to 200,000 years ago, fingers and toes become longer, and some things move differently from other creatures.
You will be able to grab the branches with your limbs, live on the tree, and communicate with each other by singing.
That is the present human ancestor of human beings.

Picture book corner inspired by Darwin’s Beagle
After watching the exhibition, look for your favorite picture books related to natural science and the evolution of life at this reading corner.
You can also see the seven picture books featured in the exhibition.

Conclusion

I’ve told you about a press preview of the exhibition “Journey through Life with Picture Books” currently being held at the National Science Museum.
The history of creatures that has continued from about 3.8 billion years ago to the present.
We humans seem to be living a matter of course, but in fact, we realize again that this is the life of billions of years of history.
Why do not you go to the National Science Museum on a journey of life with family and friends with picture books?

Mr. Makoto Manabe, Director of the Collection at National Museum of Nature and Science､ who supervised this exhibition､had a fun explanation about the history of life.

Event summary

Exhibition “Journey of life through picture books”

Period: December 17, 2019 (Tuesday)-March 1, 2020 (Sunday)

Venue: Japan Pavilion 1F, Special Exhibition Room, Central Hall

Opening hours: 9 am to 5 pm * Friday and Saturday until 8pm. * Admission until 30 minutes before closing time

Closed: Every Monday (Tuesday if Monday is a national holiday) and from December 28 (Sat) to January 1 (Wed / Holiday), except on February 17 (Mon)

Admission: General and university students: 630 yen (510 yen for groups) High school students and under, 65 years and over: free * You can see only the permanent exhibition admission fee.

Organizer: National Science Museum Official HP: https://www.kahaku.go.jp/english/

See other reports

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

A Mother and Child’s Story 2013

From November 16, 2019 (Sat) to January 5, 2020 (Sun), at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno , the Ueno Artist Project 2019 “A Look to the Children” and Riki Matsumoto “Remember Memories” It is held.
The other day there was a joint press preview of these exhibitions, so I will report on the situation.
The highlights, composition, and featured works of each exhibition are featured.

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What is “a look toward children”?

The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is popular as a place for the presentation of works by many publicly-recruited organizations, and is called the “Hometown of Public-Exhibited Exhibitions”.
From 2017, the “Ueno Artist Project” series, which introduces contemporary artists who are active in open recruitment groups, has decided the theme every year.
This year, the third edition, will be held under the theme of “A look toward children”.
Introducing a multi-layered image that is temporarily entrusted to children drawn through the works of six artists from young to veterans who are currently affiliated with art recruitment organizations.

Composition and featured works

The “Gaze to the Child” is roughly divided into 3 chapters.

Chapter 1 Being Beloved

Chapter 1 introduces the works of Shinsei Kana (Japan Art Academy) and Ayako Okubo (Ichiyokai) on the theme of beloved beings.

･ SHINJO Kana

Shina Kana draws a delicate human figure with a soft touch using warm colors and a female motif.
The work exhibited this time is a pure girl image that does not know the world’s dirt, and a warm mother and child image that touches an important part of the heart.
Through the existence of children and mothers and children, the rebirth that wants to draw the preciousness, beauty, and love of life is re-recognizing the kindness that I received from my surroundings when I was a child. Says.

(Comments from newborn)

“ I want to express the inside of a girl spreading like a universe, and I’m drawing a work”.

 

･ Ayako Okubo 

Ayako Okubo, an artist who consistently draws mother-child images.
The work exhibited this time is a mother-child image that gives a sense of the dynamics of moving children and a sense of unity between mother and child.
A large and generous mother gently wraps the babies and energetic children that are to be protected like the earth.

(Comment by Okubo)

With the theme of “spin life”, I have been making works for the last 10 years.
I hope I can express the energy of life through the children who fly around. “

 

Chapter 2 Growth and Conflict

Chapter 2 introduces the works of Tsubasa Shida (Independent Art Association) and Megumi Toyozawa (New Production Association) on the theme of growth and conflict.

・ Shida Tsubasa

While teaching at high school, Tsubasa Shida keeps drawing on the motif of modern junior and senior high school students.
The works on display this time are self-portraits depicting the inner faces of pure children who are looking at the inside of the aggression while struggling with the society created by adults, as well as the inner faces of society.
Unleash the real situation faced by today’s adolescent children.

(Comment by Shida)

“I want to express my child’s various psychology with my own paintings and connect with various people.”

 

･ Toyosawa Megumi 

Megumi Toyosawa keeps drawing high school girls who have projected themselves in the work.
Toyosawa draws about the feelings that she had in her adolescence that she wanted to deny herself, and that she continued to shake because of the influence of her surroundings.
It expresses the aching pains of the youth’s heart and evokes the emotions of the past that would have been felt when you were young.

(Comment by Toyosawa)

“There was a time when I made my work into a mold, but I reset it once to break that manner, and I drew the work with new feelings. I’m making ingenuity, so please enjoy it too. “

 

Chapter 3 Life Connection

Chapter 3 introduces the works of Akihisa Yamamoto (Main Art Association) and Masanori Kihara (Nikikai) on the theme of life’s connection.

 

･ Yamamoto Yasuhisa

We are the modern people who are covered with materials and information and want to destroy nature, but humans cannot live without symbiosis with nature.
Akihisa Yamamoto who continues to draw works as an antithesis to such a modern age.
The work exhibited this time is a human symposium centered on children and families who spend a calm time in abundant nature.
By touching the work, you should sympathize with the fundamental memory of human life.

(Comment from Mr. Yamamoto)

“I have consistently drawn works on the theme of abundance. This time I received the theme of an eye for children and made a new work based on that theme.

 

 

･ KIHARA Masanori

Masanori Kihara continues to draw a world in which the changing nature and the original nature of human beings with a rich sense of mass are intertwined.
The work on display this time is a world where nature and humans coexist without any boundaries and life circulates.
Using a unique color sensation and a sense of rhythm, we create a screen that is glossy and transparent, and asks viewers about the true richness.

(Comment by Kihara)

“I don’t draw the children directly, but through the richness of the colors, I’m making a work that I want to entrust with my life. Is an ugly work of my father who died two years ago.
My father passed away and my son and his wife had children, but through this work, it is a work that symbolically shows that life returns to the earth and a new life is born. “

Held at the same time Chikara Matsumoto “Remembering the Record”-Focusing on the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography

As a joint project with the “Look for Children”, Chikara Matsumoto “Remember Me” is held at the same time.

・ Matsumoto Chikara 

Matsumoto Chikara (1967 ~) is an artist who is active both in Japan and abroad as a painter / animation artist.
Draw drawings one frame at a time, without tracing, and produce video works by adding transmitted light to shoot video.
As video installations, three-dimensional works, live performances using audio, and original workshops using hand-made video equipment are held in schools, museums, and areas where you stay.

This exhibition will show you the works held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography along with a new installation.

Composition and exhibits

Introducing the composition of the exhibition and the exhibits.

■ Six installation animation works

At the venue, six installation animations will be projected on the screen.
Six independent films will be screened one by one.

The 6 titles are as follows.

① A day on Mount Owari

② Electric Snow

③Follow Me / Meeting Beauty / Gaze

④ Calm warm

⑤ Singing voice across the mountain

⑥ To the mountain

 

(About the work)

The story of Oiwari from one day to the mountain is being developed with connections.
In the middle of the venue is a pyramid lookout.
Climbing to this vantage point, watching the video of the day of Mt. Owari over the mountain, it is made to be aware that the viewpoint will change and the field of view will change.

 

There are also 6 original installation works and multiple totem pole videos.

 

The video work SA YONA RA is also being screened.
This work is based on a picture of a continuation of an incomplete picture book written by Matsumoto-san’s dead father, with only one page left unwritten.
The character depicted in the work has a motif of an inexperienced person who doesn’t know anything about ghosts.

 

A cinema-type device has also been installed so that you can watch videos with different versions of SAYONARA’s music on headphones.
Please enjoy it freely.

Summary

 

I have reported the report preview report of “A look to the children” + Tsutomu Matsumoto “Remembering”.

In “A look at children”, I was able to touch on the memories of childhood that apply to me, the days when I was shining in adolescence, and the fundamental questions of life.
In Matsumoto Tsutomu’s “Remember Memories”, I was able to confirm myself in a nostalgic day of childhood that makes me feel a little sad and sad.
Why do not you come to look for your past memories and hope for the future through these two exhibitions?

We are waiting for you at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

 

Outline

 

Ueno Artist Project 2019 “ Gaze to the Children ”

■ Date: November 16, 2019 (Sat)-January 5, 2020 (Sun)

■ Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Gallery A ・ C

■ Opening hours: 9: 30-17: 30 (Last entry 30 minutes before closing)

■ Opening at night: Friday, November 30 (Saturday), December 7 (Sat) 9: 30-20: 00 (Last entry 30 minutes before closing)

■ Closed days: November 18 (Monday), December 2 (Monday), 16th (Mon), 26th (Thurs)-3rd 2020 (Fri)

■ Admission fee: Same-day tickets: General 500 yen / 65 years old and over 300 yen Group ticket: General 400 yen * Group discounts for 20 people or more * Free for students and younger * Free for those with physical disability certificate, love certificate, nursing certificate, mental health care welfare certificate, and A-bomb victim health certificate (up to 1 person) * Please bring something that you can prove. * “Coultrede Museum Exhibition fascinating impressionist” held at the same time Admission is free by presenting a ticket (stub)

■ Organizer: Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

■ Contact: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum TEL: 03-3823-6921 (representative)

■ Event information: Please check the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum website “Gaze to the Children” page. https://www.tobikan.jp/en/exhibition/2019_uenoartistproject.html