"Trip & Gift" Chiri Kubota August 2016nd - August 8th, 22
Venue: Art Gallery T+
Date: July 2016st (Monday) - August 8th (Friday), 22
Exhibitor: Chisato Kubota (3rd year student, Visual Design major)
My hobbies: Traveling, eating, and seeing the smiles on people's faces when they receive gifts.
What I don't like: Meeting people in Shinjuku.
This exhibition is sure to make you feel like you've traveled this summer, whether you've traveled before or not.
T+review
The moment when you look around at souvenirs on your travels is the moment when you look back on what you saw, experienced, and gained on your trip, and at the same time, it is the moment when you think of your family and friends back home, that is, the people to whom you will give the souvenirs. This exhibition "Trip & Gift" conveyed the artist's pure feelings about his travels without any distortion. It also reminded the viewers of their own feelings for their hometowns.
The exhibited works are original souvenir designs by the artist himself, using local specialties from each prefecture in Japan as motifs. Bottled jam from eastern Japan, tea from warm Areas of studys, sweets... The brightly colored bottles and packages that make you feel the sweetness in your mouth just by looking at them are like souvenirs from each prefecture, and you can't help but look for souvenirs from your own prefecture. And at that moment, the viewer's thoughts turn to their own hometown. What are the specialties of your hometown, where are your nostalgic places, and what kind of people did you live with? This exhibition represents the artist's feelings about travel and the joy of souvenirs, but from the viewer's perspective, I think that it is conveyed by transferring it to each viewer's feelings about their own hometown. I think that an exhibition like this, where the artist's pure feelings are expressed in a concrete form and result in a slightly different or even deeper meaning for the viewer, is very interesting.
As the title of this work suggests, a souvenir is a gift. Of course, souvenirs can be something you buy for yourself as a memento, but a gift bought for a family member or friend is certainly a gift. Because it is for someone, you think about what kind of gift would make them happy and what would be appropriate. The artist has written that she herself enjoys choosing souvenirs, so when creating this piece, she must have thought about what kind of souvenir she would like to give as a gift, and what kind of gift would make someone happy to receive. I am quite particular about giving gifts to others, and if a local specialty souvenir like this one was lined up in a souvenir shop, I'm sure I would pick it up. (Yamazaki Shoka)
