show

i’m taking part in a group show called ‘environmental 911′ at gordon snelgrove gallery at university of saskatchewan.  it’s been a while since i got to show my drawings in saskatoon.  i’m very happy.

we’ll be at the closing reception probably from 7 to 8pm-ish.  please come and say hi if you’re around in saskatoon.

oh, this drawings is called “new wings”.  16 x 20″

Gordon Snelgrove Gallery

3 Campus Dr.  Saskatoon

i’ve been invited to show my drawings at the cracow screen festival in poland. the festival is taking place in the centre of cracow. there will be 2 music stages and video and art slideshows on a large screen and on 12 projections on the sides of buildings. it’s a 3 day music festival, may 2-4 2008.

the festival website is here.

16 performers, 3 days, 2 stages, visual art screened on buildings, houses and screens - all this can be expected during first cracow screen festival which will be held in cracow from 2nd to 4th of may, 2008. the event will start the festival season in poland, as well as the tourist season in cracow. in the long run the csf is designed to become one of the largest live music events in the country and the biggest annual video art presentation in poland.

over the three may days (the traditional polish ‘long weekend’) the historic cracow squares (jan nowak-jezioranski square and szezepaniski square) will witness live performances of well established bands and shows of visual art, created by artists specializing in video art and artistic film.

visual art will be ubiquitous: films will be shown in most public spaces, esp. on ATM screens, video screens, tv sets in shopping malls, etc.

the festival will host two distinctive visual artists: floria sigismondi - italian born photographer and director, known for working with bjork, white stripes, marlyn manson, david bowie, the cure, muse, interpol. and maria mochnacz, known for her unique portraits and videoclips of pj harvey.

the three days will turn cracow into one gigantic music screen.

two main stages will host seven bands daily. the audience can move about freely from one square to another, thus creating a festival programme of their own.

the first cracow screen festival will host many international artists, who haven’t made it to poland before, such as cirKus feat. neneh cherry (sweden), slut (germany), the raveonettes (denmark), bryan ferry (uk) and some, like mattafix (uk), who turn each visit to poland into immediate success.

some, like underworld, with their amazing light show, will satisfy both visual art and music fans. the festival auduence will have a chance to confront thir shows with concerts of the most interesting polish acts, such as wilki, smolik, cool kids of death, pustki and others!

i wish i could be there in person. i’m a big fan of underworld, especially. maybe i can see photos from the festival and some video clips on youtube.

here is my favorite youtube video using underworld’s music and film from koyaanisqatsi:

elijah’s separation anxiety began when he was eight months old. in japanese, we call this period ‘ato-oi’, which literally means ‘after-follow’. he began to follow me around wherever i would go. even when i was in his sight and someone else was holding him, he immediately would start crying and reach out to me. it is/was really, really touching and awfully adorable.

i try to stay close to him so he won’t feel insecure. he wants to be picked up and held all the time, so i do that. when i need to go to the next room, i let him know that i’m going. i try not to disappear without saying anything. he always stops what he’s doing and crawls after me. for some reason, if i get down on the floor and crawl out of the room, he doesn’t react anxiously. maybe he thinks i’m off to catch some salmon. it’s all part of the bear game, my friend.

recently, he started to follow after paul, too. he chased after paul when he entered the bathroom. so i thought it might be a time to teach him that papa and mama are around even when you can’t see them.

it’s kind of embarrassing to tell you this, but i’ve been leaving the bathroom door open when i take a shower in the morning. i put elijah in the playpen and move it down the hall in front of the bathroom so that he can see me. as soon as i would get in the shower, he would start crying, and he’d keep crying his head off the whole time. from time to time, i would stick my head (covered in shampoo) outside the shower curtain and say “daijyo-bu! mama kokoni iruyo!” (it’s okay, mama’s here!). he would cry even harder. :D after a couple of try, i stopped hearing his crying. he started to play with toys.

this is one of the drawings for ‘100 stories’ at hosfelt gallery in NYC.

100 stories

photographs by crystal liu
& drawings by crystal liu, ruth marten, rachell sumpter, yuka yamaguchi

11 april - 31 may 2008

hosfelt gallery
531 w 36th street,
new york

i’m doing a show at cafe pause in ikebukuro, tokyo. i’m showing some prints of my favorite drawings. initially, i was planning to show original drawings, but i realized it would be much easier to bring prints with me, especially since i’m travelling with my baby. we all came to japan at the end of december to spend new year’s with my family in wakayama. then paul, elijah and i went to tokyo to set up this show.

this is my first show in japan, actually. i started my art career in canada, years after i left japan in 2000. my work is pretty well known online, with my website and flickr and many links from different sites around the world. i write my blog in english, so my contacts have been mostly non-japanese. i’ve shown work in many different places, but never before in japan.

jean snow and elijah

the person who contacted me to do this show is jean snow. he’s a canadian living in tokyo who writes a blog about design and pop culture in tokyo. he found me after my drawings were linked from drawn!, even though the link was broken (he searched my name on google). jean asked me if i was interested in doing a show at cafe pause, where he sets up events. we arranged the time so we could also spend new year’s with my family on the same trip.

cafe pause is about a 10 minute walk from ikebukuro station. it stands on a corner lot and the two walls facing the streets have big wall-to-wall windows that create an open-air feeling. there are display areas on the pillars and on the walls (but not much wall space because of all the windows). i put up small prints on the bookshelves on the pillars and along one wall, and some big prints on the open wall space. i filled up the space with images tightly, using 44 prints in total (many of them used twice in different places). i made two prints (’inside of me’ and ‘after all’) so large (18 x 24″) that their heads are bigger than lifesize. someday, i’d like to make huge prints that would swallow our minds and bodies –ultraman size would be nice.

it’s been awhile since i did a show in a cafe gallery - my favorite place to show my drawings. i like my work to be seen as part of daily life. people come to a cafe for a cup of coffee or to meet someone, not specifically to look at art. when they go home that evening to have a bath, if they suddenly remember my drawings and the images come out of the mist of the bath, that would be wonderful.

the show will be on until january 13th. the prints are all for sale, and there are free postcards, too.

cafe pause
2-14-12-1F Minami-Ikebukuro
Toshima-ku, Tokyo
171-0022

Phone: 03-5950-6117
Fax: 03-5950-6180

tonight is the opening of the group show, “girls at play” at compound gallery. i’ll be flying to portland all day today — no direct flight from saskatoon, so we have to change planes in calgary and vancouver. i hope elijah will be happy and sleepy all day.

the curator from the gallery contacted me back in july and invited me to be part of this show. he said the theme would be “twisted eroticism”. i’ve never tried to draw anything erotic, so i wasn’t sure why he asked me. but then i remembered that some of my drawings show up on sexy websites from time to time, especially the ones with naked breasts. it’s a little strange to me that people find my drawings to be erotic, since i don’t think of them that way.

i’m not very good at drawing around a theme, or doing anything on purpose. i tend to get heavy mind-constipation worrying about whether my work will fit with what i’ve been asked to do, or if anyone will understand it. as a good japanese citizen, harmony is very important. so i end up thinking a lot about the other people and the situation, instead of just drawing what i feel like drawing.

i didn’t get much done for this show until the end of september. it was elijah’s super-fussy season around age 2-3 months. then, when i had time to think about drawing, i couldn’t decide what to do for this show.

after all that mind-blowing mind-constipation, i decided i wouldn’t care what i was supposed to do for the show. i just started drawing whatever came to my mind: first there was a girl playing nintendo wii with her breasts, then there were some roosters doing strange things (i didn’t realize what the other word is for “rooster”), then finally there were some giant hearts attached to a stump body of a schoolgirl. maybe some people will still find it sexy but it doesn’t seem that way to me. i was just trying to make myself laugh.

i’m happy the show was given the title “girls at play”. i didn’t know the title until just recently, after doing most of the drawings. it’s good that i drew the girl playing with the wii. but even the other drawings are just me playing around with my pencils, so it still fits with the theme.

harmony!

i hope people have fun looking at my drawings. if you’re in portland tonight, come to compound gallery. i’m not very chatty and don’t make much sense, but i’d be very happy if you are there.

here is the set of drawings i’m showing. you can click the images to enlarge, and go through them like a slideshow.

my original drawings can be purchased from compound gallery’s online shop (and at the gallery, in portland). i will be making prints of a few of these drawings and adding them to my online shop.

girls at play

four female artists who represent a new movement in japanese art
(show details)

november 1 - 30
reception november 1st @7pm

compound gallery
107 nw 5th avenue
portland, oregon

another drawing for the “girls at play” show at compound gallery, portland.

i’m leaving tomorrow morning to go to the opening, tomorrow evening at 7pm.