Youkobo residency 2010

exhibition is now open

2010-06-11T12:27:00.001-07:00

and today (as Im watching the football and the time difference is what it is) will be the opening party for the exhibition. I must say that Im extremely happy about the working results for the 2 months spent at Youkobo. The rest of the year will be extremely busy in terms of shows so now I will take two weeks off before the storm.

Also at Youkobo there is an opening of another artist Kenji Ide, who has made an impressive installation at the gallery. I think we deserve a great party later on! Please join us on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102061543173170

and check more details on youkobo website. The weather seems to be very pleasant tomorrow so we will host a party outside with drinks and snacks!

http://www.youkobo.co.jp/en/

I just can't believe the difference of my studio. With the help of my Marie we managed to transform what had become a festival for leggy creatures like cockroaches into a really nice exhibition space.

sorry for being a bit slack

2010-06-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

since I havent updated in a while. I have a general feeling this has not caused any pain for anyone. I hope there is at least few people who will read this blog. Anyways LOTS of things have been happening. I will perhaps try to add more images and text later. I am fully busy for my exhibition and this is the last working week in my studio now. Theres quite few new pieces that Im very excited about. I will add photos of them later after I have got professional photographer in here.

Souliya left for Laos and here he is giving a talk at youkobo. Jamie is translating and Tatsuhiko is listening.

We ended up singing karaoke after the party and a great meal.

Here is by far the biggest paper I have strethced, 240 x 153 cm. I needed Maries help to put it up and I was wondering if it is even possible to do but so far so good.

one....

two...

and three. Im going to crop the final image from the bottom. I wanted to see how the drips would behave on such a long paper and if there would be some new phenomenom that would happen. in this case (like usually) it didn't work like I thought.

humidity and wamth

2010-05-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the humidity was 97% and I could not work at all. Al the papers felt wet and they were super bloated and curvy. Also since then nearly all of the tape I have for stretching paper has stuck into unusable blocks! Nevertheless, heres some images of last weeks work. There has been lots of other activities as well including a field trip to kamakura (we saw mount fuji!), meeting friends from finland and going to openings and buying sashimi knives.

im not sure if this is finished. have to see how it seems tomorrow in a daylight...

the last 'keijo' (one of the several train/metro companies) train from shibya to kichijoiji. i know how sardines feel now...

opening for the show by yuuri and chihiro kabata in shibya-area

kappabashi and sashimi knifes

mount fuji

and the sea!! so nice day this was.

after lunch...

dripping

2010-05-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here's whats been up to in the past week or so...I had to re arrange the studio a bit to make room for more pictures. I do not want to roll them before i know what goes up on show (as the papers will be less cooperative after that).

this is a small cube from nice perspective with primary colours.

the same cube with 'the between colours'

This piece took me the most of the week. Its kind of reverse I have normally done and the cube got a little messy inside.

drips drips and more drips...to be continued

out & about pt3

2010-05-09T22:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a great field-trip day. We drove out of the city to visit sculptor Masaji Asaga and his Rock Museum in Kameoka. In Oulu where Im from the name would suggest something else but here it is 100% rock. Beautiful as well. He is running a residency program there as well for stone sculptors and has done workshops on how to make tools for rock sculpting.

It was nice to leave town fo a while...

Raccoon was a symbol for the region. Their mascot has a barrel of sake attached to him as well. Perhaps this is because they seem to produce a lot of rice here...

Masaji was a master of digging out bamboo shoots (just in season). We dug out a box of them. The plant is amazing. They are all connected underground like mushrooms and can grow a foot/day. New ones apparently popped out every day. Hiroko told me that somewhere they eat bamboo sashimi but you would need to dig those out before they spurt out of the ground (thats also illegal apparently?). There ones need to be boiled with seasoning but oh boy arent they good!

Heres the bamboo forest near the rock museum. You can see the shoots in the ground.

The catch! They really look like some monsters from miayzaki animation.

and this is the museum.

view outside

The main objective for this trip however was a retrospective exhibition of AY-O. Hes perhaps so far the most influential artist I have come across here in Japan. He was part of fluxus group in NYC in the 1960's and uses distictional rainbow colouring in his works. I had come across his work here and there but never in the scale as I was lucky to expereince here. He had done a lot of installation work and some really ambitious sculpture. The retrospective was held in Tsukuba Museum of Art, in the north of Tokyo.
Below is the artist AY-O who I was honoured to meet as he was signing his book for me. I gave him my cataloque as a gift. He has been down at Youkobo a few times as well. I would love to sit down with him and ask how was Duchamp in person etc. He is now 79 years old.

here's a sample of his work I found on the net.

and what would a good field trip day be without a nice lunch? ...mmm

its like finnish summer now

2010-05-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

The newest watercolour cube has found its way and Im quite pleased with it. It has different dynamics than one similar cube I have done previously a few years back (also its a lot more complex!). I was never very happy how that one turned out (the coulours were a bit unbalanced and it had purplish overall hue). I am not totally happy with this one either but there is something that I enjoy about it so it will probably be exhibited somewhere.

here is another cube I have been meaning to try for quite a while now ( i think for more than 2 years or so...). It is done with ink and there's 3 layers of it in every dot. Many people prefer monochromatic works that I have done, personally I cannot say one is better than the other of the pieces I choose to exhibit.

last nite I had an idea and as usual the end result is quite far from the result. I might try this again some day but it will envolve bigger paper and at least 60 hues already mixed. (this one has 36)

these are the same colours but applied differently. I didnt correct the tones beforehand so theres a lot of variation on the overall hue of different tones.

leaves have grown as Ive been working

and this is my regular lunch place at nishiogikubo. pretty standard sushi but for the price its heaven if you like raw fish with vinegary rice (their rice tastes butelry somehow, I wonder how they do it) and green tea.

its been 4 weeks here now

2010-05-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

and the studio is rocking it. Once it got drier and sunnier the work mode switched on full gear... I mixed 36 colours in the beginning of week, some are straight from the tube, some are mix of a few pigments. The difficulty is getting their tone accurate so when applied they should form as ambiguous colour as possible. Ive been doing this for few years but so far Ive never been truely happy.

here's the first layer. I used video beamer to project the image on paper

here's another one thats coming up. I think this one will take a while...

but heres the newest cube. This will be hung the other way around so it appears falling. The size is 150 x 120 cm. This took quite a while to do, I think I started this wednesday and finished it just now.

and a close-up. I like the randomness and 'mistakes' the process creates. It the brush versus gravity.

moisture school

2010-04-27T22:09:00.001-07:00

The moisture percentage must be 99% here because all of my works that were nice and neatly stapled on walls are warped and bloated. Its been raining a lot but at least its a bit warmer than before. Moisture is the main ingredient in making watercolour-works on paper...from start to finish.

Trial for gouache. Im not too happy and Im wondering why im even putting this up...

The ongoing new picture. This is a kind of test as well.

because I got my 'proper' papers in last week and Im starting to use them now. I bought all of them blind not knowing their names and I was surprised to see thet my favourite paper was the one I have mostly used in Finland as well. Viva la france! I guess it is also one of the few that exceed 1,1m in width and is not too expensive (around 100€/roll for 300g/m2)

and the japanese paper thats also really nice

so this is a course on how to stretch paper. Im not at all sure how its done professionally because Ive learned all this by trial and error. This is my style on how to...

You need paper (cut to size), water, a spondge and paper tape with water adhesive on one side (I have no idea what is it called in english or finnish)

Basically you have to get the paper evenly wet on the right side (many watercolour papers have one side thats more structured than the other). This is the outer side when using papers from rolls. The watermark or the stamp of the paper should be readable. Nowadays I use spondge for wetting the paper but other methods are ok as well as the moisture is spread evenly. Once the sheet is wet it is time for coffee or tea. The moisture will spread to the fibres and the paper expands quite a lot. It will look terrible and not flat at all- do not worry this is what it is.

after the coffee I apply the paper tape to the top side of the sheet. As the paper is already wet it will stick nicely without any morer water. Start from the center and move towards the edges and pat it properly using pressure.

then turn the tape so that the glue side is up and apply water with spondge.

then you just take the sheet to the wall/place you desire to stretch it. Please note that the wall must be very even- all irregularites will show on your paper, trust me! Again move from the center to the sides makin sure paper is as straight as possible.

then it is time for the bottom. again first apply the strip without using water (your sheet should be just wet enough) make sure it really has stuck to it. Then using spondge, add moisture and make it stick to the wall. Then do the same to the sides.

Then do the corners. Try to do as good stretch as possible and undo bits that you are not happy with (only small bit at a time). The overall thing is what counts and the end result will look really bad because the center of the paper dries slower and is more warped. Do not worry!

Because the magic happens when the paper dries up. Even with this moisture!

I was really lucky (Thank you jaime!!) to find these boards from a wood shop in Kichijoiji. They were cheap as chips as they were about to be thrown out! I have tried many materials as a platform for papers but these are most professional I have ever used. Its a bit of a shame I could not get as big size I wanted but these will well do for now!

and the invitation cards came as well. Its more than 6 weeks for the opening so well in time!

I guess when you are doing a blog the pressure is there to update

2010-04-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

...its been a week of ups and downs. Ive managed to get 3d images from finland (Than you Jussi!!) and print them on acetates (thank you Yuuri!!). Unluckily, just when managed to find an old ancient OHP (over head projector) and got it set up for the job, its lamp broke and the manufacturer could not help with the replacement. I guess no-one uses those things anymore. So for the first time Im using video-beamer and ALSO trying out gouache instead of watercolour that i normally use with these. I must say thatthe quality compared to what Im used to is not quite there but Im getting somewhere...

at least Im learning to use macro-setting in my camera and the light in the studio for this particular wall & time was quite amazing.

the pigments...

and the toilet read. I want to know if there is some culinary experiences I could afford here in tokyo and it looks like we will do few things in the coming months here...

but perhaps not go for american fine wines at NY grill at park hyatt. (yes, we did the lost in translation thing but the views...yes)

sorry for the bad quality of the photos. As I learned to use the macro-function I left it on for the whole day...

2010-04-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

old ideas new techiques. Ive saved tons of things in my 'to be tried' folder for this time here.

drips and just the beginning.

spring is here. no more blossom on the cherry tree but leaves on the way. I will be overshadowed soon.

random pics, talk and a party

2010-04-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

today there was a farewell party of Michele Kong and an artist talk by Pat Warner at Youkobo which was really nice event. Makes one treasure this time here even more when you realise how nice the community of artists and people here are. We forgot our camera to our flat so Ill add the photos a bit later once I get them from souliam (artist from Laos at studio B)....

the ice cream selection in our fridge is few in tastes but far from european choices: 3 different types of matcha-ice cream....mmmmm! at the moment: 1. soy... 2. häagen-dachs... 3. the 3rd one...why theres no such thing in Finland?

nice poster for tea freaks like me...this was somewhere in roppongi area

horse sashimi...

the best and only good espresso so far in japan...in our new most favourite area: Nishi-Okigubo thats actually the closest JR-station from here. Alicecafe (inspired by the fairytale but very cool minimalistic deco...) was south from Nishi-Okigubo- JR station. We usually just take the bus to Okigubo station that is closest to Shinjuku (the worlds busiest station with more than 3 million visitors per day) from here by Chuo line. Theres a few different types of trains that go on the line and there are 3 different train/metro comapnies that do tokyo public transport and buses on top of that.

Nishi-Okigubo had the most cool places, this is one of the weird ones...(from finnish perspective)... a bar named after a Kaurismäki-movie, Juha. It was all full of posters of his movies and stuff. we have to check it later. There was another interesing one called Zen Pussy but the girls were having a band practice when we were entering (we though it was 2nd hand cloth store but it is a bar as well). Ill definitely post more photos 'cause we will be back to our new home in tokyo! Its just short bikeride from the residency.

Website update

2010-04-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

mostly gloss works. Im still waiting for some images from photo shoots. My website makes it seem that I have been slacking in 2009...i feel the opposite but in reality : not many updates then.

www.jaakkomattila.fi

Sunny day in gla...tokyo

2010-04-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Actually its been anything but sunny lately. Rain every day and temperatures around 10 celsius.

I was quite taken when ben (of the band sunny day in glasgow) mentioned me in their tour blog. Their blog (that ive been following) was one of the inspirations to make this as well as friends at home (+ some art related folk around the world). I have been meaning to put up their records in my website for some time now because im super happy about the way they turned out. This is all thanks to graphic designer Naomi Donabedian.

i just finished this piece yesterday and its going to be on the invitation card for my exhibition here in Tokyo. (theres some resemblance to a CD cover that has my artwork on it... )

and in the making...this place really is beginning to look like a studio instead of white walls.

this is a view from mori tower towards our home. its just 20mins by train behind those tall buildings (shinjuku)

rainy suginami-ku, end of sakura

2010-04-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

pigments selection version 2.0

and the result which i'm much happier with. it took 3 days to make this.

rainy week ahead...but i think its going to be a good one. I am in a really good working mode- getting up around 7 with the sunlight and physically feel great as well. I will update my website soon as I get more photos from my photographers - Its been way too long since Ive updated last...

tokyo gravity painting

2010-04-09T16:41:00.001-07:00

first watercolour pigments, i wish i had paid more attention when buying them. many of them were a combination of different pigments which i hate...i like to buy pure stuff and mix my own. for example the yellow had white as well as cadmium and it shows! well...this is just the first trial...

this piece is made with hand-ground ink. the only difference in my point of view is with the most dark hues as they can be made very thick when grinding it yourself.

there are a lot of faint ink lines that do not transcend digitally to the viewer so you have to come and see the work with your own eyes!

week has been quite good in terms of work. lots of accidents & mistakes. thats what always pushes me forward. I have sampled few styles of paper and Im definitely refining of what works in my case.

grindin'

2010-04-05T17:04:00.001-07:00

this heater is a lifesaver in here. no insulation to speak of. the only problem is that he eats kerosine and its not super ecological. well, it should be +20 here soon so heating will not be a problem. heat on the other hand might!

i have been grinding ink (traditional style) now for 2 hours in the morning and made some first trials. i think i might try the readymade ink as well to see if there is a real difference in freshly made vs factory in how i am applying it. my method is rather wasteful since most of the ink drips off the paper.

out & about pt1

2010-04-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

tokyo art fair was very good (compared to ones I've visited before) and gave a really good perspective on whats happening here at the moment in the commercial art world. Also hanuda celebrations at the nearby ueno park were something to remember...kampai!

3rd day in japan, 1st day in the studio

2010-04-02T17:32:00.001-07:00

This is my first ever blog trying to record some events while Im working at Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo, Japan.

The above is the view to the Youkobo Art Space and beyond the wooden doors is my studio. (studio A)

koro the studio dog

This is what its all about. Japanese papers, inks and brushes. I spent 3 hours in Sekaido art shop in Shinjuku (5 floors of art material madness...like pearl paints of Tokyo!). It was kinda slow process to get these because I dont speak any japanese. Luckily the staff was super helpful like most people here. Cannot wait to get my hands dirty and sample some. All of these papers can come in 10m rolls that I normally use for my watercolours. However everything here is smaller than in the west. Perhaps Im going to go for smaller sizes of works here...lets see. I have saved loads of ideas to create here and have not made any ink/watercolour works for a year or so now.