"My Collection and Me" (English)

About “My Collection and Me” (This is a long letter, rather than an exhibition text.)

 

Hello, I’m Yukie, and I will be having an exhibition at Art Center Ongoing from November 11 (Fri) to 27 (Sun). I am not an artist. I’d been one of the staff members at Art Center Ongoing for more than 10 years.

 

If you are familiar with Art Center Ongoing, you may know well that Nozomu Ogawa, the director does not expect artists to create artworks that will sell when they have an exhibition at Ongoing. All he cares about is whether the artist is really making their best effort to do what they want (therefore the exhibitions are mostly experimental). Nozomu never puts importance on its value in the market. But actually he himself buys a lot of artworks at Ongoing. I’m pretty sure that he is the biggest collector, and probably I am the second biggest one buying artworks from our exhibitions. I still have not had the guts to buy installations, performance or video works yet (and they are often not for sale), so mostly I buy paintings or small sculptural works. I often regret after the exhibition is over, thinking “I knew I should I have bought that piece!” so the works that I own do not fully represent what I have wished to buy, but they’re surely part of it.

 

Here, let me go off topic a little bit.

I have cancer in my body. I’ve been having it for 6 years now. It has returned to me 3 times after surgeries and I’m dealing with the 3rd recurrence while writing this text. I am not in a life-threatening condition right now. Sometimes I get anxious wondering how many more years left, but I may still be alive and well 40 years from now. Like everyone else, I do not know my own life expectancy. However, because of the nature of the disease that I have, I think I am more aware than most people of my generation that someday I will be gone from this world.

 

“What will happen to the works in my home when I am gone?”

 

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Many of the works I own were purchased through Ongoing or from artists and galleries I met through Ongoing. I bought them because I really like them, not because I can or want to resell them or use them for investment. My family know very little about the artwork in my home since they do not go to Ongoing very often. One day, when I am gone and my family need to sort through my belongings, they will have no idea what to do with all the artworks I left behind. Maybe they will have to invite Nozomu to clarify, but even he does not know what values the works hold to me and why I bought them.

 

Before that happens, I have decided that I want to show off the works I have purchased while I am still in good health. I would be happy if I could share with you how and why I purchased them and what they mean to me. During the exhibition, I would also like to ask you about the works you have purchased that you have a special attachment to.

 

When I started thinking about this collection show, I realized that I do not have artworks of my two favorite artists, Mariko Aoki and Maiko Jinushi. I felt sad and asked them if there are anything I can purchase from their studio, and they agreed to create new works for this show. I am so happy! So excited to see what these amazing artists will create for me and with me.

 

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About Two Books

 

As I have written, I have cancer in my body.

It’s not a big secret that I want to keep from everyone, but I know it’s a topic that makes people feel a bit uncomfortable, so it’s difficult to find the right time and place to bring it up. However, since I have been dealing with this disease for 6 years now, and I feel that my cancer has influenced my ways of thinking and become one of the big parts in my life. I find it very intriguing, and it is sad that I cannot share the thoughts and interesting discoveries that are related to my disease with people around me.

 

So, in conjunction with the exhibition, I decided to publish a zine. A zine to give to my friends to let them know how I have been doing lately. Whenever people ask me “How have you been?" or "What's up?", I often get lost for words because there’s no way I can talk about it in a short time. So I just say “I’ve been great” or "nothing much" as I am supposed to, but I always feel that I’m being dishonest even with people whom I consider good friends. Anyway, so I decided to make a zine. Since this is my first zine, I thought I would keep it very simple and thin, but once I started making it, a small zine turned out to be 2 thick books with 312 pages and 448 pages. I have no idea what happened, but they are going to be very beautiful books and I am very happy.

 

Two books are:

1. Pinoko Book – My personal stories about the cancer, which I call “Pinoko” (the nickname is borrowed from a famous comic book by Osamu Tezuka).

2. Sarcoma Book – A collection of stories by 53 people who are dealing with sarcoma, which is the same disease that I have.

 

The cancer I have is called “sarcoma” (more precisely, retroperitoneal liposarcoma) and is classified as a “rare cancer”. In that sense, I think these books will be quite  interesting to read even if you do not have the same disease.

 

All proceeds from the sales of the two books will be donated to research and development of treatment of this “sarcoma”. As you will understand when you read the book, research on this type of cancer has not progressed very well, and it is known as “Forgotten” or “Lonely” cancer. Even doctors often don’t know this disease. Therefore, even when abnormalities are found during physical examinations or health checkups, they are often mistaken for other diseases and inappropriate treatment is given, resulting in delayed correct diagnosis and treatment. I believe it is important for sarcoma to be widely recognized to eliminate such problems.

 

These books will be available only in Japanese. But I am hoping that someday these books will be translated into other languages and help connect sarcoma patients and raise sarcoma awareness all over the world.

 

Both books are beautifully made thanks to many people. I will be super happy if you could just take a look at it even if you don’t read Japanese.

 

Pinoko Book

Written by Yukie Yoshizaki (Me!)

Edited by Kazumasa Nishioka

Paintings and drawings by Haruka Saito (Artist)

http://saitouharuyoi.web.fc2.com/

Photographs by Haruka Akagi (Photographer)

https://harukaakagi.com/

Design by Koki Shimada, Saori Kojima (SHIMA ART & DESIGN STUDIO)

https://shimaads.com/

Printing director Akira Hirai (atelier gray)

http://ateliergray.jp/#

 

Sarcoma Book

Stories by 48 people with sarcoma and 5 people who support their family with sarcoma

Stories collected by Yukie Yoshizaki (me!)

Edited by Kazumasa Nishioka

Design by Koki Shimada, Saori Kojima (SHIMA ART & DESIGN STUDIO)

https://shimaads.com/

Printing director Akira Hirai (atelier gray)

http://ateliergray.jp/#

 

Thank you very much for reading this far. See you at Ongoing from November 11.

 

Yukie