第５回加賀ゆびぬき公募展
「オーロラの夜空」”Night Sky with Aurora” by Rachel Charlow Lenz
Back in September, I had the great good fortune to participate in the 5th Kaga yubinuki public exhibition at the 21st Century Art Museum in Kanazawa, Japan, and the even greater good fortune to attend in person.
The exhibition ran from 9/2-9/7 and was free to the public. Over 200 individual artists participated in the exhibition, and the number of yubinuki on display was in the thousands. There was a private viewing for the artists the first night of the exhibition after the museum closed (though too hapless foreigners I had coincidentally seen earlier that day on the elevator in my hotel accidentally crashed the reception because no one could explain to them why they weren’t allowed in). I met so many amazing, kind people, including some I’d been following on Instagram for a year. I was also able to meet and speak with both authors of the books from which I first learned to make yubinuki, an experience that was simultaneously exciting and terrifying. We were told NHK Ishikawa had been by to film a short piece about the exhibit that would air on the news the following morning. I forgot all about it until later that day, so I looked it up online and was more than a little stunned to see my piece featured near the end. I know it was because I was a novelty as the only person participating from abroad, rather than due to any particular merit, but it was still surreal to see my work on TV. Unfortunately, the story was removed from the web when the exhibition closed, but I did find one from a different news outlet that is still viewable on YouTube (and also shows my piece).
Later in the week, I volunteered to staff the exhibition hall, which was a bit like being a docent. I sat in a corner of the exhibit and answered questions from a surprising number of people. Unsurprisingly, just about every foreigner I saw made a beeline for me and asked variations of the same three questions (“Do you speak English?” “What is this?” “Where can I buy one?”). A couple people asked how they could learn to make yubinuki, and most of the Japanese patrons I spoke to wanted to know how I found out about yubinuki, especially when they’d established that I didn’t live in Japan. The biggest surprise of all was when a reporter from the local paper approached me about a story she was writing about Onishi-sensei (the organizer of the exhibition and the artist from whose book I learned to make yubinuki) and asked if she could interview me. Her piece was published in November, and I am still trying to process being a part of it.
第５回加賀ゆびぬき公募展 9/2/25-9/7/25, 21st Century Art Museum, Kanazawa, Japan. Slideshow of all works, photographed and compiled by Rachel C. Lenz
When not volunteering, I spent most of my time at the exhibition hall photographing everyone’s work so I could create a virtual tour, which you can see here. Photos can’t quite do the artwork justice, but at least you can get an idea of what it was like. I noticed when I was volunteering that many of the other artists spent time just hanging out in the exhibition hall so they could talk to each other, and in hindsight I wish I had spent more time there. I had thought about sitting on one of the benches and working on yubinuki, but I was too self-conscious to do it, and since my volunteer shift wasn’t until Friday, I didn’t know that it wouldn’t have been out of place until it was too late. Something to remember for the next exhibition. I don’t know how long it will be before the 6th Kaga yubinuki exhibition, but whenever it is, I will be the first to apply.
