Dialogue of the Spirit Able Art '97 Exhibition in TOKYO

Chuichi Nishigaki & The Mizunoki Workshop

The Mizunoki Residential Home in Kameoka, is a forty-minute scenic ride on the Sanin-Sagano line into the countryside outside Kyoto. It was founded in l958(Showa32) by Deguchi Kohei. In l964, he asked his friend, the painter Chuichi Nishigaki if he would take up the challenge of teaching art to some of the mentally handicapped residents there. Deguchi reasoned that all human beings are capable of creative effort whatever their mental or physical state.

Nishigaki started his art class in a disused and draughty chicken shed at the home before moving to a space beside the canteen where the studio is now permanently installed. It took ten years of effort to teach them two basic concepts - the use of line and the ability to fill the whole area of the picture plane or "killing the white" as Nishigaki calls it. Coupled with that was the difficulty of training them to use the materials themselves - brushes and pastels would be broken because they applied too much force, they would even at times be chewed or eaten. It was often, said Nishigaki, more like a fight, with some students resisting which some do even to this day. It was not a question of telling them to draw like this or that but rather of observing their development carefully, introducing new materials when appropriate, helping them in a non-interventionist way to realize their creative potential in the medium that most suited their abilities and preferred subject matter. "We teach only techniques" say Nishigaki "without stepping into their mentality at all".

In May l985,Nishigaki's stubborn persistence was rewarded when their paintings were accepted for the Kyo, Kodo and Nika Exhibitions. In l994, thirty years after the founding of the workshop, a selection of them were acquired by the "Collection de l'Art Brut" in Lausanne, Switzerland the premier collection internationally of ﾔoutsider artﾕ as this genre is now called. The importance of Nishigakiﾕs contribution to art education cannot be underestimated. For he has shown that this population, discarded and hidden for so long, is capable given the right conditions of glorious creative expression. "People are always getting angry with them, theyﾕre told to hide their face from the world but on a single sheet of paper they are able to assert their individuality and show who they are."

Of the one hundred and fifty paintings in this show, certain themes recur - the animals both stray and domestic that live in or wander into the Mizunoki home feature heavily as do their friends and interests whether it is Sumo, Ultraman, cars or Buddhist imagery. The works are united by a spontaneity and a joyous use of colour which somewhere along the line gets lost or educated out the population of normal intelligence."Colour" wrote the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky "is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." Nowhere is this more true than in these memorable works.

　

Chuichi Nishigaki

Born in l912. Painter. Professor at Kyoto School of Painting (now Kyoto University of Arts) (l943- 49) Military service in Bataan & Manchuria. Four years in Siberian prison camp. l949 - Taught in elementary and high schools in Kyoto. l964 Started art workshop in Mizunoki Home.

"When they look at the sky with their mouths open, they look foolish. When they face the canvas and start to paint they look wise. We who look at this with pleasure. Who are we?"Chuichi Nishigaki

　

Mizunoki Workshop

1961	Mizunoki Residential Home established in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture
1964	Chuichi Nishigaki starts art classes there
1980-81	Awarded grant from the Toyota Foundation
1982	Created mosaic for Kameoka General Welfare Centre
1983-84	NHK Documentary "Paintings that Touch"
1983	One painting shown at Kyoto City Museum of Art Two accepted for Kodo Exhibition
1984	One painting shown at Kyoto City Museum of Art Two accepted for Nika Exhibition One accepted for Kodo Exhibition
1985	Paintings accepted at Kansai Kodo Exhibition, Kansai Nikaten and forinternational exhibition in London organized by Royal Federation forMentally Handicapped People
1987	"Colour is Life" exhibition Kyoto, Tokyo
1993	Setagaya Museum of Art. "Parallel Visions - 20th century Art & OutsiderArt"organized by Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Mizunoki paintings represent Japan
1994	Thirty-two works by 6 artists acquired for permanent collection of Musee de l'Art Brut, Lausanne Anniversary Exhibition in Kyoto Publication of "Art Incognito" Lampoon House (Aifukan).
1995	Exhibition at Yokohama Portside Gallery Works included in publication "Able Art Festival '95"
1996	Works included in "Able Art Festival '96 OSAKA"

　

Yohei Nishimura + Chiba School for the Blind

Yohei Nishimura

Born l947, Kyoto. Graduated from Fine Arts Department of Tokyo University of Education. Art teacher at Chiba School for the Blind.

Yohei Nishimura has two identities -he is one of Japanﾕs leading ceramic sculptors whose work is in the permanent collection of many museums in Japan and abroad including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He is also a pioneer in the field of art education for blind children and for the sighted art blind.

For the past twenty-three years, he has worked as an art teacher at the Chiba School for the Blind helping his students develop a body of work which has been lauded internationally. Works by the children have been widely exhibited both in Japan and abroad. Building on the ceramic tradition ceramic pioneered after the Second World War by Shiro Fukurai with his students at the Kobe School for the Blind, Nishimura has developed a code of teaching practice based on a non-visual whole body aesthetic of touch.

He has published many books on the subject and is known for his integrated workshops in which blind and sighted people work together in the creation of artworks.

"When words come alive, they change our lives and way of life. I would like to express that strength." Yohei Nishimura

　

Chiba School for the Blind

1907	Founding of School for training in acupuncture and massage
1948	Under postwar educational reforms became Chiba School for the Blind
1974	Yohei Nishimura becomes art teacher at school.
1978	Exhibition of work by students at Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art
1984	Chiba School for the Blind Clayworks exhibition, Vancouver, Canada. Publication of "Let's Make Something We Have Not Seen - Learning from the Works of Visually-Impaired Children" by Yohei Nishimura. Kaiseisha.
1985	"Things We've Made" Exhibition, Gallery TOM, Tokyo
1986	"Artworks by Chiba School for the Blind" Exhibition - Seoul, South Korea "Things Weﾕve Made" Exhibition, Gallery TOM, Tokyo
1989	Exhibition of work by Visually-Impaired Japanese Children, London, Glasgow
1991	Publication of "The Space inside -Learning from the School Life of Visually-Impaired children" by Yohei Nishimura & Yoshiko Naruko. Kaiseisha.
1994	"The Space inside the Palm " exhibition, Fukuyama Art Museum
1995	"The Space inside the Palm - Exhibition to Touch" Kure City Art Museum Able Art Festival '95 Osaka Publication of "Shape Seen by the Hands" by Yohei Nishimura. Hakusuisha.
1996	"The Space inside -Sculptures by students at Chiba School for the Blind." exhibition. Ichihara, Chiba. Water " Sculpture Slope. Able Art '96 Festival OSAKA

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