Today Mimi and I went to the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art to see the exhibition titled Cycle and Recycle. it features the artists Takamitsu Kido, Shinji Ohmaki, Pietra Pistoletto, Takeshi Shinohara, Maro Sumi, Kei Takemura, Aiko Tezuka, Eiji Watanabe and Peter Wuthrich. It is an exhibition about the cycles that exist in human lives and artists interpretations of them. Mimi and I decided to go on this particular day because Eiji Watanabe had a performance scheduled that involved audience participation. It was called the “seal painting project.” Seal is the word that the Japanese use for sticker instead of sticker.

The project involve many children, many stickers, and Eiji. He instructed everyone to use the stickers to decorate some clear plastic pedestals that were arranged in the lobby of the exhibition space. There were numerous warnings not to stick things on actual artwork although putting stickers on other people was ok. We dove right in and started cutting stickers with scissors, putting stickers in patterns and other strange fun. Mimi made clouds and other designs.

There was a short break in the middle of the activity. That enable everyone to see what the other people were doing. Our project, much to the dismay of Mimi, ended up fouled by 3d additions of mine. I put a paper airplane/rocket on a paper stand with paper flames shooting out the back. Mimi thought it looked ugly but, oh well. I spoke with Eiji Watanabe just a bit to introduce myself since I imagine I will see him again at various openings.

After the activity we went to eat lunch before viewing the actual exhibition. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. The exhibition was typical without any “Wow!” moments but did not disappoint. Actually, some of my favorite work was that of Eiji. He had some interesting photos of product boxes in supermarkets turned in such a way that the pictures on their covers became a mirror image. Quite an interesting take on modern consumer culture. He also had photos of loves graffiti on boulders in parks to which he added “and Eiji.”

Outside the exhibition space was a grand piece of architecture that was called a spaceship. It was a hovering glass plater above a courtyard with a fountain on the top. The edges of the platform cantilevered out considerably. Mimi and I went up to the top even though it was raining. It was a little unnerving to think that you were standing almost 90ft in the air on glass.