Chu Enoki, RPM-1200, 2005, metal, 3.3m x. 4.5m

Photo Courtesy of Hirakakiuchi Yuto

Stand at the intersection of Roppongi crossing on a busy night and you’re bound to feel the pulse of this metropolis. Just down the street at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills, the intersection serves as the perfect metaphor for an exhibition on the meeting, crossing and beat of contemporary art.

The year 2004 was the first of a planned triennial exhibition titled “Roppongi Crossing.” The idea was to focus mainly on Japanese artists who have made a major contribution to art, architecture, design, fashion or film. The works would serve as a resource on Japanese contemporary art and, like a social mirror, promote a critical dialogue about the quality of art and life.

This year, “Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art” displays an unconventionally bold lineup of works by 36 Japanese artists that “cross” both genre and age. Within this focus, the four curators selected the works not for their crowd-pleasing potential, but based on what the curators themselves really liked. A fresh approach indeed.

Yayoi Deki, Capperi, 2003, acrylic on paper mounted on panel, 150 x 100cm (detail)

Courtesy of Yamamoto Gendai

“We chose a manga artist like Yuichi Yokoyama because his work goes beyond the boundaries of manga,” said curator Natsumi Araki. “His work can’t be confined just within the field, as he is not a commercial manga artist. We looked for artists and creators like this in every genre.”

Works from artists active since the ’60s and ’70s, like Atsuhito Sekiguchi, Yoshio Yoshimura and Tiger Tateishi, were chosen for their wide-ranging oeuvre and influential styles. “We wanted to show the energy and power which flowed from the bottom of Japanese creativity that started in the 1960s,” said Araki. “These artists’ works continue to be fresh and strong.”

Although Sekiguchi is primarily known as a media artist and one of the pioneers of computer art, his work is rooted in the painting he began in the ’80s. Exhibited with generous space, his eye-catching series titled “Drawings of Kinkazan by 6 People Pasted on Sekiguchi’s Painting” is an important contribution. Yoshio’s pencil drawings, like his newspaper series from the ’70s, are astounding, almost bizarre, in their realism. Entire pages are minutely copied and yet reinvented by the hand of the artist. Although Tateishi’s (1941-1998) oil paintings, drawings and comics are exhibited posthumously here, his work feels very much alive. One of the first Japanese artists to experiment widely with various media, Tateishi produced phantasmal work and remains an influential figure for many followers.

Yuichi Yokoyama, from Travel, 2002-05, inkjet print, 525.6 x 360cm

Courtesy of East Press. Printed in France 2005, in Japan 2006

The curators avoided fashion and architecture, concentrating instead on sculpture, installations, drawing, painting and photography. Taking an original turn, they decided to also include works not typically considered art—design, crafts, games and entertainment. Tempting the viewer into participation is the game Arithmetik Garden by the duo Sato Masahiko + Kiriyama Takashi, in which the player becomes a number. Once in the “garden” of the title, you must come up with the correct combination of numbers to exit. “It is very physical work,” said Araki. “There are several examples of this kind of work using all five senses. So the exhibition is not all just visual.”

Challenging the five senses is Naohiro Ukawa’s “A Series of Interpreted Catharsis Episode 1: Hurricane Katrina 2005.8.24.” Participants must change into a protective white bodysuit and enter
a clear plastic chamber that whirls with real money powered by winds like Hurricane Katrina’s. Ukawa’s journey from being a nightclub VJ and music video artist to concentrating on natural disasters is as surreal as his installation.

Iwasaki Takahiro, Reflection Model, 2001, Japanese cypress and wire, 115 x 90 x 60cm

Photo Courtesy of Tomoeda Nozomi

Several artists, like sculptor Kohei Nawa and installation artist Kengo Kito, collaborated on the actual placement of their work within the exhibition. Given their own spacious room, the works delight with contrast. It’s OK to touch Nawa’s massive, foam-like, floor-to-ceiling sculpture that hovers over your path. Then look up—your eyes and ears are pricked by the hypnotic whirling of Kito’s colorful ball installation.

Other standouts include Shinichi Hara’s large and intricate milky marble sculptures. Obsessed with the shape and symbol of the human ear, Hara created each piece with hundreds of ear-shaped components that blend to create a fluid work. Enoki Chu’s metallic sculpture, made from scrap metal, reflects the radical genius of his work. Viewed from all angles, this piece epitomizes the messages of this successful and powerful exhibition. “We wanted to show that art is not just a linear thing,” said curator Noi Sawaragi. “Art is something beating, something alive, something forming that tells us the future.” Mori Art Museum, until Jan 14. See exhibition listings (Akasaka/Roppongi).