"I move my hand and then I see it": sensing and knowing with young artists in Japan. Issue 3 (3rd July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kavedžija, Iza
• Is Part Of: Asian anthropology. Volume 18:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 222
• Page End: 237
• Publication Date: 2019-07-03
• Subjects: Japan -- artists -- art-work -- imagination -- agency -- the body; Anthropology -- East Asia -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- Asia -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 301.09505
• DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2019.1627747
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1683-478X

Abstract

Abstract: When asked to reflect on their own creative practice, contemporary artists in Osaka would frequently invoke images of movement. In lieu of a preformed mental image or plan, they would emphasise the processual and emergent nature of creating a work of art and the importance of moving one's body, likening the gradual and meandering nature of their understanding to a "path." At the same time, they would often compare their own lives to a path, albeit one with a far less visible endpoint than that which lay ahead of practitioners of the traditional Japanese arts. Along this particular life path, one must move without a clear idea of where one is headed; the path is laid down as one moves along it. "Feeling with the world" and sensing in collaboration with others, emerges as a mode of knowing.