Exhibition (EN): What makes things fly

Artist: Peleg Dishon

Location: WAITINGROOM

Dates: 2018.12.1- 23 12- 19pm (closed Mon, Tue, holidays, except 23rd Dec)

Opening: 12.1 18- 20pm
Artist talk: 12.1 19pm-

Organised by Yamakiwa Art Hotel (Niigata), WAITINGROOM gallery (Tokyo)
Supported by Embassy of Israel in Japan

Workshop: 2018.11.23 14- 17pm at Yamakiwa Art Hotel
Peleg Dishon will make Japanese traditional Rokkaku kites with local residents.

Reservation required.

Free of charge.

Please contact Yamakiwa Art Hotel for the reservation and details.
E. info@yamakiwagallery.com T. 025-594-7667

Download press release

Peleg Dishon has been invited to carry out a residency program “Japan-Israel AIR Project Yamakiwa/WAITINGROOM”, organised by Yamakiwa Art Hotel (Niigata), WAITINGROOM (Tokyo), and Embassy of Israel. Dishon was selected from the 99 applications in the open call and stayed at Tokamachi in NIigata, for a month. The exhibition at WAITINGROOM (Tokyo) will consist of the works he creates during the residency, inspired by the environment and the life of local residents.

Dishon, influenced by the culture of traditional Jewish paper cutouts, uses paper as core material in his artwork over the years. As an approach to both Israel and Japan, he refers the book, Jerusalem Rebuilt: A Daydream, written in 1918 by Boris Schatz, the founder of Bezalel (the first academy for fine art in Israel), and proposes to create a kite by paper cutouts. In the book, Schatz describes Jerusalem one hundred years later in 2018 - our present time. Jerusalem Rebuiltis a futuristic, Zionist utopia – a socialist, peace loving society that uses fine art to build the nation. Schatz proposes Japan, which he perceived as a nation basing its foreign trade on exporting fine art, as a model for his Utopian society. In his vision, the Zionist state will base its economic system on exporting fine art made by artists from Bezalel.

However, now in the midst of 2018, Jerusalem is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the transfer of the US Embassy to the city and the 70th anniversary celebrations for the establishment of the State of Israel. As part of the violent clashes, kites, a symbol of freedom and hope, became weapon as burning kites from Gaza sparked fire in Israel. This happened while Dishon was writing the proposal for this program.

In Hebrew, the word kite is used as a metaphor for a person floating in the air - detached from reality. Jerusalem Rebuiltopens with a dream of Schatz flying over his beloved Jerusalem 100 years in the future, that is, our days, as the book was written 100 years ago. Dishon imagines Schatz using a flying carpet, a gift of love from Queen Sheeba to King Solomon at the time the king built the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In this story, what makes the carpet fly is its colours.

Dishon also refers to an event called "Shirone Giant Kite Battle" in Niigata, originated in middle Edo Era. Two groups from each bank of the river fly kites at the same time, trying to push the other group’s kite into the river. Kite that falls into the river loses not only their ability to fly but also their colours, washed out by the river water.

Both stories refer to colours as an essential part of the flying, but it seems that what really makes those objects fly in our mind is the stories themselves.

During his stay in Yamakiwa (Niigata), Dishon received, as a gift, 100 sheets of 100 years old handmade paper from a local paper maker who had heard of his story. They are going to be used by Dishon to create his Edo kite, bringing together the traditional Jewish paper cutout and the art of Japanese kite decoration, according to Schatz's vision. By doing so, Dishon hopes to bring into his exhibition something from Schatz's Utopian plan. It may not solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but it will hopefully remind people of the power of imagination possessed by kites, helping them and hanging in the sky against harsh reality.

For this exhibition, Dishon will create a large scale installation which consist of a main big kite, paper pop up booklets describing ancient Jerusalem, and 10 small kites. The small Rokkaku kites, a popular kite originated in Niigata, will be created together with the local people around Yamakiwa, using a special Chinese Calligraphic cloth. Visitors in the exhibition are welcome to draw or write on the kites while what they have drawn will dry out and disappear, as if flying like the colours of the kites in the stories.