Lorna Irvine reviews the effective piece by Sako Kojima.
For many people, life is an endless, churning beige series of routines: a sitcom with no laughs--a grinding, gnawing corrosive experience. Kinda like a day out in St Andrews (this is a joke, obviously--St Andrews is perfectly charming).
Japanese performance artist and sculptor Sako Kojima found her life was starting to become a stultifying experience, wherein she did the same things day in, day out, such as venturing out to the shops to buy a small meal each day and return home alone.
Something had to give. A sculptor who creates small cute animals but subjects them to pain and endurance, such as sticking pins in them, Kojima's work critiques the human impulse to destroy something beautiful--perhaps a bigger comment on the cruel hierarchy inherent in all of nature. So her ongoing project, which she has been developing for well over a decade, is a natural progression from her sculptures. Titled The Reason Why I Become the Hamster, Kojima, dressed in full fluffy hamster costume with pink phallic tail, is encased in a cage, complete with custom-made wheel, giant strawberry and sunflower seeds, over a period of eight hours a day. The foyer in the Arches thus becomes a safe, cosy space, a symbol of alienation and otherness and also art installation as she spins on the wheel, twitches, preens and nibbles on paper (edible for this purpose).
The effect is at once soporific, hypnotic and cute. It looks idyllic. A simple enough idea on paper, it shouldn't work as well as it does, but it really does. Kojima's work here shouldn't be confused with the Plushie movement where people dress as furry creatures for sexual kicks, or the Japanese Kawaii culture of cutesie including toys, cartoons and J Pop. The intention is more profound than merely sentimental--probing the limitations of self-imposed or imposed behaviour...and because it's durational, you can stick around as long as you like.
www.sakokojima.com
RSS