Off On An Arts Barge
SARAH MILNE mourns the impending closure of a Hastings Art institution but wishes its creators bon voyage as they embark for waters new on the Zuzushii Art Barge – a new ‘laboratory on water’.
Since its inception the Zuzushii Art Laboratory has been a truly fascinating place bursting with art that never fails to leave me moved, amused, often unnerved and always inspired to push some boundaries and do something new in my own art.
Large parts of its walls are covered with mixed media collage and assemblage art. Spacious pieces, like a framed board painted red and white, empty except for a small, circular, framed eye and a torn piece of map along the bottom. Boxes crammed with small toys and disembodied dolls legs, arms, hands or packed with springs, batteries, wires, bolts, a broken doll, playing cards and butterflies.
Numbered by Tim Can
This is the creative zone of Fumico Azuma, from Tokyo and Londoner, Tim Can. They met at about 9.00am on Tuesday 11 October 1999 in Barcelona and formed a music performance trio called Doctor Zuzushii Monkey – Zuzushii being Japanese for cheeky or cool.
When the doctor departed it left the duo Zuzushii Monkey – Fumico and Tim. They are true mixed media artists who also make and produce short films, sound and music which they describe as a melting pot of cultures and old and new technologies, played on conventional and home-built instruments and devices.
Zuzushii, or Cheeky Art Laboratory is the perfect name for their creative space and gallery. It is a collage of found objects, words and images carefully placed together to make something new. “I wouldn’t describe it as pretty,” Tim admits, “but it gets your brain going.” And, as for cheeky, “I guess there is something playful about it all.”
Though their art is equally thought-provoking. Fumico starts with the message or concept and then assembles pieces to reflect her idea. Tim tends to begin with what he’s got in front of him, and the idea emerges.
For example, the red and white piece with the single eye and torn map: “I piece things together, just thinking that should be there and that there. I like torn edges and things that are cracked up. Then I’ll often leaf through old reference books and encyclo-paedias to find a title. Like this one, I found the phrase ‘suddenly I rubbed my eye’ and it was perfect, so I stuck that on the bottom as the title of the piece.” Many of Tim’s pieces combine the written word within art. There are collages here that are truly poetical.
Changes by Tim Can
Tim and Fumico have been in Hastings for six years. Before that, they were in Berlin, living next to a busy railway in a caravan and a log cabin they made from wood and windows found on building sites. Approaching their third winter with no running water, they decided it was time to move and a friend offered them a room in Hastings. “It could have been anywhere,” Tim admits, “but it’s a friendly place and there’s a lot of art, a lot of music. You don’t necessarily like it all, but it’s going on and that’s the important thing.”
Hastings is lucky to have them but don’t take too long to go and see this for yourself. Tim and Fumico have lived and worked together in Berlin, Greece, Tokyo, Peckham and Barcelona. “Something of a nomadic existence distils, refines and sharpens the point of our view. Material possessions can be accumulated, though just as easily passed away, passed on.”
Hastings is the longest they have been anywhere, and the pair will soon be off on a new adventure on their ‘Zuzushii Art Barge’ – the new laboratory on water. Sadly for Hastings, they will be closing their doors at White Rock on 1 August. But first, we have The Embarkment Exhibition, and “everything must go” so you may find a bargain to treasure after they have gone.
Be sure to get along and see this curious and unique collection before it’s too late for, as Tim explains: “Nothing is forever, life, art, us, everything.”
• Zuzushii Art Laboratory is at 26, White Rock, Hastings, TN34 1JY and opens 10am-5pm Wednesday to Sunday. The Embarkment Exhibition runs from 6-31 July with a Private View on 9 July.Films and music by Zuzushii Monkey can be seen and heard on the website at zuzuhiiartlaboratory.com
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