Transition House by Kayako Nakashima is one of the Setouchi Triennale‘s artworks that you can currently see on Takamijima.
The concept is quite simple (take an abandoned house, riddle it with holes at regular intervals, make it as dark as possible from the inside) but the result is very interesting:
Until November 4th, Transition House is open every day from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm. As usual, the first visit is free to Art Passport holders (subsequent visits are 200 yens, it costs 300 yens if you don’t have an Art Passport). I heavily suspect that the artwork is a permanent feature (I’ll tell you when I know for sure).
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I hope the island is open all year round, but I doubt it. I might be on Shikoku next year again, but we’ll see. If I am, I wouldn’t mind trying to visit these islands if they still have something going on, but who knows.
Some artworks will be permanent, this particular house looks like it will be.
I’ll post the details about what artworks will remain after the Triennale on the blog as soon as I have them (they’ll also be on the official site of course).
It would be great if the majority of the houses are permanent. I was just taking a quick look at the website after they updated the photos. They all look great.
The one I hope is permanent is this one:
Missing Post Office
The message looks great. I read about it recently somewhere else and would love to visit.
Yes, I hope it is too. But I don’t know, it looked like it can be easily dismantled. Also, the old guy in the uniform is part of the installation (he’s the last man to have worked there I think). I don’t imagine him staying there every weekend. Now, they can change a few things without dismantling it.
When we visited it, we sat near it for a little while and an old lady came to see us and told us that she saw us earlier elsewhere on the island and that it reminded her of someone for whom she wrote a card. She was on her way to have it installed when she saw us for the second time. My theory is that she fell in love with a gaijin in her youth and never saw him again. 🙂
I heard he was the last postmaster of the post office. I could easily be wrong though.
Are you sure he doesn’t live on the island? It would be great if they kept it and opened it up once a month or something.
Ah, the story of love. I wonder what happened to her gaijin love, if your imagination was true. 😉
He does live on the island, but I don’t think he wants to spend his days there.
On the other hand, he doesn’t have to be there all the time either…
I remember reading that he enjoyed it. Like many Japanese men, he probably doesn’t know what to do with his days and to meet new people is probably enjoyable, at least for now. We’ll see what happens. Maybe the exhibit will be roving?