RIKUO UEDA

The Japanese artist Rikuo Ueda loves the wind.

Rikuo Ueda. The Wind House

As an artist Rikuo Ueda did not follow the usual track but he cut his own path. After
studying technology in Osaka he left Japan at the age of 23 without a target and
without money. He wanted to withdraw from the treadmill of the industrialised society
and set out in search for the meaning of life. This resulted in a world-tour lasting for
three years during which he had encounters with foreigners and foreign cultures and
became aware of his own - Japanese and Buddhist - roots. He decided to become an
artist and to make the things and sequences of life visible by means of actions and
works of art.

In all civilizations and cultures of the world the wind has played and plays a central
role: As a meteorological phenomenon, as a source of power and drive and finally as
a topic in literature and in the fine arts. The associations with the wind are diverse
and depending on its force can be utilized amicably or act destructively. Islanders
and coast dwellers, by nature, have a very close relation to the wind especially as in
former times it governed their existence and every day life. This, in particular, applies
to Japan and its inhabitants who are mostly settled along the narrow coast line. In the
Japanese language Kaze - Japanese for wind - appears as a term in various ways
and is used with very different connotations. The span reaches from harmless figures
in Manga, the Japanese comic, to Kamikaze, the divine wind.


1997, Ueda resided in Denmark for a scholarship and in a storm experienced the
tumultuous force of the wind along the coast. This natural spectacle impressed the
artist deeply and he wanted to grasp it, virtually archive it. He even tried to capture
the wind in receptacles and bags and started to draw up a "Wind Collection". Every
place he travelled to he caught the wind and captured it in tins. For other actions he
bound pens to twigs, which were moved by the wind and left behind traces on
drawing paper. Under the twigs with strongly coloured berries he laid a sheet of
paper and brought into motion by the wind these created magnificent calligraphic
works. In the wind Ueda recognizes the element that connects everything, without a
beginning, without an end. The Buddhist equivalent to Heraclides' famous formula
"Panta rei" is: "Subete wa utsuro", everything flows.

The Wind House in the Jenisch Park has two starting points. On the one hand the
traditional Japanese architecture as seen in the famous imperial Katsura Rikyu villa
in Kyoto which is greatly admired by Rikuo Ueda. The harmony of the proportions,
the simplicity of the material, the visibility of the construction, the precision of the
handcraft, and above all, the inclusion and design of nature are the principles of its
aesthetics which had also been a revelation to the architects of the "New
Architecture', such as Walter Gropius and Bruno Taut. Although it was erected in the
17th century this imperial composition gives the impression of being timeless and
primordial.

On the other hand, with the practical method of prefabrication and the use of simple
materials Ueda refers to a phenomenon of Japanese cities. In public parks but also
under bridges and in alleys the homeless build themselves little huts out of cardboard and corrugated sheet. These are temporary abodes in order to survive in the merciless bustle of the metropolis. As, in fact, the Japanese conception of housing is quite contrary to that in the West. Habitation is reduced to a minimum of effort and space.

The life, the activity of daily living seems to flow. A building has no right to exist forever. The extraordinary geographic situation and natural catastrophes such as Tsunami and earthquakes only permit flexible methods of construction. The cities are continuously changing their appearance. Although the traditional Japanese
house does not have transparent windows it is possible because of the lightweight
construction to perceive from the interior things which are happening outside; such
as sounds, motion of the earth etc. Ueda seizes this thought in his Wind House. The
pole brought into motion by the wind transports the natural force from outside to
inside. In the house things happening outside become visible and this although they
in actual fact are invisible.


Installation view in Jenisch Park, Hamburg (2006)


Winddrawing inside Ernst Barlach house, Hamburg (2006)


Winddrawing inside Ernst Barlach house, Hamburg (2006)



Links to the artist and gallery:

>> RIKUO UEDA official homepage

>> MIKIKO SATO GALLERY

>> ERNST BARLACH HOUSE