Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan
Thursday 28 March 2013 - Sunday 30 June 2013
Our spring exhibition brings together more
than 300 works for the first major display of Japanese Outsider Art
in the UK. The 46 artists represented in the show are residents and
day attendees at social welfare institutions across Japan. The
wonderfully diverse collection comprises ceramics, textiles,
paintings, sculpture and drawings.
'Souzou' has no direct translation in English
but a dual meaning in Japanese: written one way, it means creation,
and in another it means imagination. Both meanings allude to a
force by which new ideas are born and take shape in the world.
The exhibition has been organised in
association with Het Dolhuys, the Museum of Psychiatry in Haarlem
(the Netherlands) and the Social Welfare Organisation Aiseikai
(Tokyo). It reflects the growing acclaim for Outsider Art – often
defined as works made by self-taught artists perceived to be at the
margins of society – while questioning assumptions about the
category itself.
Eschewing a purely biographical approach, the
show will be object-led, with a startling array of works offering
singular and affecting explorations of culture, memory and
creativity. A series of documentary films featuring a selection of
the exhibiting artists will play at the end of the exhibition.
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Explore works from the exhibition.
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Explore some of the objects from 'Souzou' in depth and detail with our 360 degree zoomable images.
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Discover more about some of the artists featuring in the exhibition and the creative process behind their work.
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A series of events at Wellcome Collection to accompany 'Souzou'.
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The installation of '3 parks with a panoramic view' by Norimitsu Kokubo.
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Inside the creative mind: three-part school projects to give students an increased understanding of works in the exhibition.
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Projects with specific youth and community groups focussing on simple techniques and low-cost materials, inspired by the exhibition.
This will be our last major exhibition before
our exciting development project kicks
off in summer 2013.
Lead image: Shoichi Koga, Seitenmodoki (Ganesha
(Nandikeshvara)-oid), 2006.