Chim↑Pom: Happy Spring

Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group has favored urban settings for many of their projects right from the beginning. In Gold Experience (2012), for example, they turned a garbage bag into a gigantic, fun piece of sculpture. More recently, their focus on cities has developed further to encompass discussions of urban theory and commonality / publicness, including in the “Scrap & Build” project (2016-2017), Street (2017-2018), and “A Drunk Pandemic” (2019-2020). This section also consists of various works that focus on the “bodies of humans living in the city.” For Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group, the human body itself has been the most fundamental means of expression ever since the group’s formation.

On the bilayer structure newly built within an exhibition gallery, a large asphalt-paved street comes into view. A Street is a large-scale site-specific installation designed and produced for this exhibition. Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group has also implemented projects in the past using asphalt to create spaces independent of existing mechanisms and rules. Through the creation of these spaces, they attempted to discover new possibilities for the city that would be generated by the free will and autonomous actions of the people who gathered there. The “street” conceived for this exhibition will also function as a project space for events and happenings to take place during the exhibition period, and is expected to be cultivated into a freer and more open space in collaboration with the viewers.

Don’t Follow the Wind is an ongoing international exhibition held since 2015 inside the restricted Fukushima Exclusion Zone (“difficult-to-return zone”) - an area that was evacuated due to the radiation contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Initiated by Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group, the exhibition consists of new works developed by twelve participating artists from both Japan and abroad including themselves, installed in the zone at various sites that former residents gave them consent to make use of. The exhibition itself is and will remain to be, however, one that “no one can actually go see” until the area has been decontaminated and entry restrictions are lifted, thereby enabling residents to return to their homes. At the moment, it is unclear when we will ever be able to see this exhibition, however. At Happy Spring, this project is to be showcased at an exhibition gallery overlooking the outside scenery, meant to encourage visitors to imagine the present Fukushima while looking at the Tokyo cityscape.

Making the Sky of Hiroshima “PIKA!” (2009) is a work that captures the moment in 2008 when the artists chartered a skywriting plane to write the word “Pika” (evoking the flash of the bomb) above the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. The artists’ intention was to render visually, and in comic-book style, the growing indifference to the peace on which contemporary Japanese society is founded, but when misunderstanding and speculation were added to the mix, the result was controversy. Having apologized to A-bomb survivors, their families and supporters for not giving sufficient advance notice of the stunt, Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group has subsequently continued to converse and occasionally collaborate with them and the wider Hiroshima community on a number of projects. Subsequent Hiroshima-themed works include PAVILION (2013-) and Non-Burnable (2017) both featuring origami paper cranes, plus the still-burning flame from the bomb in We Don’t Know God (2018).

In the immediate wake of 2011’s devastating Great East Japan Earthquake, Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group undertook a number of projects related to the quake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear power plant accident. Starting with Never Give Up (2011), this period saw the emergence of some of their best-known works such as REAL TIMES (2011) and KI-AI 100 (2011), while in LEVEL 7 feat. “Myth of Tomorrow” (2011) they added, guerilla-fashion, a panel depicting the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to the bottom right corner of the existing mural in Shibuya Station by Okamoto Taro, Myth of Tomorrow (1968-1969).

Since 2014, Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group has been engaged in “The other side” series dealing with the problem of America’s southern border. The title is taken from the name commonly used for the US by those living on the Mexican side. In 2016, Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group visited a slum area known as Libertad (“liberty” in Spanish) located in Tijuana along the Mexican border, and with the cooperation of local residents built “U.S.A. Visitor Center,” a DIY tree house just beside the border wall. “Borders” is one of the themes that Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group has tackled consistently throughout the years, and one perhaps even more important than ever in there pandemic days of lockdowns and restrected mobility.

Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group installed canvases painted with cyanotype sensitizer on various billboards located across the capital for a project undertaken in May 2020, during Japan’s COVID-19 State of Emergency. The texts “TOKYO 2020” and “Atarashii Seikatsu-Youshiki (New Normal)” on these were designed to be unexposed, and left white. Recording the traces of sun, shadow, wind and rain, these works, etched in blue, reflect the atmosphere of the deserted streets during the state of emergency, when people were urged to “stay home.” With deceptive simplicity, this series express the bizarre reality of Tokyo whose blueprint for a bright future was now lost.

Through her actions over the years, including a Cambodian mine-clearing and fundraising project with a theme of charity and celebrity culture; and applying to city authorities for permission to stage a demonstration, then staging a wedding parade for herself through the streets in a social scrutinizing of the marriage system, Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group member Ellie has consistently offered new perspectives on some of the world’s most deep-rooted social issues. From occasional appearances in the mass media, where she is viewed as a pop icon, to authorship of high-brow articles for a literary magazine, and everything in between, Ellie’s activities, and indeed the very nature of her presence, defy categorization. At first glance she may also seem to serve as the face of Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group, but in this show we examine the many aspects of Ellie that do not fit neatly into conventional gender norms, feminist discourse, or the usual image of an artist.

KANE-ZANMAI is a shop project where they independently develop and sell originally-designed goods, along with somewhat nonsensical experimental “products” and “works” that challenge the notion of use value. At first glance, some of these items may simply look like junk. However, the fact that most have previously sold out testifies to their mysterious power that stimulates the desire to buy and consume. For Happy Spring, KANE-ZANMAI will be featured inside the MORI ART MUSEUM SHOP 53 (located within the Museum) - therefore comprising a part of the exhibition.

A nursery (daycare center) will be opened at this exhibition as a new art project inspired by the child-rearing experiences of Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group’s own members and parents of their generation, and the various barriers they experience when going out with their children. The purpose of the project is to increase opportunities for people raising children to actively visit the museum and engage with art. Today, kids are forbidden from playing loudly in some parks and public streets, and spaces for children are gradually disappearing from public areas. By letting children play and cry in the museum, supposedly a “place that should be kept quiet,” Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group raises questions regarding child-rearing environments, not only within the art world, but also society as a whole.
* See here for operation and booking details of the Crying Museum. (In Japanese-language)