Raphael Koenig

Eye Eye Nose Mouth Raphael Koenig

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE: "Eye Eye Nose Mouth: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan", Harvard University Asia Center, Jan 29 - March 15, 2019. Curated by Raphael Koenig and Benny Shaffer. This exhibition explores the intersection of art, disability, and mental health by displaying original works on paper and sculptures created at Atelier Yamanami in Japan and Nanjing Outsider Art Studio in China. Both art workshops constitute attempts to improve the concrete living conditions and promote broader acceptance of people with mental disabilities and mental illness. Disability and mental illness are socially constructed categories with distinct histories in China and Japan. The workshops are not linked to psychiatric institutions: they focus on providing a supportive environment for participants to develop their artistic practices at their own pace. The title of the exhibition is an homage to the numerous "Eye Eye Nose Mouth" series of works created by Yoshikawa Hideaki at Atelier Yamanami over several decades. His drawings and sculptures, combining obsessive seriality and formal inventiveness, are exemplary of the quality of the works produced at Atelier Yamanami and Nanjing Outsider Art Studio. While insisting on the specificity of each workshop's sociocultural context, the exhibition avoids a rigid juxtaposition or comparison, encouraging the viewer to find formal and thematic echoes across the works. ARTWORKS BY (surname + given names): ATELIER YAMANAMI (Shiga Prefecture, Japan): Kamae Kazumi - Nakagawa Momoko - Takenaka Katsuyoshi - Ukai Yuichiro - Yoshikawa Hideaki NANJING OUTSIDER ART STUDIO (Nanjing, China): Li Ben - Li Jie - Niu Niu - Sun Yue - Xu Jian