Garden Activity Report
In 2023, Garden on Session House's second floor once again provided a setting for self-produced and jointly produced / cooperative projects, as well as exhibitions in the rented space, talks, readings, theatrical performances, and croquis drawing sessions.
A Record of Self-Produced and Joint / Cooperative Projects
January 11–15 — Two-Person Exhibition: Naoko Sakamoto (さかもと直子) and Sūzan Shibasaki (柴崎崇山)
March 8–12 — 7th Wawawa Haiku Exhibition (T)
March 22–April 10 — Suse Meyer (ツーゼ・マイヤー) Exhibition: “Spring Diary”
April 25–May 1 — Hyakka II 2023 (百花Ⅱ2023) (T)
June 27–July 2 — Sanki Exhibition (三希展) (T)
July 6–11 — An Art Exhibition for Bastille Day (T)
July 14–17 — Sachiko Shimojo (下条幸子) Exhibition
September 13–18 — F Exhibition vol.7
September 28–October 7 — Yu Takasuga (高須賀優) Exhibition: “Figures Appearing: A Traveling Clown” (T)
October 17–23 — Two-Person Exhibition: Kiyomi Yamato (大和聖美) × X-Ray, “Kaleidoscope”
November 3–5 — 23 Steps Exhibition (23歩展): “Sen” (せん)
November 11–16 — beyond borders: Artists of Different Backgrounds and Genres (T)
November 19–26 — ART SESSION (Michiko Arikawa [有川道子], Izumi Ogawa [小川泉], Keiko Tsuda [津田恵子])
December 6–10 — Atelier Roseau Painting Class Exhibition (アトリエロゾー)
December 16, 17 — from an art Exhibition (Hibiki Matsubara [松原響])
※ (T) indicates a production project by Norio Toyoda (豊田紀雄) of Engeki Bijutsusha (演劇美術社).
※ Croquis sessions organized by Takashi Yoshida (吉田卓史) were held 36 times.
※ Ichie Watanabe's “Let's Listen to the Voices of Fukushima” talk was held once.
Although the effects of the COVID pandemic have prevented Garden from holding many exhibitions and similar events in recent years, regular annual projects have taken root, and many have conveyed a sense of increasingly rich content. Numerous croquis sessions were held between those projects. Please listen to what their organizer, Takashi Yoshida, has to say about them.
What I Have Learned Through Session House's Croquis Sessions — Takashi Yoshida (吉田卓史)
I sometimes remember how, on that day, with very fine weather as usual, I sensed something—how should I put it?—something like nobility in an elderly man of about 90 and his wife, who were looking out of a sixth-floor window at so many people on strike that the ground of Madrid's main street could not be seen. When I was attending that life-drawing institute on the sixth floor, Spain was in a recession and there were frequent large demonstrations, though half of it was like a festival. The models at the institute were on strike too. Normally there were more than 100 people, but that day, including the elderly man and the others, there were only about six of us. I was among them, and since there was nothing else to do, we decided to draw, using ourselves as models. I remember feeling then that, compared with the people making a great commotion outside, the people drawing like that here were more natural, had firmer values, and seemed to understand what really mattered.
These days, apart from the croquis sessions, I work an ordinary job unrelated to art, living in Tokyo, which I cannot get used to however many years I spend here. Sometimes, when I think I am sick of being in a place like this, I remember those elderly people and try to think about what matters. It has been quite a while since I took over Session House's croquis sessions, but I feel that the space envisaged in their original concept—a place for a session between the person drawing and the model—comes into being very naturally. It feels as though it emerges from the pure, simple motivations on both sides, and at those moments I often sense in the people who have come here something noble, like what I felt in that elderly man.
Then I realize that experiencing this space created by such people has itself become something very important to me. It makes me happy and forward-looking, and seems to offer important ideas for living and hints of reality. As I felt back then, whatever the times or the world may be like, what matters more is having firm values of one's own and taking a sincere attitude toward them. That is also quite difficult, but if I, too, think about what the pure, simple motivations I feel through the croquis sessions really are, I feel I can understand what I should do.
The other day, I received an email from a woman in Madrid who has looked after me since those days. She advised me that enjoying something is also very important if you want to keep doing it, and the picture of hers she attached certainly conveyed that enjoyment.
Come to think of it, a dancer who had modeled for us once told me, with a wonderfully fresh expression, “The people attending were warm too, and it was great fun.” I think that those who have said such things, and those who attend these croquis sessions, understand the importance of enjoyment, and that this too is an element creating the space of the sessions. I imagine I have learned all kinds of things from continuing to draw, but the first thing that comes to mind is the importance of the people I have met through it. They have shaped my thinking and helped me, and because of that I can go on living—that is what I sincerely believe. For me, Session House's croquis sessions have also become an important place that gives me those opportunities.
Takashi Yoshida (吉田卓史)
Excerpt from Voice of Session House 2023
