Staying at Sparky’s Place on Naoshima island it follows that we should have a little bounce to our step heading out to the village of Honmura where it’s a custom to get a ticket to the five art houses.
Art houses are abandoned houses and office space that have been converted into venues for installation art. We visited the five that are open in Honmura. Walking into the village we saw a group of people outside an old rusty building. We figured it had to be an art house, so we went up some steps to the entrance. A French woman holding a clipboard told us that we had to let her group in first. So we did and quickly followed them into the building. We didn’t realize until later (when we bought the art house five-pack ticket) that the Japanese docent in charge of stamping the tickets thought we were part of the French pack and let us in free.
The installation was in a former dentist’s office. The artist, Shinro Ohtake, created what he referred to as “dreamscape” with a large Statue of Liberty poking through the second floor.
Walking up the street we passed another art house, the Gokaisho, and tried to enter but the docent outside told us we needed a ticket. So we went into the village and got one and headed to art house Kadoya. In the middle of a tatami matted room it had a shallow pool of floating illuminated numbers which were apparently 125 LED counters, the pace of each set by an island resident.
The third art house was actually the Go ‘o Shrine that had been modified by Hiroshima Sugimoto using glass steps that let from the shrine’s platform to a narrow, sideways negotiated underground stone chamber.
Leaving the shrine it was a relief to take in the open view of the bay.
Art house number four—Ishibashi—had wall a bas-relief by Hiroshi Senju that reminded me of bomb-scarred walls I might have found in Hiroshima.
Number five, Gokaisho, was the art house we weren’t allowed into the first time without a ticket, so we were up for peeking behind the walls. There were two tatami matted rooms. One was empty presenting “Kekkai” which is an object defining a boundary, or, as I understand it, four walls. The other had scattered red camellias on the mat. Not really eye-catching unless you were to realize that they were carved by the artist, Yoshihiro Suda.
