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Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan at the Wellcome Collection, London, runs until 30 June
Two London exhibitions present extraordinary examples of 鈥渙utsider鈥� art and science
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IN ART and science, there are many ways to be an outsider. One of the most interesting groups is composed of people who are wholly untutored, work only for themselves and do not seek an audience. This is the territory of Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan, an exhibition at London鈥檚 .
And it is one of the most amazing, moving and shocking shows you could hope to see. The 46 artists who created the 300-plus works on display live in or attend social welfare institutions on Japan鈥檚 main island, Honshu. All have neurodevelopmental disorders or mental illnesses.
There is little hand-holding: visitors are expected to experience the art as directly as possible and, if they like, ask questions, such as what is the nature of art when it flows from people society considers to be 鈥渄amaged鈥�? Is it, in fact, art, or therapy? If it is art, does it add to our knowledge of the complex cognitive processes of creativity?
聯There is little hand-holding: visitors are expected to experience the art directly聰
These questions expose great chasms in our knowledge. For example, how does the brain 鈥渄o鈥� creativity? What does it 鈥渓ook鈥� like? Does it differ between artists? All that before even wondering how the art of people with neurodevelopmental disorders or mental illness differs from that of 鈥渞egular鈥� artists鈥�
Because the show is co-organised with the Het Dolhuys, the museum of psychiatry in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and Tokyo鈥檚 Aiseikai Social Welfare Organisation, we are already in a world of multiple meanings. For example, the exhibition鈥檚 title 鈥淪ouzou鈥� has no direct English translation, but has a dual meaning in Japanese: creation and imagination, alluding to the force by which ideas are born and take shape. The subtitle 鈥淥utsider Art鈥�, however, connects to many things, including the Art Brut ideas of French artist Jean Dubuffet, who was interested in art created by people in asylums.
In Japan, the institutions in which the Souzou 鈥渙utsiders鈥� live and work owe much to Japanese master ceramicist Kazuo Yagi, who, working as a volunteer at the Omi Gakuen facility, insisted on his students鈥� right to self-expression, without intervention.
Until recently, work created in the institutions was rarely shown. Yet some of the Souzou work could easily sit in mainstream exhibitions. Take Marie Suzuki鈥檚 pen drawings. They deal, darkly, with sex, gender and procreation. Any one of her shocking works, such as Unwanted Release or It鈥檚 All Your Fault, could give Tracey Emin a run for her money. Then there is Shoichi Koga. Using only papier m芒ch茅-like techniques, he has created globally appealing fantasy people and animals.
There is art of great vitality and range, from textiles such as Takahiro Shimoda鈥檚 Fried Chicken Pyjamas to Shota Katsube鈥檚 mini army of action figures created out of wire ties. And it would take a heart of stone not to be moved by Sakiko Kono鈥檚 Naked family, a collection of life-size fabric dolls. They represent friends and carers in the facility where she has lived for 55 years, their size determined by their kindness to her.