Japanese House Gallery Tour: Connect Connect Puzzle

We are all connected!
The Art Thinking Project team in Tohoku, Japan invites you to the new art exhibition Connect Connect Puzzle. Look closely at the artworks - can you find hidden clues and messages that are connecting each piece of art?
The artists participating in this gallery show are the students at Tohoku University of Art & Design (TUAD). As in much of the world, the social lives of young people in Japan often depend on social media, cell phones, and other digital tools. The students took on the challenge to address this notion of digitized communication by creating this art project to force themselves to engage in face-to-face communication (Connect). As the exhibit opens at Boston Children’s Museum, they turn the challenge to you to find hidden elements that are connecting their artwork (Connect). Put the pieces together to follow the adventure of the unique characters, the Kyukon (kyuu-kon-n), bulb-shaped creatures that represent hopes and growth (Puzzle).
This exhibit is the seventh annual international friendship project by the Art Thinking Project of TUAD. In this gallery exhibition, located next to the Museum’s Japanese House exhibit, an authentic 100-year old house from Kyoto, Japan, the artworks share the ideas of today’s multifaceted youth culture of Japan, and demonstrate each individual’s thoughts and narratives.
“Being an old house, the Japanese House exhibit often highlights the traditional side of the culture and customs. This project brings the contemporary and authentic narratives of today’s Japanese youth, and we are very grateful for their story-sharing through the artwork,” said Akemi Chayama, the Museum’s Japan Program Manager.
The Art Thinking project (芸術思考) is a concept research project that aims to make use of arts in daily life practice, as well as in non-art learning in Japan. The project leader, Ms. Minatsu Ariga, and her team of students demonstrate this by developing this exhibit and program and by creating a space for community building, both local and international. Tohoku in Japan is the region which experienced the disasters of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in March 11, 2011. This collaborative project started in 2012 and has become the annual art gallery show and program at Boston Children’s Museum every March.
Special thanks to Ms. Minatsu Ariga and her Art Thinking/Art in Life team, as well as their artist friends, for sharing their work!
Music credit: OtoLogic otologic.jp/