the Whereabouts of Deer｜YUSUKE ASAI "Painting with Blood / Going into the Forest Again"

Painting with Blood / Going into the Forest Again

YUSUKE ASAI

ARTIST
YUSUKE ASAI

Painting with Blood / Going into the Forest Again

UPDATE：2021.3.29

In order for me to keep painting by any means necessary, I steeled myself for the strange prospect that I would one day paint with blood, but at the same time, that decision seemed undesirable. If the “organic sequence that begins without me even realizing it,” being that undesirable thing as my own criteria for the creative process, were needed, I became depressed that if painting with blood were natural, wouldn’t it be when I am shut up somewhere, when on an desert island, or when there is an unexpected massive hemorrhage, and if so, I hoped that the moment would never arrive.

From participating in Reborn-Art Festival 2019, from my chance encounter with Onodera, time suddenly started moving, receiving deer blood, and starting a dialogue with blood.

Blood, which ages and changes much faster than soil, definitely falls into the category of yin if I were to use the yin and yang principle, and it is a material unavoidably linked to the smell of death, and for the first time in my life, I felt discomfort while painting, though sensing the vitality of life and wishing not to waste a single drop of blood, I continued to paint. As though the verbal and nonverbal senses would come to me alternately, and with conflicted feelings of rejection and integration, comfort and discomfort, joy and sadness, I kept painting.

Closing my eyes, I came to see the forest where the deer lived, their eyes looking for food, tasty young leaves, constantly moving ears, the sound of walking on grass, the deer’s gaze, the muzzle directed this way without us realizing it, a gunshot, the birds that gather.

Twenty-two pictures painted with the blood collected on the first hunt in 2019

Four pictures painted with the blood collected on the second hunt in 2021

Four three-dimensional works made with the antlers of deer we caught and the cartridge cases

From here, I present some of the works that I have made without any verbal explanations.

I hope that someday you can view these in person, works transformed from what I received from the deer.

Slowly and steadily advancing through the entrance that was opened, I continue my dialogue with deer.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Tokyo, 2021

VIEW ART WORK

Now available online

Receiving Blood

ARTIST：YUSUKE ASAI

ARTIST：
YUSUKE ASAI

Going into the Forest Again

UPDATE：2021.3.29

From here, I present some of the works that I have made without any verbal explanations.I hope that someday you can view these in person, works transformed from what I received from the deer.VIEW

VIEW
MAKE A BIOTOPE VOL.3

ARTIST：LIEKO SHIGA

ARTIST：
LIEKO SHIGA

Growing Food

UPDATE：2021.3.28

Signs of spring finally arrived on the Oshika Peninsula in March 2021, four months after we began work on digging a biotope pond in November 2020. During the long winter, the biotope’s water level fluctuated due to spring water and snow. ...VIEW

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Joining an Autumn Game Call Hunt on the Oshika Peninsula

ARTIST：YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

ARTIST：
YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

Autumn Game Call Hunting and Chefs Who Transform Deer Meat.
Part 3 : Hisayuki Ito (Chef, Vin et cuisine Hihihi)

UPDATE：2021.3.26

Restaurant chefs working in Miyagi Prefecture often gather at FERMENTO, a facility in Kozumi for butchering hunted deer and processing the venison, to learn and deepen their knowledge about the current state of mountain ecosystems on the Oshika Peninsula. ...VIEW

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Joining an Autumn Game Call Hunt on the Oshika Peninsula

ARTIST：YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

ARTIST：
YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

Autumn Game Call Hunting and Chefs Who Transform Deer Meat.
Part 2 : Kazuki Ishimatsu (Chef, Maruta)

UPDATE：2021.3.26

Maruta is located in a quiet residential area in Chofu, Tokyo. Although the building is far from small, it looks like a stylish house and fits nicely into the local landscape. Behind the restaurant is a spacious vegetable garden, and the vegetables as well as herbs grown there are used in Murata’s cooking. ...VIEW

VIEW
Joining an Autumn Game Call Hunt on the Oshika Peninsula

ARTIST：YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

ARTIST：
YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

Autumn Game Call Hunting and Chefs Who Transform Deer Meat.
Part 1 : Yasuhiko Kusuda (Chef, Metzgerei Kusuda)

UPDATE：2021.3.11

An event to learn about deer was held at MEMU EARTH HOTEL in Tokachi, Hokkaido. In the previous article, I wrote about Onodera’s hunting in the field, but this article deals with the chef Kusuda, who gave a lecture on venison and meat processing at the event. … ...VIEW

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The Story of What Comes After Something

ARTIST：YUMIKO HORIBA

ARTIST：
YUMIKO HORIBA

The Story of What Comes After Something
〜That Catches the Wind #3〜

UPDATE ： 2021.3.9

Since a few years ago, I have been visiting and observing the winter migration routes of birds while collecting their feathers to use for my work. ... ...VIEW

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Cocoon

ARTIST：Daizaburo Sakamoto + Yuko Okubo

ARTIST：
Daizaburo Sakamoto + Yuko Okubo

Cocoon

UPDATE：2021.3.8

A long time ago, there were people who crossed the sea to the Japanese archipelago. They went deep into the mountains in search of metal, and mountain worship was born there. ...VIEW

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Eventually, Deer Become Men / Eventually, Men Become Deer

ARTIST：NAO TSUDA

ARTIST：
NAO TSUDA

Eventually, Deer Become Men / Eventually, Men Become Deer

UPDATE：2021.3.5

For this year’s festival, as a follow-up to the previous work, I present photographs and text that I have woven together while traveling in Tohoku over the two years in an attempt to unravel the work title. ...VIEW

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MAKE A BIOTOPE VOL.2

ARTIST：LIEKO SHIGA

ARTIST：
LIEKO SHIGA

DIALOG IN THE FOG

UPDATE：2021.2.16

This is an interview with Nozomu Onodera, a hunter who runs FERMENTO, a facility that butchers hunted deer and processes its meat on the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture. ...VIEW

VIEW
The Story of What Comes After Something

ARTIST：YUMIKO HORIBA

ARTIST：
YUMIKO HORIBA

The Story of What Comes After Something
〜That Catches the Wind #2〜

MOVIE : 7min 1sec / UPDATE ： 2021.2.16

Since a few years ago, I have been visiting and observing the winter migration routes of birds while collecting their feathers to use for my work. ... ...VIEW

VIEW
Receiving Blood

ARTIST：YUSUKE ASAI

ARTIST：
YUSUKE ASAI

1. Diary of That Day

UPDATE：2021.2.11

Meeting up on the Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki, at seven o’clock.Joining Onodera’s deer hunt and collecting about six plastic bottles of blood from wild deer. ...VIEW

VIEW
Joining an Autumn Game Call Hunt on the Oshika Peninsula

ARTIST：YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

ARTIST：
YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

Game Call Hunting in Tokachi in Pursuit of Yezo Deer

UPDATE：2021.2.12

I arrived in the Tokachi region of Hokkaido in autumn. Upon learning that Onodera would go on a game call hunt in Tokachi together with local hunters and Maya Endo, who is also a hunter and Onodera’s disciple, I decided to follow and take pictures. ...VIEW

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Receiving Blood

ARTIST：YUSUKE ASAI

ARTIST：
YUSUKE ASAI

Introduction: What Do I Paint With?

UPDATE：2021.1.29

When it comes to continuing to paint pictures, the question of “What do I paint?” is actually more relevant than the question of “What I paint?” ...VIEW

VIEW
VOL.1 WHY BIOTOPE November 2020

ARTIST：LIEKO SHIGA

ARTIST：
LIEKO SHIGA

VOL.1 WHY BIOTOPE November 2020

UPDATE：2021.1.6

When I followed and took pictures of Onodera hunting deer last year (2019), it was from the end of spring through the summer. To avoid injuries and leeches, I put duct tape on my boots and pants, and wrapped my neck with a thin hand towel so as not to leave skin exposed. ...VIEW

VIEW
The Story of What Comes After Something

ARTIST：YUMIKO HORIBA

ARTIST：
YUMIKO HORIBA

The Story of What Comes After Something
〜That Catches the Wind #1〜

UPDATE：2021.1.6

Post Humanism Stress Disorder, which was created as part of Reborn-Art Festival in the summer of 2019, is made with wood from Japanese cedar that died as a result of salt damage caused by the tsunami in the Great East Japan Earthquake, and that was going to be cut down and removed, as well as oyster shells designated as industrial waste. ...VIEW

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I will become you someday (2019)

ARTIST：Daizaburo Sakamoto + Yuko Okubo

ARTIST：
Daizaburo Sakamoto + Yuko Okubo

I will become you someday (2019)

UPDATE：2021.1.6

This project by mountain ascetic Daizaburo Sakamoto and dancer Yuko Okubo endeavors to get closer to the beginnings of art and performance. ...VIEW

VIEW
Joining an Autumn Game Call Hunt on the Oshika Peninsula

ARTIST：YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

ARTIST：
YAYOI ARIMOTO + NOZOMU ONODERA

Joining an Autumn Game Call Hunt on the Oshika Peninsula

UPDATE：2021.1.6

When I followed and took pictures of Onodera hunting deer last year (2019), it was from the end of spring through the summer. To avoid injuries and leeches, I put duct tape on my boots and pants, and wrapped my neck with a thin hand towel so as not to leave skin exposed. ...VIEW

VIEW