For over 60 years Artist, Motoyuki Niwi has been studying diverse millennia and old Japanese skills with traditional artists and craftsmen. He has made a lifelong study of traditions such as Noh Theatre, the Tea ceremony, Calligraphy, and Kimono textiles. Since he came to live in Australia his intention has been to transform these elements into new dimensions, and new creations. The artifacts include pebble mosaics, montage, calligraphy, Katagami: stencil, mask, lighting, and sculptures.
Miscé products are hand made artifacts. Every piece uses ancient traditional Japanese arts and crafts. Genuine handmade materials and precise skills are used which apply authenticity and subtle aesthetics. The title, Miscé comes from the English word miscellaneous. In Japanese, the syllable means ‘shop or store’ and ‘exposed to the world’.
I believe that Art is coded knowledge. If we could unlock this code we might explain the structure of our memory system and spiritual consciousness. Art has been used as a container for the power of meaning, recognition, and understanding of the spiritual realm. The elements of nature have been explored and a metalanguage has evolved. Our life is filled with a sea of riddles, the meaning becomes physically woven into an ornament, pattern, the shape of lines, and the texture of sound. It is not easy to live everywhere in the world, that’s why the ancestors established certain knowledge and encoded it into art for bridging the gap to the future generations. In this case, culture works as a map for survival, and each art form functions as a container of wisdom. It is an extremely simple yet extremely practical and rational system, and it still existing today.
Moto has an extraordinary range of experience and skills in visual arts, performing arts, and community cultural development fields. For those projects, he provides unique concepts and mediums as a vehicle to bring up artistic solutions. He describes that “ an artist’s life is constantly creating huge problems so that battling and struggling with what you have now, you can then forge it into a new creation. In this way, the artist must develop skills in problem-solving to be able to survive.” Most of the art mediums he employs are ones he has taught himself. He doesn’t read a textbook or search on the internet. But instead, he studied with teachers for many decades in each of the fields, without being shown or told what to do but having to find out for himself, in doing so he is living outside of the cage.
He conducts resident base arts training on weekends at his studio in Wolvi, surrounded by coastal hinterland bush where Koala, echidna, owl, etc. live. The weekend menu includes Taiko: traditional Japanese drumming, calligraphy, brush drawing, composition, sculpture, textile, concept making, and basic body works, etc.
Miscé 108
Exhibition: Friday 8th June – Sunday 1st July
Opening Friday 8th June 5pm – 8pm
Venue: Gataker’s Artspace
Address: Kent St, Maryborough QLD 4650 Phone: (07) 4190 572
