A number of recent exhibitions have attempted to sum up Japanese art of the 1980s with a focus on the resurgence of painting and the rise of installations. Surveys of this type invariably exclude anyone whose work fails to fit into prescribed notions of the era. See Keisuke Yamaguchi. Born in 1962, the Hyogo Prefecture native is very much an artist of that time, but whereas many of his contemporaries opted for a light or humorous approach, Yamaguchi gravitated toward something more serious, as evidenced by the Keisuke Yamaguchi: Backing Forward exhibition, running through 4 September at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. more...

Famine has spread across the land. Game have fled, fish have returned to the land of kamuy -- the dwelling place of the gods. Owl, guardian of the villages, seeks a messenger: one steadfast enough, and articulate enough, to fly to the angry deities and convince them to bestow those blessings once again. Jaybird accepts the challenge and embarks on a journey through the forest to the sacred realm and back. Meanwhile, humans must quell their greed and learn to live in balance. It's an old Ainu tale, an epic kamuy yukar song of the gods. A version passed down in Hokkaido's Lake Akan area by Yae Shitaku (1904-1980) can be experienced at night in the forest there, in a new multimedia digital art production by Moment Factory of Canada. more...