Record of the 1st Residency Exchange Meeting – May 9, 2025

Event Overview

Date: Friday, May 9, 2025, 16:20–18:00

Venue: Community Salon, Hisao & Hiroko TAKI PLAZA 3F, Ueno Campus, Tokyo University of the Arts

Artists: Tsuyoshi Anzai (Tokyo Geidai), Liu Yu (TNUA)

Languages: Japanese, Chinese

On May 9, a sharing session by the first group of artists exchanged through the TEA+ program between Tokyo Geidai and TNUA was held at the Community Salon, the 3rd floor of the Hisao＆Hiroko TAKI PLAZA, Ueno Campus.

Tsuyoshi Anzai, who had already returned to Japan after his six-week stay in Taipei, and Liu Yu, who was scheduled to return to Taiwan in a week, gathered in person to look back on their respective residencies. The session took the form of artist talk followed by questions from the audience. Anzai conducted field research in the eastern sea of Taiwan for his artworks centered on microplastics. Liu Yu from TNUA, on the other hand, explored themes of mythology and legend, visiting sites in Japan associated with humanoid figures.

First, Anzai shared his past work and his research activities in Taiwan using a slide show. Initially, as seen in works like Unsettled, Anzai created artworks by resetting everyday plastic objects to behave in ways completely unrelated to their intended functions. However, his focus gradually shifted to the material itself. According to him, plastic, while in the form of a product, is “confined to the shape of human desire,” and when it becomes microplastic, it’s “finally liberated from human desire.” He has since created a variety of works that highlight microplastics as material, including Giant Micro Plastic, a papercraft piece made from enlarged images of microplastic. Referring to this work as a “monument to the hard-working life of plastic,” he commented:

“By enlarging microplastics, we feel like that for tiny, nearly invisible organisms, these things might look this huge, right?”

When discussing his actual activities in Taiwan, Anzai shared the episode about his primary research goal—collecting floating plastic from the sea surface. Despite conducting the research in cooperation with the Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation and enduring harsh conditions aboard a ferry for ten hours, he was unable to achieve the expected results.

“Floating plastic often forms into a line on the sea surface, but we just didn’t come across one,”

he said with a bitter smile. Perhaps sometimes, luck plays a role in such research.

In addition to his ocean research, Anzai also created artworks, held a talk event, and led a workshop during his stay at TNUA. The highly detailed photographs of collected microplastics, some of which were shown during the talk, resembled beautiful minerals like crystals. In the workshop, He and the students created cushions with microplastic-patterned covers, stuffing them with local PET bottles. While TNUA agreed to acquire the piece, only the cover will be collected—the PET bottles, being waste, could not be kept. This episode made the audience laugh.

He said he also had students consider the issue of plastic through what he calls “questions with no correct answers.” It was: how can we dispose of the PET bottles we've collected in a way that minimizes environmental harm? Students ultimately proposed donating them to organizations that manufactured clothing from plastic. To this, Anzai responded: 

“But even if you turn it into clothing, it just becomes fiber-shaped microplastic. If we change materials because plastic causes environmental problems, the new material may cause different issues. However hard we try to resolve it, new problems will arise.“That’s why I think that ‘solutions’ to problems are just a fantasy.

“Once people believe there’s a solution, they stop thinking. So I want to move away from the idea that every problem has a solution. So far, only art can show that... because art can say “yes” and “no” at the same time.”

Anzai’s works often include a sense of humor. Rather than conveying a clear message or stance, he designs them to remain ambiguous, encouraging alternative interpretations of the situation. This moment allowed the audience to understand his thinking and attitude toward art.

Liu Yu's talk was conducted in Chinese with consecutive translations. A graduate of TNUA, Liu Yu is currently based in Taichung. Since around 2019, she has been creating works based on specific "narratives," such as mythology, personal histories, and collective history. During her residency, she focused on the theme of anthropomorphism.

Her research began with the plant Mandragora (mandrake), a root vegetable shaped like a human figure that for many evokes fantasy tales of magic.. Liu Yu uncovered a variety of depictions and stories associated with it and said:

“As I studied the connection between historical context and the imagery of mandragoras, I became increasingly interested in hybrid images of plants and humans.”

She then shifted to reading Japan’s Kojiki, searching for deities or figures that combined human and plant elements. She introduced Ōgetsuhime-no-Kami, a deity whose body, after being killed by Susanoo, gave birth to various crops through every orifice. From her deep concentration on her notes while she was talking, we could see how difficult interpreting Kojiki was. Liu Yu then moved chronologically through Japanese history, referencing anthropomorphic animals in Chōjū-giga and the integration of anthropomorphism with yokai culture in the Muromachi period. Her research was extensive.

She also investigated the modern custom of ningyō kuyo (doll memorial services), stating:

“It’s not an ancient tradition but a modern cultural practice. Because dolls are sometimes believed to possess souls, memorial services are held to honor those souls. What fascinated me was the intensity of emotion people show toward dolls—comparable to mourning a deceased human.”

She then introduced Amabie and Kudan (a half-cow, half-human yokai), concluding with a report on her recent visit to Kōdaiji Temple in Kyoto. There, she saw “Mindar,” an android Kannon (Bodhisattva) and interviewed local monks about its creation.

When asked about her impressions of the “Dream Incubation Workshop” held in April—where participants brought and shared their own stories related to mythology—she said:

“It was very interesting. After the workshop, some participants even contacted me privately to share more stories. I felt that maybe people naturally have an interest in these topics. Since we gathered stories from around the world, the workshop highlighted the connection between global mythology and everyday life.”

The residency was clearly a fruitful research period for her.

During the Q&A session, one student posed an observant question:

“Kojiki was created by the authorities to justify their exercising power for domination. Given that, is its narrative still a valid form of inquiry?”

In other words, can we trust narratives that have been shaped by those in power? Liu Yu responded:

“It’s true that some parts were written to support state authority. But the Kojiki also compiles regional folk tales from across Japan, so I believe it still holds value as a narrative.”

Liu Yu’s work focuses on “narratives”. A remarkable point about her attitude toward her research is that she doesn’t eliminate the private and personal narratives from “stories,” which “official” narratives, such as national history, tend to overrule. And she always tries to find a way to make such private and personal stories work as “narratives.” I sensed sincereness in her behavior and her refusal to dismiss the narrative potential in every story.

The artistic approaches of Tsuyoshi Anzai and Liu Yu, as revealed in this talk, were quite different. It was almost impossible to find common ground between them. Yet, listening to them speak, it became evident that both artists have a strong grasp of their own methods. Because they have clearly defined what they value and how they work, they’re able to respond—even when faced with unexpected circumstances during a residency—by relying on their own rules. We could see such a personal approach particularly in Liu Yu’s research.

While such rules may remain opaque to us, the event offered a rare and valuable opportunity to observe the layer of time and methods hidden beneath what we ultimately call "art.”

Author: Asuka Taniguchi (GA master's student)

Project Coordinator: Qiuyu JIN (GA PhD student)