ブックタイトルRILAS 早稲田大学総合人文科学研究センター研究誌

概要

RILAS 早稲田大学総合人文科学研究センター研究誌

WASEDA RILAS JOURNAL荒川NO.修作3と(2015. 21世10)紀の新しい価値の創造――日本、アジア、西洋を越えて――荒川修作と21世紀の新しい価値の創造──日本、アジア、西洋を超えて──坂上桂子Shusaku Arakawa and the Creation of 21 Century New Values: Beyond Japan, Asia and the WestKeiko SAKAGAMIAbstractShusaku Arakawa (1936-2010) was active in New York after the Second World War along with otherartists such as Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, On Kawara and Minoru Kawabata. Initially, Arakawa tried hishand at objet and painting, but in his later years, he expanded his activities into architecture and urbandevelopment, and referred to himself not as an artist but as an architect or“coordinologist”in the manywritings he left behind. Because of this, his activities have attracted attention less among art historians thanamong people in such fields as philosophy, literature, science and architecture. The aim of this paper is toexamine the thinking found in the work“To Not to Die”, which he co-produced with Madeline Gins. Whileexamining the considerably abstruse writings, it inquires into the concrete concepts shown within his creativeworks.Consideration is focused on two factors. The first is the issue of what he intended when he set forth“death”as the counterpart to“life”. The second is what his intention was in shifting from using English inthe works of his early period, which had an international, universal appeal, to using, in his later years, Ryoanjiand Japanese gardens in his creative works, and further, employing Japanese elements like the cherryblossom and Tokugawa in his writings. Through a consideration of this transition, the paper will identifywhat the creation of new values was in“Original to the 21st Century”.In the background of the creation of Arakawa’s thinking produced by“Against Death”, one can saythat historical period factors played a prominent role. Arakawa himself was greatly affected by the enormouschange in values that occurred in Japan in the transformation between wartime and the defeat andsubsequently by his changing the location of his activities to America. Arakawa traversed the boundariesbetween Japan and America, between the East and the West, and between art, science and philosophy.Through a consideration of the creation of new values original to the 21st century, the paper attempts tofind hints for considering our future.99