Feedback of 2010 resident artists

＊日本語翻訳版はこちら

/////Song Ming Ang/////

These are my reflections on the ARCUS residency. I have so many, because the ARCUS staff have been so supportive, while Moriya is just such a nice city with generous people. I want to keep my response short, but I’m afraid it is impossible.


First of all, the location of Moriya is quite special. Near but still outside of Tokyo, it allows an artist to concentrate on making work without being distracted by the many events competing for attention in Tokyo. And when we do need to go to Tokyo, we can get there within 40 minutes on the affordable Tsukuba Express train. It’s like having your cake and eating it.

The fact that ARCUS is based in Manabi-no-sato, a community centre, also gives it a unique character. ARCUS is a place where the public comes to and interacts, and we have access to various communal facilities – an auditorium; a cooking room; a field; barbecue pits; tatami rooms, etc. Here, I’ve played sports, eaten homemade food, hung out in a tent, watched rehearsals by bands and performances by finger puppet groups. I like how the residency isn’t just about art itself; it encourages socialising and exposes ARCUS artists to other aspects of living. ARCUS offers a total and wholesome experience, which I enjoyed tremendously.

ARCUS is special not just because of its location; the people of Moriya make it unique. Take for example how the Moriya City Hall has been so supportive. When we made a call for volunteer-participants for my work, Be True to Your School, via the City Hall, twenty people from the City Hall showed up at my studio – outside their work hours. There are also the volunteers who are make the experience special – some help with office administration, logistics and translations; others help the artists; and some just drop by with food and gifts to show their support. For all these I am immensely grateful.

The ARCUS staff are exemplary and in my opinion flawless, consistently going the extra mile and making everything work like magic. (I can’t remember if you have ever said no to any of my requests!) Thank you once again – Mami, Gosuke, Mizuho, Shoko and Harumi – for making my work and stay here so enjoyable. You have been most generous, considerate, and supportive, and I am glad to have gained your assistance and friendship. ARCUS feels like family to me, and it is a residency in the truest sense of the word, because I felt totally at home throughout my stay. 

 For my works at ARCUS, I drew on ‘found material’ in Moriya – reviving the old school song of Oisawa Elementary School by working with its former students in Be True to Your School; painting a glockenspiel matched to the colours of Moriya houses in Colour Scale; translating a Dalai Lama book from Japanese to English with the help of my local friends in Love in Translation; and filling the Manabi-no-sato corridor with 25 bags of golden-yellow ginkgo leaves collected from Fureai-dori in Transposition. My aim was to create a series of accessible, ‘pop-flavoured’ artworks specifically for the people of Moriya as a repayment of their generosity and as a tribute to this wonderful city. The works are not perfect, and I could think of several ways I could have made them better, but I feel I have achieved my aim. And for that I am happy.

The residency at ARCUS has given me the time and funding – two very important resources for any artist – to reflect on my art practice. At ARCUS, I started paying attention to the possibilities of language as a medium of socialisation, in addition to my familiar domains of music and sound. I also found more ways of working with amateurs, drawing up different ways to engage the public and collaborate on making art that I feel is meaningful to them. Looking back, even though I explored more diverse media like language and manga, I think I have become more focused in my direction.

In all, I can only say that I have unreserved praise for the ARCUS Artist-in-Residency programme. As the longest running artist residency programme in Japan, it has a unique place in the cultural history of Japan. With your directorship and wonderful team, I believe ARCUS can only grow and flourish, and I look forward to hearing more from this fabulous institution.

////David Brazier with Kelda Free/////

ARCUS gave us freedom, time and space to explore and experiment in a unique environment. Through an incredible support network of local people we truly felt part of everyday life in Japan. We have so many happy memories of kind and generous people, delicious food and good laughs. Although adjusting to different sensibilities and ways of working was challenging at times, with the support of the wonderful staff who have all become true friends, the ARCUS residency was amazing, productive and inspiring.

/////Jason Kofke/////

I arrived at ARCUS with humble expectations of what I perceived as　overambitious projects; I would have been lucky if even one of my proposals took form. But what occurred at ARCUS was more than I could have imagined or expected. With the uncanny help from the staff, my ideas not only took form,　the very foundations my ideas were built on evolved, changed, and reified.

My perceptions not only developed, but also were shared and incorporated into Moriya and the wonderful community I discovered there through ARCUS.


It is in the nature of an artist to expect to have to do everything relating to completing a project by him or her self. This customary way of working is not only slow, but also often frustrating and deflating. Having the support of the friends I met as the staff of ARCUS and the supporters in the community of Moriya, it seemed that no problem was insurmountable. My ideas and relationships were accelerated through the support I gained through this experience. I almost felt like I was ‘cheating’ due to the amount of positive support in the environment at Moriya city. I don’t think I’ll be able to find such support and friendship so easily in projects in the future - making me so thankful that I was able to find this new standard of support at ARCUS.

Looking back at my three months in Japan, I am amazed at how concepts I adopted as intrinsic to my artistic practice not only evolved, but in some cases changed completely. My aversion to a reliance on technology for expression, for example, was completely revised as a result of collaborative projects I fell into with artists I met working in Tokyo and Kashiwa city. Further, even my ideas of working collaboratively were completely changed; I learned to embrace cooperation with artists working in similar forms as mine. As a result, I formed friendships that I expect will last well beyond my three months at ARCUS. I left ARCUS not only with changes that were requisite to my development as an artist, but also with the foundation of a network of friends and colleagues that I could not imagine being without.

My favorite part of ARCUS is the things I could leave behind - the work made in Moriya became part of the city, and through this, mediates a continuing relationship with my many new friends there. The greatest downfall I can find in my experience at ARCUS is how much I will come to miss it. I truly count the ARCUS residency as some of the best three months of my life.