AUTHORIZE EXTREMIST

2008.2.29
ARAI Shin-ichi (Tokyo,Japan)
"Viva! Globalisation"


ARAI said

My name is ARAI from Tokyo, Japan.
I was born in 1959 in Toyama city 600km from Tokyo.
So I am now 48 years old.
My house is facing a big road to Tokyo. In those days, my house was almost completely surrounded by rice fields and some petrol stations only.
Basically, my home town was very country side.

In our primary school days in Japan, we had school lunch with bread, powdered milk and some Japanese dishes.
And I had eaten neither bread nor milk at my home. We ate rice and miso soup at home.
The bread was made from expired flour and powdered milk also, both of which are used as livestock food in the United States.
The United States gov't sold them to the Japan gov't.
So we were familiar with bread and milk. Sometimes I asked my mother to buy bread and milk.
But she said that they were too expensive to buy for us.

ARAI asked some audience to come and splash flour and powder milk over his head and the baloon globe.
Then asked them to massage him.



ARAI Shouted
"Viva! Globalisation"
"Viva! milk and Bread"


I also liked Coca-Cola very much but I only could get it once or twice a year.
When our relatives visited us at New Years or some other festival, they gave me small money
And I ran to buy Coca-Cola.
My parents asked me why I liked Coca-cola, which tasted like medicine and was very expensive!


Those days TV spots always sung the "DEL MONTE tomato ketchup" song. We happily sung "DEL MONTE tomato ketchup" song without knowing what the ketchup was. After I knew what ketchup was, I liked it very much and ate it with everything. But my parents never used it.

ARAI dancing and singing "DEL MONTE tomato ketchup" song


In my house there was Ajinomoto, monosodium glutamate, on the kitchen table.
Glutamate was invented by Japanese company Ajinomoto in 1930's
Usually my family used it in almost all the dishes.
Ajiomoto was said to make people clever, especially children.


ARAI Said
40 years ago, my home town was very country side. But nowadays there are no rice fields, only McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, 24 hr open Seven-Eleven and US style road side restaurants.

Also in our Japanese kitchen there is no Ajinomoto now. But all the food we buy from the store contains it already.

My father, who died 4 years ago, liked Kentucky Fried Chicken very much in his last years.
He also liked Japanese sake very much and drank sake and ate Kentucky Fried Chicken.
He drank sake with Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Now my mother lives alone in my home town.
She told me that sometimes she does not like to make her meal so she buy bread and milk at 24 hr open Seven-Eleven,
For her lonely dinner.


ARAI Shouted
"Viva! Globalisation"
"Viva! milk and Bread"
"Viva! Coca-Cola"
"Viva! DEL MONTE, Sunkist and Dole"
"Viva! Ajinomoto"
"Viva! Nike"
"Viva KFC and McDonald's"
"Viva! Toyota, Sony, Honda and Panasonic"
"Viva! Picachu, Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Japanese Anime"
"Viva! Globalisation"

ARAI Shin-ichi (Tokyo,Japan)
"Viva! Globalisation"


ARAI Shin-ichi
"Viva! Glabalisation"
at TutoK2 29 February 2008 in Manila, Philippines

From Ayi's Site
http://oyayi.multiply.com/video/item/35/Viva_Globalization


ARAI Shin-ichi lives and works in Tokyo. He studied his B.A. in Chinese modern literature at Tokyo Metropolitan University under Mr.llKURA Shohei. Later he majored in printmaking (Intaglio/Copper printing) from 1981 to 1987 under ex Mr.YOSHIDA Katsuro (Mono-ha group.) He also began experimenting in sound, voice and language performance actions since 1982. As a Japan Overseas Cooperative Volunteer he taught at Nyumba ya Sanaa Art school in Zanzibar, Tanzania 1992-94 where he experienced various insights into the relationship between culture and politics in contemporary society. This led to his radical social-political performances today. In his raw and direct style, ARAI's body appears as a site of social tension presented with humor yet biting criticism. Often exposing the conservative and xenophobic cultural tendencies and contradictions in global and local situations. Besides performing regularly in Japan, ARAI has also presented his works internationally and especially in China such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian, Chengdu, Changchun, and Beijing. He is based inTokyo with a body of works that is quite unusual among the contemporary artists in Japan. He is the director of Small East Asia Co-Prosperity Restaurant Live art festival in Japan. And recently the Asian curator of 8th Open Art Festival in Beijing,China.


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ARAI Shin-ichi (web master/araiart@live.jp)