<strong>Keeping the colours / Taking out the words</strong>

01) JAPAN (2015) from Matt Sheridan on Vimeo.

My residency at PARADISE AIR in Matsudo changed my painting-in-motion practice in unexpected ways. The second day I was in Matsudo co-director Junpei Mori walked me all over town siting possible locations for projections, and in the process we met people from the neighborhood association Iwase, for whose wine party I would do my first projection (a compilation of older work). Halfway through the residency I integrated live-mixing of painting-in-motion animated video content into a performance context at MADROOM, organized by co-director Shoji Wataru. Thanks to communication director Kanoko Tamura, I forged and maintained working friendships with Matsudo’s public from our Thursday PARADISE SALONs to our final presentations of work on residency.

My introduction to Shinto practice (which I knew nothing about) in preparation for the Shrine Kaguraden projection began with shrine and cemetery visits with Matsukai member Shige Someya. I conflated ideas of action (which my painting practice shares with Shinto belief) and kami — divine energy emanating from natural sources — to create an ambient presentation incorporating fire, ash, water and green regeneration for Shrine Kaguraden that would complement the performances and architecture it played with and upon. Since shrines house kami, I wanted my animation to be a “face” for the kami housed in Shrine Kaguraden. In retrospect it appears I organized the three zones of projection upon the shrine according to a western idea of trinity between god, man, and spirit. But the idea was to keep the Shrine Kaguraden projection simple, direct and respectful, emanating and mirroring the quiet power, humility and character I was feeling from Matsudo locals, and which I drew from for 10 weeks.

In Brazil the previous summer I learned to use VJ software with a local artist there, so I was thrilled to get not one, but three opportunities to use in my public practice for the very first time during my PARADISE AIR residency. At MADROOM #2 I experimented with old works, responding to movements during the dj set until I discovered a fresh synthesis I was able to record on the fly. That recording became the FKA Cinema Matsudo projection on the front of Tokatsu Clinic Mirai. By splitting the one video into two channels and inverting the colors, I created a tension on the building facade, which as a former cinema chronicled fictional struggles of life and death, but is now, as a clinic, stages real life and death conflicts in the medical arena. The pop/abstraction colors and anime/manga/comic book movements of FKA Cinema Matsudo embody this idea in large scale clearly. Although the projection was light, I think the grid of the building helped reinforce a sign of the medical monitor in the final work — light, as with life, is flickering and ultimately fleeting, another Matsudo theme that was presented to me early on.

My proudest accomplishment while on residency at PARADISE AIR was realizing Matsudo Ebb + Flow, the cinematic work I originally pitched while in competition for the residency. The aim was to make a portrait of Matsudo using its intimate interior spaces as a stage for my painting-in-motion animations, enabling viewers to feel those interior spaces differently than before. Early on I was asked if I was going to “create an original painted mark for Matsudo,” to which I responded yes. The reply was, “then it’s gonna suck!” I took this as a personal challenge on Matsudo’s behalf. By going into private homes (Takahashi-san), unused commercial spaces (Daiei), a radio station (Radio Poireau), a bar (Noguchi-ya), and the home of the last shogun of Japan (Tojo Tei), I was able to project into, and therefore extract the presence of each location, while also inserting local people in the mix to keep it personal. I hope Matsudo Ebb + Flow exemplifies and demonstrates the potential, promise, energy and heart of Matsudo’s people, with whom it was my privilege to grow close to during PARADISE AIR, for whom I deeply respect.