Are You Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Seth Becker, Masaya Chiba, Louis Eisner, Oscar Enberg, Gabriel Hartley, Tenki Hiramatsu, Kenji Ide, Max Jahn, Tomasz Kowalski, Alice Peach, Thomas Pisson, Andrei Pokrovskii, ML Poznanski, Edd Ravn, Darwin Vickers, Kenneth Winterschladen, Arisa Yoshioka Curated by Arisa Yoshioka Are You Working Hard or Hardly Working? How would you answer that question if someone asked you out of the blue? In 2023, Darwin and I went on a road trip across the U.S. just after we moved out of New York. Our U.S. visa was expiring and our marriage had expired too. During our road trip, at a grocery store in very rural America, I think it was Oklahoma, or somewhere in Texas, the cashier asked us "Are you guys working hard or hardly working?" I think artists are in a strange position. It is because they are actually working hard inside in the mind and the spiritual realm, while appearing to do nothing, or appearing to doing less, in the natural realm. They spend many hours of research, waiting, wondering, walking around, reading, listening, and looking for inspiration, which I personally think you can't find, you just receive it as you live. It’s not just artists, this matter applies to every individual, the artist is just an easy example to bring up. One might say you can tell if someone is working hard or not by the fruits of their labor. I agree. What's your favorite fruit? My favorite fruit is fig, apple, melon, watermelon, strawberry, blueberry, raspberries and all of those berries, kiwi, and many more. Today you might be not seeing the result you have been working on and expecting, or perhaps you have been praying for something for so long and that hope deferred is making your heart sick. But take heart! As you already know even the tree when it grows doesn't groan and scream and come out from the ground 3 meters tall with all the fruits on it. It starts from the tiny seed and, the most important thing, the root grows deep down when no one is able to witness it. It needs a period of time. Darwin and I are back together now. Today I am happy to curate this group show along with amazing artists whom I deeply admire and whose works I respect. It is very exciting to think about what was happening in the spiritual realm when they were working on those works. Why did they make that work? What even led them to make such work? And what is happening in our unconscious mind while we are looking into those works? Please enjoy the showcase of many good fruits! —Arisa Yoshioka

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