Worlds Within

Contemporary art from Japan

2 June – 7 July 2023
Open weekdays from 9am – 7pm/5pm
ARB, all floors

Exhibition preview and artist talk by Kaori Yoshikawa & Makoto Morimura
2 June 2023 from 5.30pm

Exhibition tours with the curator: 24 June at 1pm & 27 June at 5.30 pm | Register

Artworks often afford glimpses into the inner worlds of others: the forms and textures that populate artists’ minds. While some of the artists in this show describe their creative process as an imperfect replication of these inner landscapes, others emphasise the material qualities of the objects they make, and how these gradually percolate into their consciousness along with the ideas they receive from the world around them. The outcome may be unexpected, and imperfectly known in advance; the worlds sensed must first be made in order to be understood, through a process of trial and error that is always subject to material constraints.

This exhibition forms part of an ethnographic research project in which seven contemporary artists and makers from Osaka, Japan, engaged in a year-and-a-half-long exchange with Cambridge University anthropologist Iza Kavedžija, sharing details of their creative practices through conversations, studio visits, and a variety of diary formats. By engaging with their artworks alongside the stories of their creation, visitors are invited to reflect on the intersections of inner and outer worlds.

Further information is available on the project website.

About the artists

Kaori Yoshikawa, Makoto Morimura, Marie Nohara, Shin Ikeda, sonsengocchabacco, So Shimada, Hajime Wada


Exhibition opening times

Please note that the Alison Richard Building opening times vary according to University Term dates.

  • From 2 – 16 June the exhibition is open on weekdays from 9am – 7pm
  • From 19 June – 7 July the exhibition is open on weekdays from 9am – 5pm