A series of personal questions addressed to a Hikimawashi kappa traveling coat
2022 - Installation (Installation)
122 x 224 cm
James Webb
Referencing psychology, philosophy, and spiritualism, A series of personal questions addressed to a Hikimawashi kappa traveling coat by James Webb is an ongoing series in which the artist poses spoken questions to objects via a speaker installed near the object on display. The questions are addressed to the objects as if they were sentient beings able to respond. Each question is left hanging, unanswered for approximately 10 seconds before the next question is posed. The questions can be voiced in English, Japanese, and French. In this iteration, the artist sourced a pre-owned, 19th century, Japanese kappa traveling cloak. This garment, made from cotton, wash paper, and bone, is designed in a way that is thought to be influenced by the Catholic missionaries that visited Japan in the 16th century. The word kappa refers both to the Japanese pronunciation of “cape”, as well as to the folkloric water sprite known as a Kappa. Traditionally, this traveling cloak would have been a fashionable garment used to protect its wearer from the elements and on journeys. Webb’s artwork proposes that this cloak is more than the sum of its parts and what it represents. Themes related to farming and labor, the Anthropocene, cultural exchange and fashion, traveling, orientation, and security are explored through the questions posed to the cloak. These questions serve to create an encounter with the object, as well as to complicate it; transforming the standard conditions of display, and opening up new interpretations, parallel histories, and conceptual possibilities.
James Webb is a conceptual artist, known for his site-specific interventions and installations. His practice involves sound, found objects, and text, invoking references to literature, cinema, and the minimalist traditions. By shifting objects, techniques, and forms beyond their original contexts and introducing them to different environments, Webb creates new spaces of tension. These spaces bind Webb’s background in religion, theater, and advertising, offering poetic inquiries into the economies of belief and dynamics of communication in our contemporary world.
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