Yamaguchi & Simmel
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The act of exhibition or display helps create meaning for objects or performances from everyday life, mainly because there are always social phenomena like politics and culture that affect exhibition and display and, hence, meaning. If we look at Yamaguchi’s concepts of exhibition and display in Japanese culture, we can glimpse a deeper understanding of the relationship among art, display and exhibition, and meaning. One of these concepts is mitate. Mitate helps extend the image of an object. In other words, it is a technique by which the Japanese are able to form a meaning or connection between objects from daily life with mythical or classical images. In a way, mitate obscures the object being displayed because this object is associated or attached through its display or performance with another point of reference “When an object is displayed on ceremonial occasions, a classical reference—one familiar to anyone knowledgeable about history or the classics—is assigned to that object so that the immediate object merges with the object that is being referred” (Yamaguchi 58). In his classic Bridge and Door, Simmel asserts that a bridge is a direct line connecting two points. The bridge is different from the door because it connects meaning together whereas the door allows for isolation from external meaning. The concept of mitate is similar to Simmel’s bridge because it is a direct line connecting ordinary objects (via display or perfo
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meaning through display or exhibition, I interviewed my grandmother about the way she displays a particular group of objects on her bedroom dresser that, similar to the concept of mitate, are arranged as a means of giving meaning to the invisible through the use of ordinary objects. My grandfather died a few years back. My grandmother has erected a display in her bedroom that is meant to refer to the spirit of my grandfather and the bond they shared between them, a bond my grandmother still believes they share. In order to give meaning to this invisible bond, my grandmother has arranged a group of ordinary objects on her bedroom dresser that refer to this spiritual bond. On her dresser, one corner is reserved as a display of objects representative of my grandfather and the relationship he shared with my grandmother. There is an old, worn photograph with torn edges that is held onto the dresser’s mirror by being placed between the slit between the glass and the wood frame. This picture shows my grandmother and grandfather a year after they were first married. In the picture, my infant father is being held by my grandmother. Stuck to one of the upper portions of the photograph is a piece of palm that is twisted into a cross
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Door Simmel, Memorial Wall, Key Concepts, Corner Pap-pap, display exhibition, ordinary objects, display performance, Institution Press, exhibition display, London Sage, Steven Levine, piece palm, aesthetic meaning, direct line, bridge direct, object displayed, ordinary object, bridge direct line, Mike Featherstone, Vietnam Memorial, meaning objects acts, display performance reference, objects acts constituted, simmels bridge direct,
Approximate Word count = 1449
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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