SHINO YANAI

Shino Yanai is an interdisciplinary artist who has created performance-based works, including a field recording project involving long-distance running that began in London during the lockdown in March 2020. This project was shown in the 2020 ‘Art in COVID-19’ at Goethe-Institut Tokyo, as well as at Japan Foundation in 2021. She also collaborated with Japanese composer Ken Ikeda on a performance at the 2021 Tokyo Biennale and presented a solo performance at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix Gallery in 2022 (as part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s ‘First Thursday’).

Recent PhD research investigated how noise and improvised music in art can release unconscious trauma, focusing on the historical context of Japanese imperialism. She was born in Japan, and she changed her nationality from Korean to Japanese at the age of twenty, prompting her to question the construction of identity and perceived notions of nationhood. Her work seeks to reanimate the past through memories, bringing the viewers into a new relationship with historical events. Prior to her journey into contemporary art, she received classical piano training.

Book here for London performance with Ken Ikeda on 7 December 2024.

CV

2019- PhD Slade School of Fine Art, University College London 2016–18 MA (Distinction) Photography, Royal College of Art

2010–12 MA Inter Media Art, Tokyo National University of the Arts 2004–10 MA / BA Japanese Painting, Tama Art University
1998-2002 BA Music, Instrumental music, Piano major, Kobe College

Selected Exhibitions and Performances

2023 A performance by Shino Yanai and Syo Yoshihama, OTOOTO, Tokyo
2022 Solo Exhibition and Performance ‘I Hear Your Breath in 4/4’ Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London

2021 Solo site-specific installation work ‘Well Temperament’ for the Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021 ‘Praying for Tokyo’ curated by Kazuko Koike, at Yushima Seido (The Mausoleum of Confucius at Yushima), Tokyo.

2021 A performance by Shino Yanai and Ken Ikeda at Yushima Seido, Tokyo, as part of Shino Yanai’s exhibition ‘Well Temperament’ for the Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021 ‘Praying for Tokyo’

2021 Online exhibition ‘11 Stories on Distanced Relationships: Contemporary Art from Japan’, curated by Tomohiro Masuda (Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), and organised by Japan Foundation
2021 Group exhibition ‘Flowers of Romance’ White Conduit Projects, London

2020 Solo exhibition ‘Unwanted Sound’ curated by Haruka Iharada, as part of the project ‘Art in COVID-19’, Goethe-Institut Tokyo
2020 Group exhibition ‘de-sport: The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Sports through Art’; artists; Allora&Calzadilla, The Eugenne Studio, Charles Freger, Liam Gillick, Christian Jankowski, Gabriel Orozco, Erwin Wurm, Xijing Men, Shino Yanai, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan)

2020 Group exhibition ‘Cherry Blossom Party’ eitoeiko, Tokyo
2020 Group exhibition ‘Exposing the Bushes’ curated by Haruka Iharada, Tokyo Arts and Space, Tokyo 2019 Screening ‘Blue Passages’ and ‘The Deep End’, talk event ‘erroribus humanis et antinomy’, and live performance by Tetuzi Akiyama and Chihei Hatakeyama; OTOOTO, Tokyo
2019 Group exhibition ‘Perspectives (2)’ Intermediateque, The University Museum, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo
2019 Group exhibition ‘Creation and Technique’ Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo
2019 Group exhibition ‘3331 Art Fair 2019’: selected by Dr Yoshitaka Mori (Sociologist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts); 3331 Arts Chiyoda – Main Gallery, Tokyo
2019 Solo exhibition ‘The Deep End’ Sagacho Archives, Tokyo
2018 Screening ‘Happy and Glorious’ in ‘TBCTV’ exhibition, Somerset House – Lancaster Room, London
2018 Group exhibition ‘The Sky has No Surface’ 10a Bridge Street Car park, Berwick-Upon-Tweed 2018 Screening ‘Happy and Glorious’ in ‘Phantom Limb: AMZ, k28, Ila Brugal, Flemish Bond, Fourth Floor Room + video screenings’ curated by Kathy Cho and KatieYook, Corsica Studio, London
2018 Group exhibition ‘A Point of No Return | Anthropocene Entity’ Art Action UK and White Conduit Projects, London
2017 Screening ‘Blue Passages’ in Mediarc International Festival of Architecture ‘Proiezioni sezione Festival Internazionale Now You See Me Parigi 2017’ Le Murate Progetti Arte Contemporanea, Florence
2017 A performance ‘Happening and Surveillance; Cut Piece’: collaboration with Jukan Tateisi, Photography Project Space, Royal College of Art, London
2017 Screening ‘Blue Passages’ in International Public Art Short Film Contest ‘Art Public – Now you see me’ Louvre museum – Auditrium, Paris

2016 Solo exhibition ‘Blue Passages’ curated by Yuki Miyake, White Conduit Projects, London
2016 A performance ‘The Blue Passages’ Passages – Hommage to Walter Benjamin, commissioned by White Conduit Projects (London), supported by Kazuko Koike, Dani Karavan, Ben Kikkawa, Yoi Kawakubo, Nomura Foundation, Jonathan Whitewall, Adam Wright, Portbou (Spain)
2014 Duo exhibition ‘Comedy and Menace: Birthday Party’: Andro Semeiko & Shino Yanai, White Conduit Projects, London
2014 Group exhibition ‘Anti – War: Resistance against the Anticipated War’ SNOW Contemporary, Tokyo
2014 Group exhibition ‘ego – Re-examining the Self’ punto, Kyoto
2014 Solo exhibition ‘Utsushi-mi – Ghost Self’ curated by Haruka Iharada, monsHirop; PARADISE STUDIO, Facility of Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo
2013 Group exhibition ‘Brave New World – re-enchanting utopia’, artists; Christian Boltanski, Sachiko Kodama, teamLab, Shino Yanai, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori (Japan)
2013 Group exhibition ‘WHAT WE SEE’, artists; Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Cyprien Gaillard, Johan Grimonprez, Hiraki Sawa, Chia-En Jao, Sojung Jun, Pei-Shih Tu, Steve McQueen, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Shino Yanai, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (Japan)
2012 Group exhibition ‘End of war in the decade of the 2010s’ curated by Yosuke Takahashi, eitoeiko, Tokyo
2012 ‘Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2012’ Marunouchi-building, Tokyo
2012 Degree Show ‘GEIDAI SENTAN 2012’ BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama
2010 Group exhibition ‘TAMA VIVANTII 2010’ Daikanyama Sedona, Tokyo/ Parthenon Tama, Tokyo/ Tama Art University, Tokyo

Awards and Grants

2022 Grant from the Nomura Foundation: Research Project in Slade School of Fine Art, UCL

2022 Malcolm Hughes Research Bursary and Jean Spencer Memorial Bursary: Slade School of Fine Art, UCL

2021 Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation: Exhibition and Performance ‘Well Temperament’ in Tokyo Biennale

2020 Malcolm Hughes Research Bursary and Jean Spencer Memorial Bursary: Slade School of Fine Art, UCL

2019 Grant from the Nomura Foundation: Research Project in Slade School of Fine Art, UCL 2017–18 Fellowship of Overseas Study Programme for Upcoming Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunka-cho), Government of Japan
2016 Grant from the Nomura Foundation: Walter Benjamin Portbou Project

2014–15 Fellowship of Grant for Overseas Study by Young Artists from the POLA Art Foundation 2018 Photography Prize (Degree Show 2018, Royal College of Art)

2017 International Public Art Short Film Contest nominated, ‘Art Public – Now you see me’
2012 Yuka Uematsu Prize (Curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka), Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi

Talks, Conferences and Workshops

2023 Practice-led Symposium: Dreams and Guilt. Exhibiting Counter-Memories’, Beaconsfield (London)

2021 Symposium, Roundtable Discussion ‘Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021: Live Relations vol.01’ organaised by Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021

2021 Online talk event, related to Japan Foundation’s online exhibition ‘11 Stories on Distanced Relationships – Contemporary Art’, Speakers: Stuart Tulloch, Rika Noguchi, Hiraki Sawa, Shino Yanai

2019 Conference ‘Okinawan Art in its Regional Context’, University of East Anglia, Norwich
2019 ‘Nationalism and Death’: conversation with Dr. Yoshitaka Mori (Sociologist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts), Kazuko Koike (President of Sagacho Exhibit Space); Sagacho Archives, Tokyo 2018 ‘Art, Politics and Censorship in Japan and beyond’; Sainsbury institute for the study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich
2018 Artist Talk, Camberwell College of Art and Design, London
2016 Artist talk in ‘Crisis youth get creative: ‘Young Generations in Japan and Europe: Crisis, Mobility and Creativity’ workshop’; Sainsbury institute for the study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich 2016 Artist Talk ‘Blue Passages’: conversation with Dr Jonathan Whitewall, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London
2014 ‘Madness Plays as Metaphor’: conversation related to solo exhibition ‘Utsushi-mi – Ghost Self’, with Seiichi Tsuchiya (Art Critic, Professor at Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts), Dr. Yoshitaka Mori (Sociologist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts); monsHirop – Facility of Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo
2014 ‘Art and Nation’, guest lecture hosted by Professor Seiichi Tsuchiya; Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, Okinawa