Rubbing a Camel

2010, Video installation, Bronze, HD video 57x18x24 cm, 6:56 min.

Throughout the world people flock to certain statues that, according to legend, grant good fortune to those that touch them. In Japan people pet the “Nade-ushi” cow statues, in Italy the “Il Porcellino” statue of a boar, and in Germany the hooves of the donkey at the base of the “Bremen Town Musicians” statue. Over the years, after being rubbed by so many people, one part of these statues comes to shine brilliantly in odd contrast with the rest.
For this piece, Yamashita and Kobayashi created a bronze statue of a camel that they then carried with them as they traveled through Egypt, Spain, Switzerland and Germany, rubbing its hump every day for five months until it turned a shiny, golden color.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2018 Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba

2013 Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, the Netherlands

inSitu, Berlin

2011 Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo (solo)

Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany

2010 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin