Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the role of recognition and enskilment in the creative activities of young contemporary artists in Osaka, Japan. It argues that making in this context is to a large extent a collective process, one that often occurs at the boundaries of recognizable genres.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary artists in Osaka have tended to reject the widely recognized path to becoming a 'successful' artist, namely affiliating with a gallery and presenting their work in Tokyo and abroad. Not being bound by expectations freed them to explore genres they did not previously work in as well as the liminal zones between them. Drawing on ethnographic research with these artists and an analysis of their own understandings of the creative process, this paper seeks to interrogate the concept of creativity and its social conditions. The standard romantic 'Western' discourse of creativity highlights the creative genius of a lone individual creating in relative isolation and producing innovative work in a moment of inspiration. More recently, a second narrative of creativity has emerged, of incremental change, less focused on creation de novo and more on processes of copying and improvisation (Sennett 2012; Wilf 2012; Nakamura 2006; Hallam and Ingold 2007). The ethnography of Osakan contemporary artists points to a third narrative of creativity, one which problematizes the very idea of mastering a genre, and of creativity as reliant on recognition. In this narrative, the impulse to make is fostered and nurtured collectively, in an atmospheric way; 'who' and 'what' is recognized is dissolved in these spaces of creative collaboration.