Bye Bye Kitty
March 19th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
In a sad twist of irony, the first thing one sees upon entering the new exhibition at Japan Society is a huge pile of dead Japanese businessmen. Opening only a few days after the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear scare trifecta that has struck Japan, the exhibition’s theme (young artists who are moving beyond the country’s Cute popular culture motifs and Superflat style) is timely, as Japan itself is drastically awakening into a new, somber era.
The pile of victims by Makoto Aida is but the first of many strong artworks in the show, which is a collection of some of the best young talent currently coming out of Japan. Bye Bye Kitty vigorously makes the case for a new direction in Japanese contemporary art. The exhibition does not seem to run thematically as much as it focuses on balance. There are artists who embrace parts of Japanese art history, and some who don’t focus directly on their nationality at all. Ink on paper, sculpture, painting, video, installation, all formats are addressed and spaced in a complimentary manner throughout.
In terms of pure skill, the most mind-blowing works are those by Manabu Ikeda (the third detail image posted above). All three of his works are very large in scale but minuscule in detail, as huge compositions, such as a Tree of Life, are full of small vignettes that seamlessly meld into one another. In these drawings, there is no space without a mark except for the small white figures that inhabit these worlds. The figures are just outlines, and are purely negative space (the only places where no marks exist). After investigating one of these drawings for several minutes you can appreciate why it takes him a year or two to complete one of them.
Yamaguchi Akira’s drawings adopt elements of traditional Japanese styles, but insert modern technology and life, as well as surreal figures and abstract violence, into the narratives. The second image above is a detail of one these works. I have posted mostly detail shots here because most of the works in this show are not just large, but require real investigation, either into the imagery or the materials of their construction. One misses a great deal by standing back to gain the full picture.
Rinko Kawaguchi’s photographs are another example of this. Installed as a large group, each work is both individual and part of a larger whole. Without individual titles, each quiet work is small and specific, but anonymous. Her series here seems to be dealing with the balance of birth and death.
Another standout artist is Hiraki Sawa, whose video work could almost be an homage to Joseph Cornell. Miwa Yanagi’s photographs and text works of her grandmother’s generation, Tomoko Kashiki’s gorgeous paintings, and Kumi Machida’s mechanical / traditional Nihonga-inspired works were all quite impactful as well. I particularly liked one line from the text portion of a Yanagi work: “One must decide one’s own age on a daily basis.” For these artists, and the country as a whole, it is certainly a new age.
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Bye Bye Kitty is open at the Japan Society through June 12th. Photos by Isabel Roxas.
Tomoaki Hata
March 17th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Men in dresses. With guns. Drag Queens in Japan are different from their New York counterparts
Tomoaki Hata’s photographs (at Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects) make this distinction clear, in scenes that are strangely both exotic and familiar. There is a toughness to the subjects he followed while making this series (mostly in the 1990′s and the first half of the 2000′s). There is a transparency here, instead of a faux feminine mystique there is a testosterone-fulled aggression in the faces of these ladies in the night. Out of drag the boys can seem quite lad-ish, rough around the edges. At other times they are seen as couples, half-naked embraces in the privacy of a bedroom. Sometimes times they are dressed for show: a man in a dress and a boa with full beard and no illusions.
The balance of isolation, camaraderie and exploration, all with hints of violence waiting just beyond the camera’s range, make this a surprisingly multi-layered exhibition. The subjects are quirky in a way that doesn’t seem to exist in New York, and Hata glides through the groups, both an observer and part of the crowd.
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Tomaoki Hata: The Night is Still Young is up at Miyako Yoshinaga through April 9th. A catalog has been produced. All artwork is copyright Tomoaki Hata
Nobuhiro Fukui
January 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Nobuhiro Fukui is a mostly self-taught photographer, and his images are the recordings of a nocturnal flaneur. The photographs are thoughtfully made but unplanned, they are captured during solitary walks or bike rides that the artist makes. Fukui has explained that there is not a subjectivity to these works, there is nothing that he is trying to show you or make a point of. They are instead about looking and watching, seeing what you see and what you do not.
There is an eery air to these photographs. The dreamlike lighting, the quiet. They are almost void of people. Much of this has to do with the time they were taken, between 12 and 3 AM, but Fukui is not trying to shoot “empty” or abandoned places. These scenes are full of life. Sometimes one sees a light in a window, or the trace of something left on the street. These buildings are places are used, and they look used, but they are captured in a moment of rest, when they can soak up the moist night air and forget about they day.
The pictures are pleasantly non-voyeuristic, as that is a bit worn out and would only look trite here. In his exhibitions these are mounted to plexi and placed unframed on the wall. Often Fukui arranges them in complimentary groups, sometimes a long row of photos mounted flush on a wall, not to create a narrative but just to keep the line that is naturally found within them going.
All of the photos posted above are from Nobuhiro Fukui’s website, and were all taken on a Sunday. A number of other works and installation photos, as well as some thoughtful interviews, can be found on the Tomio Koyama Gallery website.
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All artwork copyright Nobuhiro Fukui
Shintaro Kago
November 30th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Shintaro Kago is an illustrator and writer who specializes in modern Ero Guro themes. This form, which has a long history in Japan, is both visual and literary, and highlights what could be called twisted and macbre visions of the everyday world. These can be grotesque, psychosexual, gross, or just dark vignettes. The format, which perhaps was started in the 19th century in Japan, rose to prominence in the 1920′s and 30′s, booming once again with the advent of the manga culture.
Kago’s work is both clean and disturbing, and therein lies the appeal. Some of the images are quite subtle, you really need to zoom in to find the horror. His perspectives are warped, and his colors vibrant. His black and white work sometimes has the look of Dave Sim’s Cerebus.
Shintaro Kago also has started a YouTube channel, and posted a small selection of animations he has made (I assume recently). These are short and violent, but funny, in a Terry Gilliam way. The artist has created a number of manga books, and in 2008 illustrated the cover of Vice Magazine here in the U.S.
His website (in Japanese) can be found here.
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All artwork is copyright Shintaro Kago. The images were borrowed from a number of sites on the web.
Akira Shimidu
September 8th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Akira Shimidu, from Japan, is part of what is being considered the “Post Superflat” (post Murakami) generation. This group is also considered “post 9/11″, mostly due to the two exhibitions on this theme curated by Shimidu’s Japanese dealer, Hiromi Yoshii, at the old Deitch space in New York.
The notion of those themes, in my mind, dealt with the groups moving beyond simple pop iconography, and moving past pure Japonism. These new, younger artists are working with multi-media constructions, where detritus assemblage can be combined with musical creation, video, installation, and even fashion.
I think Shimidu exemplifies this aesthetic approach better than many. The work, sometimes as sculpture, sometimes as painting, often a hybrid of the two, could come from anywhere. It deals with cultural garbage and stimulation, not necessarily Japanese stimulation.
In this sense, Shimidu and his contemporaries are pushing new ground. They are moving beyond the comfort zone of their own sense of self, while retaining a playful air.
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Most of these images came from Hiromi Yoshii Gallery’s website.
Yoshitomo Nara Open Studio
August 20th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Photo by Isabel Roxas
In association with his upcoming Asia Society exhibition, Yoshitomo Nara will have an open studio at the Park Avenue Armory, as he puts the finishing touches on the installations with his assistant Hideki Toyoshima. The studio will be open from August 23-27, and the A.S. exhibition will open September 9th.
