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Tomorrow is the official opening of the Japan Society exhibit, Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture. The show will focus "on the phenomenally influential subcultures of otaku (roughly translated as "pop cult fanaticism") and its relationships to Japan's artistic vanguard." In other words, there are adorable yet disturbing works. Takashi Murakami, international pop artist of the moment, curated the show, and has been the center of last weekend's New York Times magazine feature about Japanese modern art (which was also a primer in key Japanese words, like kawaii aka cute) and yesterday's Times art feature about the Central Park Public Art Fund work. The Public Art Fund work, V W X Yellow Elephant Underwear/H I J Kiddy Elephant Underwear, was designed by one of artists in Murakami's stable, Chinatsu Ban. It reminds Gothamist of Louis Bourgeouis's Mommy and Baby Spiders meets Jeff Koon's Puppy. We must say, we adores the elephants in underwear. And Gothamist loves how the NY Times had a picture of the elephant's heart-decorated, fiberglass poo. The elephants are at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street.
Gothamist on Murakami's Mr. Pointy at Rockefeller Center.
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First Hello Kitty, and now this...
I'm going to notify Masamania.com about this
I was surprised that the normally priggish Times had the poo in their photo.
heart poop = poop with love
Louise Bourgeois. She's a lady.
cute does not equal art
you might as well just blow up the virgin airline yellow duck and blow it up 100 times
sorry but the chinatsu ban's piece should just stay in japan... the show at marianne boesky was terrible. how did it even get to central park- thats super absurd
This is definitely worth seeing. The elephants (Chinatsu Ban) are just one pop style exhibited. Japan Society also has pieces dedicated to anime, Godzilla, Ultraman, graphic artist Shigeru Komatsuzaki. The best pop art of the 20th and 21st centuries.
If anyone has heard of Takano Aya, her work is prominently featured.
Murakami's premise is that the destruction of Japan, the awesome horror in a human context---particularly with the use of two nuclear bombs--became expressed through modern art. For one reason, it was because there was sensorship by the Occupation of any "media dialogue" about how America won. Often, things not allowed to be said directly are expressed in other ways. (Because of the boot of official sanction, or because they are feelings too unpleasant to talk about.)
With defeat in war, Japan was reduced to a "child nation", and allegedly this art reflects that.
I don't have total buy-in on that one. The perspective is postwar---it gives too little consideration to how dramatically different life was in Japan in the decades prior to the Curtis Lemay raids.
Because it's art, it gets a pass. Too little is said about what it must have felt like to be the victim on the opposite side of the American/allied assault on Japan. And the refrain about "started it" or "deserved it" is a little too dry by now.
Japan does not seem like a nation of children. Japan looks more like a nation, bullied by the thugs who ran it, who squeezed the enjoyment of life out of damn near everyone who came under their control. Who forced everyone in Asia, over three generations, to grow up too fast.
So the art now assures that there is a childhood and joy and wonder in life.