What is the role of engagement in the work of Japanese artists
from different generations. In the 60s and 70s artists like On
Kawara took international oriented position, whereas artists in the
80s focus more on the history of their own country. Artists from the
90s however, show thier engagement more lightly. Humor plays a
role; cartoons and other forms of pop culture are used ironically to
criticise Japanese society.
The impetus for the exhibition was the
celebration of 400 years of relations between the Netherlands and
Japan.
Yukinori Yanagi and Yoshiko Shimada, both born in 1959, are quite
different from the artists of the younger generation. The work of these
artists reveals a strong political commitment and often contains
references to Japans war years. Yukinori Yanagi is fascinated by the
rusted wrecks of war ships that have been discovered on the ocean
floor. The bronze work Pacific k100B consists of models of several
ships that were active in the war in the Pacific. The focus of Yoshiko
Shimadas work is a dark period from Japanese history that many would
sooner forget. White Horse/Black Horse refers to the so-called
comfort women, the Korean and Dutch women who were abused by
Japanese servicemen during the Second World War.
The work of Yoshitomo Nara (also born in 1959) is a bridge to the
younger generation of artists who have discovered a new form of Pop art.
Nara uses cartoons, but beneath his drawings of sweet-looking children
there is a forbidding undertone. Take a good look and you may see a
razor-sharp knife in their hands or a devilish look in their eyes.
The younger generation of artists, among them Tsuyoshi Ozawa,
Momoyo Torimitsu en Tam Ochiai, aim more at the Japan of today.
Momoyo Torimitsu made a name for herself with her performance with
Jiro Miyata, the human robot, a salary man. Torimitsu had this doll
crawl along the sidewalks of Wall Street, while she (dressed as a nurse)
offered him assistance. The performance is also being performed in
Amsterdam, especially for Dark Mirrors of Japan. Tsuyoshi Ozawa
uses kitsch as a means of entering into conversation with his audience.
His Soy Sauce Museum is set up as a museum of history. The works,
which tell of the life and work of many Japanese artists, are all executed
in soy sauce, the quintessential Japanese national product. Tam Ochiai
combines logos from the commercial world with references to art
history. Ochiais fascination with Warhol is apparent in his video Death
Film, a collage of death scenes from a series of film classics.
In Dark Mirrors of Japan, the political commitment of the older
generation joins the mostly light-hearted commentary on modern
Japanese society of the younger artists. The many-sided picture that
emerges is typical of contemporary Japanese art.
Yoshitomo Nara
Born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Aomori.
Lives and works in Cologne and
Nagoya.
Exhibitions include:
1999 Institut für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg (solo exhibition)
1996 Tokyo Pop, The Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Hiratsuka City
1990 Galerie dEendt, Amsterdam (solo exhibition)
Tam Ochiai
Born in 1967 in Yokohama.
Lives and works in New York.
Exhibitions include:
1999 The Bastard Kids of Drella, Part 9, Le Consortium, Dijon
1996 White Columns, New York
1995 Mito Contemporary Art Center, Mito, Ibaragi (solo exhibition)
Tsuyoshi Ozawa
Born in 1965 in Tokyo.
Lives and works in Tokyo.
Exhibitions include:
1999 First Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum,
Fukuoka, Japan
1997 Cities on the Move, Secession, Vienna, travelled to: Musée de
Bordeaux, PS1, New York, Hayward Gallery, London, Kiasma, Helsinki
1992 Aoi Gallery, Osaka (solo exhibition)
Yoshiko Shimada
Born in 1959 in Tokyo, Japan.
Lives and works in Tokyo.
Exhibitions include:
1998 Donaiyanen, LEcole Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris
1997 Divide and Rule A Space Gallery, Toronto (solo exhibition)
1996 Galerie Apert, Amsterdam (solo exhibition)
Momoyo Torimitsu
Born in 1967 in Tokyo, Japan.
Lives and works in New York.
Exhibitions include:
1999 Abracadabra, Tate Gallery, London
1997 Zones of Disturbances, Steirischer Herbst, Graz
PS1 National and International Studio Artists, Clocktower Gallery,
New York
Yukinori Yanagi
Born in 1959 in Fukuoka.
Lives and works in New York and Okayama
City.
Exhibitions include:
2000 Biennial Exhibition in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New
York
1994 Japanese Art after 1945: Scream against the Sky, Guggenheim
Museum, Soho, New York, travelled to: Museum of Modern Art, San
Francisco, Yerba Buena Garden, San Francisco
1993 Aperto 93, Biennale di Venezia
IMAGE:
Yukinori Yanagi
Pacific K100B, 1997
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