When someone with only a peripheral knowledge of Japanese art is asked to think about the visual culture of Japan, a few themes might come to mind: nature, history, tradition, and cuteness. A lay discussion of Japanese contemporary art is generally influenced by Hello Kitty and 19th century woodblock prints in equal measure. The art of an entire culture is surely not contained by the two isolated phenomena of Sanrio consumer products and Hiroshige’s Views of Edo, but it is the constant struggle of those in the field to push viewers’ understanding of the overlooked genius of Japanese art—most of which is not contained by these basic, widely-accepted concepts.
The Japan Society routinely mounts spectacular exhibitions of Japanese art, past and present, which challenge the limits of cultural understanding. The current exhibition, entitled Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Art, not only challenges preconceptions of contemporary Japanese visual culture—it also elegantly ties the past to the present, showcasing works by artists who are influenced by Japanese art history and modern culture in equal parts.
Bye Bye Kitty!!! features the work of sixteen contemporary artists whose paintings, videos, installations, photographs, and sculptures mix reference to tradition with critical and political views of Japan’s present and future. The work is also surprisingly grim and omniscient, considering that the exhibition was scheduled to open the week after Japan was hit by the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in March. It is hard to shake the feeling that the many dystopic visions of Japan’s future in the exhibition were informed by supernatural foresight—a fact which makes this exhibition even more important and impactful. The intensity of the exhibition is more than doubled by a complex collection of works which refer to natural disasters, devastation, and destruction.
These elements all point to a clearly underlined fact: stereotypical ideas of Japanese culture are outdated, and it is imperative that these notions be replaced by the more timely works of contemporary artists working in more intellectual and political themes. Even when the works in Bye Bye Kitty!!! borrow from traditional Japanese landscapes and printmaking, the recontextualization of the style elevates such works to the realm of conceptual and critical art. The show tells the story of the standing tension between the man-made world and the natural world, an agitated relationship which has long been dictated by the disaster-prone environment of an island nation plagued by earthquakes and tsunamis. The show is distinguished in equal parts by its beauty, intelligence, and honest anxiety.
Upon walking into the first gallery at Japan Society, the viewer is confronted by what at first appears to be a smoky hilltop landscape. Mountains emerge from grey mist and reach up to and endless oyster-white sky. It is only upon walking closely towards the canvas that the viewer realizes that the mountains are actually piles of bodies—an endless tower of the corpses of men in standard grey business suits, mixed with computers and cubicle parts. The large painting by Makoto Aida, titled Ash Color Mountains, is a shocking and surreal scene combining the style of a traditional Japanese ink painting with a stark (and prescient) vision of modern urban life.
Other standout works include Tomoko Kashiki’s intimate and disconcerting scenes of women and adolescents painted on delicate cloth. Her fragile subjects cling to dangerous peripheries by their toes or engage in muted exchanges with twisted fingers. Kashiki’s soft, secret worlds are about private gestures and the agonies of isolated moments of beauty. Roof Garden (2008) is particularly provocative: a young woman (wearing what looks like Comme des Garçons) stands on the edge of a rooftop, her back to the long drop. A strong breeze blows her towards the precipice, and the gusts of wind are visible rushing through her hair and against her nautical clothes. She smiles, convincingly, and the only visible tension is in the curl of her toes tight against the ledge—a soft image of the critical moment.
Manubu Ikeda’s works on paper are also a highlight: his large-scale works on paper are detailed epics of new, invented worlds. His fantasy landscapes link the worlds of heaven and hell, fabrication and documentary. Civilization seems to emerge from chaos in one square inch while succumbing to entropy merely a few pen strokes away. These works are so demanding in their detail that Ikeda devotes an entire year to each one. In Existence, the tree of life contains the true depth of life, the tree evokes all the permutations of a tree. Within its branches, this tree holds apocalypses, human life, and human destruction. It feels as though never before has so much of the natural world been said on a single sheet of paper.
Broken up into three sections, Bye Bye Kitty!!! explores the work of the other artists under the lens of “Critical Memory,” “Threatened Nature,” and the “Unquiet Dream.” All three themes similarly evoke disquiet and haunting visions of contemporary Japan—visions, which, sadly, are closer to reality than the curator or artists had intended. Though the exhibition was envisioned and organized far in advance of Japan’s recent tragedies, Bye Bye Kitty!!! may be able to offer viewers a helpful context for the contemporary Japanese visual culture which has undoubtedly been affected and which will continue to change in response to those events.
Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art
Japan Society, New York, E. 47th Street, Friday, March 18 — Sunday, June 12
The Japan Society is donating 50 percent of all admission fees to its earthquake relief fund between now and June 30
Image: Tomoko Kashiki, Roof Garden (2008)
