little boy was a great show however super flat has been knocked off so much that even the good stuff is lookin tired, 2 many eyeprints from being overshown.
I agree the cute flatness thing... Takano was(is)part of Takashi Murakami's drones. That man is a marketing genus. I'm crazy about his work its nice eye candy, but man hes really smart.
Yoshitomo Nara's work is a lot more interesting in that it deconstructs the whole cute thing.
Trevor Brown is a british artist/illustrator living in Tokyo whos work is realy on the edge. If you have issues with erotic art who's cotent is pushing many buttons, you might be offended by his work.
His wife(www.hippiecoco.net)makes cute one off teddy bears.
Looks Dargeresque, more finesse in the drawing and color than in Little Boy and the show at Boesky last year. But I wish the world were more complicated for this artist, seeing all the little space figures seems so...not diverse. I have the same complaint about the British bloke. Is the world really so cute? NO!
Looks Dargeresque, more finesse in the drawing and color than in Little Boy and the show at Boesky last year. But I wish the world were more complicated for this artist, seeing all the little space figures seems so...not diverse. I have the same complaint about the British bloke. Is the world really so cute? NO!
one thing that Japanese never are is awkward. She has brought a lot of awkwardness into this painting, so things are changing? or just a pastiche of western influence?
Strage japanamation. I want to know how you all feel about this artist, Chris Scarborough. He uses japanamation as a starting point for what he does. He has started generating a lot of attention as of late. http://www.scarboy.net/
this whole vein of expression is extremely limited. the only interest I can see in this style is from a sociological vantage point of the genre, besides that you just have to like "that extremely specific way" of drawing everything. Murakami is bad for contemporary Japanese art
Chris Scarborough: Some of his work is kind of creepy. Its trying to hard to be kitsch. The more realistic work is much better at the bottom of his thumbnail page. Still its also illustrative which is not bad, although I can tell he went to Savannah College of Art and Design and sure enough he did.
Art versions of Japanimation, hentai and cartoon imagery in general have something in common. They are less interesting than the originals and quickly seem dated. Two words: Wicked City
I like Aida except it seems like he has two totally different bodies of work. Disturbing erotic work and the political work about war or the homeless or whatever issue he is examining. If the two things came together it would be amazing. Erotic horror or rough justice.
It seems like his work is always about power relations in some way but I still think the two types of work are seperate. It seems like merging the two (the political and the erotic) is something art could do in a way that japanimation or hentai does not do as consciously. Or maybe it does? It's true this is all from a Western point of view.
No-where that is 10 kinds of wrong I can't spell. I still think art could do it better if we weren't all busy making the same show 5 times and selling it at art fairs.
whats wrong?, i just think (and am only talking from slightly over hearing japanese friends) that the notion of the "bizarre hentai metaphor thing" is a pretty surfacy read. - did anyone see little boy?
i thought it refered towards the duel nature of the message within the "little boy" title while acknowledging the primal fetishitsic nature behind such power and the erotic.
I've read a little about the way some critics connect Hiroshima and Nagasacki and sexual violation in Japanimation. What do other people think? I 've seen a lot of cutesy art which is less hard than some of the comic/animation imagery.
Having trouble reading your point wade. I don't know Shinto. Whereas 'repression' via religion, the market, a culture or any other social construct is generally seen as a Freudian definition and thereby Western thru extension, my feeling is that it prob existed before Freud and is thus more global.
Given that manga and surrounding histories include Disney (notably Fantasia) as part of it's list of influences, it's difficult to draw a hard line between eastern and western. Like Voodoo and Christianity, where does one start and the other begin? Cultural symbolism or global symbolism? How about Fusion Symbolism? A California roll played backwards?
Fetishes. These are fetishes, by virture of being art in this particular market. By virture of being presented in galleries and on this blog. Of course that is again, a Freudian viewpoint, yada yada....
And so what's the alternate pov? The pov that excises the western from said fusion -- or perhaps fusion is part of Shinto? dunnno. Sex, monsters, and sex-monsters: I'm interested in reading a 'reading' that can circumvent Freud or American War (wasn't Fantasia was recognized as a war film by the time Japan got to it?) while having kick-ass sex and monsters.
sublimated desire, fear and Art as the fetish object is never boring for me, however does this piece really turn me on , well no - would it have 13 years ago, - for sure. i think this style being knocked off from everything from advertising to second rate american "in the style" of cartoons makes it hard to swallow circa 2006, perhaps as the "trend " dies down the cream will rise.
nope not my thing. but between the animators and djs it has been all around for the last 13 yrs. (before it broke into the mainstream) it was what i was watching when not painting fruit.. for beter or worse.
It's true Wade: reading this sort of tortured and repressed tragic subtext is very Freudian. People often fall back on Freudian and Lacanian pschychoanalysis without thinking much about the very specific culture which produced Freud. What would Jessica Benjamin make of Japanimation? There are a lot of "interpenetrating bisexual subjects"
simething about this blog that brings out the modern language asociation (MLA) in me.
I don't buy the whole "the bomb infantilized a large sector of the japanese psyche" dealio. THat in itself seems infantilizing.
I don't claim to understand the obsession with cuteness - other than scale, because Japan is a small country and space is at a premium. Thats why their technology is so tiney, not like my 1970's solid state Technics receiver. Thats more my thing.
Japanese design has been "revere engineered" for quite some time, most recently by broadcast and web designers - my point being whats the dealio yo?
Sign me,
Blue Steel (I got mine, you got yours, lets make lots of money)
I have to say my wife is Japanese and we have talked about this a fair amount. That article was interesting but kind of off base. The flatness thing is part of their art history, just look at ukiyo-e prints and you can see the the same esthetic.
The modern cute thing is all from anime. Its just part of the escaping from the rigid culture that they are brought up in.
Kind of off the subject, but if anyone goes to Japan and visits Hiroshima you have got to go to one of the pancake places, its cheap amazing eats, and they cook it on this grill about 3 inches from you. you can eat it off the grill! But the give you a plate.
i feel it was on base as any over arching curitoral statment can ever be.. it was at the Japan society so someone must of been into it, but hey they also release DR9 there first, just got an invite to this group, - i assume from thread - looks good if anyone is into anime sorry if this is creating an anime oxbow the work of Takano goes beyond this for me... if you like it you may want to check out "After the Reality" we enjoyed it. July 06 — August 12, 2006 76 Grand St. & 18 Wooster St.
japanese weird? the west has been fascinated with japanese and eastern cultures for quite some time.. I guess we like weird things. How does everybody feel about Japanese automobiles? those cheap bastards, are cheapening our vehicles..am i right am i right? we make even crappier clones..
it does not have the pancakes! you have to go their for the pancakes. Of course the museum will most likely ruin your day, so eat before or a few days after.
Also the ruins with all the origami swans is very beautiful.
is this blog for serious painters only? if it is i'm in the wrong place, i don't know anything about cars.. i'm a serious painter just not a "serious" painter. to be serious though i don't think japanese are weird people or place even. Miss Universe 1st runner up was from Japan - she should have won.. Let's change the topic to this instead.. Like LoudMouth said, topic is boring, put up some good paintings please, stop trying to get us to discuss the issues surrounding paintings that aren't worth discussion- like the lame watercolour at the top!
I'll say one or two things - you could get me to like almost anything if it is aesthetically pleasing.. i can be a sucker for that.. looking at it minus the subject matter and it is a haphazard smearing of translucent washes. why is this not an issue for anyone? Esp the piece of dirt below, bad teenage poetry at its worst. Nobody needs conceptual/historical background information on utter shit, period.
kalm james first the pancake place is for locals and my wifes family comes form Hiroshima. You don't see tourist in these places because they don't know about them. Don't insult people when you don't know what your talking about.
Second I have relitives in Japan and have been here many times so my experience is not that of a tourist.
You can be western and embrase eastern culture, just like people form asia can embrace our western culture.
Yes its foreign to us but I feel like a foreigner in Kentucky as I'm not from the south.
i saw a lot of really personal work in high school. Less so in undergrad. By grad school the personal work had metamorphosed into a butterfly, flying into the fan of time, hubris unchained, free of the glass, a three headed homunculous of infinite sublimation, or the opposite, a thri-coloned shit machine, a fatted calf pregnant with an infinitude of clones. I could go on, ad nauseum.
"Gurdjieff said that people live their lives in a form of waking sleep, and that higher levels of consciousness are possible. In developing the inner possibility of becoming more aware of ourselves in our daily lives, one is shown a fresh way of living which can enrich our experience of life, and our feeling of ourselves alive. 'Know thyself' takes on a more organic meaning rather than an intellectual pursuit. "
I dunno. What is I? I think therefore I am. Ghost in the machine.
Just say judge judy. She's great, She knows whats really going on, even when it isnt.
Like when are digi-beta tapes going away like a bad dream? Is it real or is it Memorex?
i don't know who is angry, hard to tell strong opinions here since art started off as a trade and then became an opinion/elevated intellectual sport how many years ago? 500? more?.. so we all play along and it is fun for me...
Alright, after 2 days of ruminating on this jpeg, I finally conclude that I think this picture is crap. But Z's video did help shed some light upon it -- further illuminating it's crappiness. At least darger knew how to make a sensitive line. Who knows. Perhaps Line is enculturated. Though I bet that such enculturation isnt based upon the geographic nor ethnographic -- rather the slackergraphic. And I'm not entirely against the 1-width ball point pen type of aesthetic. It's just that the line here is crap.
Nice inventive cat crawling within the right-most head. At first I hated the awkwardness of the cape-wing and now it's my favorite part. Erase the rightmost figure, yes the one with the cat, and it'll become a more mature, less 'ham-fisted' composition. Like a meeting between an urgent Darger and the strangely monastically reserved Puvis de Chavannes.
Aww but see, all I think of now, when I see this jpeg, is the video -- so my thoughts are suspect. Production value versus artistic value. Fuck it. This one doesn't have the weird nipple-sucking. I conclude this is crap.
kalm james that's true, I am viewing the Japan through my western lense. So your are right I was viewing my time there through my own cultural bagage.
I was just responding to you thinking my experience was just as a tourist. We all jump to conclusions to fast.
For what its worth the pancakes are nothing like we have here, the are savory, with vegtables, meat, or shrimp in them and they are big.
There is Tokyo style, and Hiroshima style for anyone intrested.
For me the best way into any culture is through food and drink. Sit down with someone for a good meal with some good wine, beer or sake and you can find a lot of comommon ground.
(they are called okonomiyaki. they are about as much like a pancake as they are a pizza. they are neither.)
Hokusai studied European engravings that were used as wrapping paper for goods smuggled into Japan by the Dutch. He learned about and adopted ideas of shading, coloring, realism, and landscape perspective - and lots of other stuff like depictions of people in nature, the commoner, etc. Later of course all of that re-invigorated Japanese art was used to wrap Japanese goods for the Europeans and studied by artists like Van Gogh.
Sesshu, an earlier *awesome* Japanese artist, studied intensively in China.
well all my Japaanese friends call them pancake(okonomiyaki)and they are kind of like that, or more like a crepes so I wont argue with you. I have been there(Japan) and that's what there like. Its a batter, water and eggs, with cabbage, chicken, shrimp or whatever you want cooked on a grill. With a brown sauce or mayo.
Maybe you don't need to switch head-set.... just be aware of where you're coming from... and have the educated ability to separate the experience. [I suspect it's easier said than done]
Aya Takano lives and works in Kyoto, Japan
ReplyDeletelittle boy was a great show however super flat has been knocked off so much that even the good stuff is lookin tired, 2 many eyeprints from being overshown.
ReplyDeleteI agree the cute flatness thing...
ReplyDeleteTakano was(is)part of Takashi Murakami's drones.
That man is a marketing genus.
I'm crazy about his work its nice eye candy, but man hes really smart.
Yoshitomo Nara's work is a lot more interesting in that it deconstructs the whole cute thing.
Trevor Brown is a british artist/illustrator living in Tokyo whos work is realy on the edge.
If you have issues with erotic art who's cotent is pushing many buttons, you might be offended by his work.
His wife(www.hippiecoco.net)makes cute one off teddy bears.
Looks Dargeresque, more finesse in the drawing and color than in Little Boy and the show at Boesky last year. But I wish the world were more complicated for this artist, seeing all the little space figures seems so...not diverse. I have the same complaint about the British bloke. Is the world really so cute? NO!
ReplyDeleteLooks Dargeresque, more finesse in the drawing and color than in Little Boy and the show at Boesky last year. But I wish the world were more complicated for this artist, seeing all the little space figures seems so...not diverse. I have the same complaint about the British bloke. Is the world really so cute? NO!
ReplyDeletelet me rephrase that:
ReplyDeleteI'm not crazy about his work(Takashi Murakami) its nice eye candy, but man hes really smart.
one thing that Japanese never are is awkward. She has brought a lot of awkwardness into this painting, so things are changing? or just a pastiche of western influence?
ReplyDeleteStrage japanamation. I want to know how you all feel about this artist, Chris Scarborough. He uses japanamation as a starting point for what he does. He has started generating a lot of attention as of late.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scarboy.net/
this whole vein of expression is extremely limited. the only interest I can see in this style is from a sociological vantage point of the genre, besides that you just have to like "that extremely specific way" of drawing everything.
ReplyDeleteMurakami is bad for contemporary Japanese art
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteChris Scarborough:
ReplyDeleteSome of his work is kind of creepy.
Its trying to hard to be kitsch.
The more realistic work is much better at the bottom of his thumbnail page.
Still its also illustrative which is not bad, although I can tell he went to Savannah College of Art and Design and sure enough he did.
Art versions of Japanimation, hentai and cartoon imagery in general have something in common. They are less interesting than the originals and quickly seem dated.
ReplyDeleteTwo words: Wicked City
Ha!
ReplyDeletesome of the people who are related to this vein that I like:
ReplyDeleteTim Lokiec at LFL
Yayoi Deki at ATM, though the stuff atm has isnt that good
I nominate Yayoi Kusama as the best contemporary Japanese artist. opinions?
i like makoto aida.
ReplyDeleteKusama!
ReplyDeleteanother vote for aida
ReplyDeleteaida does a lot of different stuff, no single medium or subject - except maybe picking at society.
ReplyDeletethis thread reads as a very western pov.
ReplyDeleteI like Aida except it seems like he has two totally different bodies of work. Disturbing erotic work and the political work about war or the homeless or whatever issue he is examining. If the two things came together it would be amazing. Erotic horror or rough justice.
ReplyDeleteit does come together. mutant hanako. and that disturbing work i think is probably more political than erotic.
ReplyDeleteand he does more - painting, photos, performance type stuff, installation.
It seems like his work is always about power relations in some way but I still think the two types of work are seperate. It seems like merging the two (the political and the erotic) is something art could do in a way that japanimation or hentai does not do as consciously. Or maybe it does? It's true this is all from a Western point of view.
ReplyDeletepolitical + erotic
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteif this audience had an "eastern pov" would that make this painting any better?
ReplyDeleteNo-where that is 10 kinds of wrong I can't spell. I still think art could do it better if we weren't all busy making the same show 5 times and selling it at art fairs.
ReplyDeletewhats wrong?,
ReplyDeletei just think (and am only talking from slightly over hearing japanese friends) that the notion of the "bizarre hentai metaphor thing" is a pretty surfacy read. - did anyone see little boy?
the image you posted. disturbing in art is often good.
ReplyDeletei thought it refered towards the duel nature of the message within the "little boy" title while acknowledging the primal fetishitsic nature behind such power and the erotic.
ReplyDeleteI've read a little about the way some critics connect Hiroshima and Nagasacki and sexual violation in Japanimation. What do other people think?
ReplyDeleteI 've seen a lot of cutesy art which is less hard than some of the comic/animation imagery.
I buy it, also with strains of it coinciding with feelings of being neutered after the war, among countless other things.
ReplyDeletehowever a lot of this stuff has definite precedence in their art
yoshitoshi has a lot of over the top rape/necrophilia stuff.
even Hokusai did the erotic monster thing.
PERSISTENCE OF A GENETIC SCAR
ReplyDeleteJapanese Anime, Manga, and Otaku Culture Fill an Open National Wound
Can't help thinking... Art Bell meets Darger.
ReplyDeletevery Darger....
ReplyDeleteWhat's the central white top figure?
ok so it's a sex-hat... in a science fiction story.
ReplyDeletePersonal or cultural symbolism?!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHaving trouble reading your point wade. I don't know
ReplyDeleteShinto. Whereas 'repression' via religion, the market,
a culture or any other social construct is generally
seen as a Freudian definition and thereby Western thru
extension, my feeling is that it prob existed before Freud
and is thus more global.
Given that manga and surrounding histories include
Disney (notably Fantasia) as part of it's list of
influences, it's difficult to draw a hard line between
eastern and western. Like Voodoo and Christianity,
where does one start and the other begin? Cultural
symbolism or global symbolism? How about Fusion
Symbolism? A California roll played backwards?
Fetishes. These are fetishes, by virture of being art
in this particular market. By virture of being
presented in galleries and on this blog. Of course that
is again, a Freudian viewpoint, yada yada....
And so what's the alternate pov? The pov that excises
the western from said fusion -- or perhaps fusion is
part of Shinto? dunnno. Sex, monsters, and sex-monsters:
I'm interested in reading a 'reading' that can
circumvent Freud or American War (wasn't Fantasia was
recognized as a war film by the time Japan got to it?)
while having kick-ass sex and monsters.
Kick-Ass Sex and Monsters!
Mouth! At Last! What are you wearing?
ReplyDeleteSpaghetti straps? Yeah I'm bored too!
Cmon, man, I've been hittin refresh over and over and over
ReplyDeleteagain, and still no sign of your octapussy! Aaaiiiit! I'm going to sleep.
sublimated desire, fear and Art as the fetish object is never boring for me, however does this piece really turn me on , well no - would it have 13 years ago, - for sure. i think this style being knocked off from everything from advertising to second rate american "in the style" of cartoons makes it hard to swallow circa 2006, perhaps as the "trend " dies down the cream will rise.
ReplyDeleteno-where-man, have you been to Japan?
ReplyDeletenope not my thing. but between the animators and djs it has been all around for the last 13 yrs. (before it broke into the mainstream) it was what i was watching when not painting fruit.. for beter or worse.
ReplyDeletetakano is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt's true Wade: reading this sort of tortured and repressed tragic subtext is very Freudian. People often fall back on Freudian and Lacanian pschychoanalysis without thinking much about the very specific culture which produced Freud.
ReplyDeleteWhat would Jessica Benjamin make of Japanimation?
There are a lot of "interpenetrating bisexual subjects"
dude,
ReplyDeletesimething about this blog that brings out the modern language asociation (MLA) in me.
I don't buy the whole "the bomb infantilized a large sector of the japanese psyche" dealio. THat in itself seems infantilizing.
I don't claim to understand the obsession with cuteness - other than scale, because Japan is a small country and space is at a premium. Thats why their technology is so tiney, not like my 1970's solid state Technics receiver. Thats more my thing.
Japanese design has been "revere engineered" for quite some time, most recently by broadcast and web designers - my point being whats the dealio yo?
Sign me,
Blue Steel (I got mine, you got yours, lets make lots of money)
I have to say my wife is Japanese and we have talked about this a fair amount.
ReplyDeleteThat article was interesting but kind of off base. The flatness thing is part of their art history, just look at ukiyo-e prints and you can see the the same esthetic.
The modern cute thing is all from anime. Its just part of the escaping from the rigid culture that they are brought up in.
Kind of off the subject, but if anyone goes to Japan and visits Hiroshima you have got to go to one of the pancake places, its cheap amazing eats, and they cook it on this grill about 3 inches from you. you can eat it off the grill! But the give you a plate.
i feel it was on base as any over arching curitoral statment can ever be.. it was at the Japan society so someone must of been into it, but hey they also release DR9 there first, just got an invite to this group, - i assume from thread - looks good if anyone is into anime sorry if this is creating an anime oxbow the work of Takano goes beyond this for me... if you like it you may want to check out "After the Reality" we enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteJuly 06 — August 12, 2006
76 Grand St. & 18 Wooster St.
japanese weird?
ReplyDeletethe west has been fascinated with japanese and eastern cultures for quite some time.. I guess we like weird things.
How does everybody feel about Japanese automobiles?
those cheap bastards, are cheapening our vehicles..am i right am i right?
we make even crappier clones..
poppy are you trying to be funny?
ReplyDeleteit does not have the pancakes! you have to go their for the pancakes.
ReplyDeleteOf course the museum will most likely ruin your day, so eat before or a few days after.
Also the ruins with all the origami swans is very beautiful.
is this blog for serious painters only?
ReplyDeleteif it is i'm in the wrong place,
i don't know anything about cars..
i'm a serious painter just not a "serious" painter.
to be serious though i don't think japanese are weird people or place even.
Miss Universe 1st runner up was from Japan - she should have won.. Let's change the topic to this instead.. Like LoudMouth said, topic is boring, put up some good paintings please, stop trying to get us to discuss the issues surrounding paintings that aren't worth discussion- like the lame watercolour at the top!
Talk about painting, Poppy...go right ahead. Tell us why this painting is lame...be specific...what led you to this conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI'll say one or two things -
ReplyDeleteyou could get me to like almost anything if it is aesthetically pleasing.. i can be a sucker for that.. looking at it minus the subject matter and it is a haphazard smearing of translucent washes. why is this not an issue for anyone? Esp the piece of dirt below, bad teenage poetry at its worst. Nobody needs conceptual/historical background information on utter shit, period.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletekalm james
ReplyDeletefirst the pancake place is for locals and my wifes family comes form Hiroshima. You don't see tourist in these places because they don't know about them. Don't insult people when you don't know what your talking about.
Second I have relitives in Japan and have been here many times so my experience is not that of a tourist.
You can be western and embrase eastern culture, just like people form asia can embrace our western culture.
Yes its foreign to us but I feel like a foreigner in Kentucky as I'm not from the south.
Poppy your right this artists work is pretty bad, and she got to her exulted position because of Takashi Murakami who she worked for.
ReplyDeletepoppy... if we were "serious" painters, would we have time to blog?
ReplyDeleteand discussing "bad" painting is as valid as discussing "good" painting? interesting points come out of both aspects.
here i am not painting again,..
ReplyDeletei just wanted to hear that it sucked..
and i want to see something good..
pretty please?
i saw a lot of really personal work in high school. Less so in undergrad. By grad school the personal work had metamorphosed into a butterfly, flying into the fan of time, hubris unchained, free of the glass, a three headed homunculous of infinite sublimation, or the opposite, a thri-coloned shit machine, a fatted calf pregnant with an infinitude of clones. I could go on, ad nauseum.
ReplyDeleteonly rock n' roll can free me
ReplyDeleteSo much art is like a gang bang between Henry Darger, Hans Christian Andersen and Hello Kitty. But less sexy.
ReplyDeletepersonal works inevitably need to speak a language...The works are inevitably judged on the quality of language not in how personal.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite art gang bang....hmmm?
ReplyDeletethe hockney on this site "friends" is in the smithsonian this month good article. "he likes to paint people he knows"
ReplyDeletemaybe that is what Art is the never ending process of trying to know.
ReplyDeleteis your alias, if i may call you wakeup, a nod to this?
ReplyDeleteGurdjieff dude, we all want to know.
ReplyDelete"Gurdjieff said that people live their lives in a form of waking sleep, and that higher levels of consciousness are possible. In developing the inner possibility of becoming more aware of ourselves in our daily lives, one is shown a fresh way of living which can enrich our experience of life, and our feeling of ourselves alive. 'Know thyself' takes on a more organic meaning rather than an intellectual pursuit. "
I dunno. What is I? I think therefore I am. Ghost in the machine.
Just say judge judy. She's great, She knows whats really going on, even when it isnt.
Like when are digi-beta tapes going away like a bad dream? Is it real or is it Memorex?
definitely a journey to find yourself whether you like it or not!......... but will you like what you see?
ReplyDeletefunny zip !! judge judy..... will she like my painting?
ReplyDeletereel? isnt that passee? you step up or u don't.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteoops sorry about the above removed -
ReplyDeleteis this a purging place for angry painters - or could the posters view it up enthusiasm with there heros?
of course people reach out side of there circle of knowleadge for hero w0rship.
if the basic questions were answered no one would ask them.
i don't know who is angry, hard to tell
ReplyDeletestrong opinions here since art started off as a trade and then became an opinion/elevated intellectual sport how many years ago? 500? more?.. so we all play along and it is fun for me...
it's fun for me too .. although that would quickly change if it was taken away from me!
ReplyDeleteMr W Up.... huge pressure if you live off it? Do you make for the market consciously?
Alright, after 2 days of ruminating on this jpeg, I
ReplyDeletefinally conclude that I think this picture is crap. But Z's video
did help shed some light upon it -- further illuminating
it's crappiness. At least darger knew how to make a
sensitive line. Who knows. Perhaps Line is enculturated.
Though I bet that such enculturation isnt based upon the
geographic nor ethnographic -- rather the slackergraphic.
And I'm not entirely against the 1-width ball point pen
type of aesthetic. It's just that the line here is crap.
Nice inventive cat crawling within the right-most head.
At first I hated the awkwardness of the cape-wing and
now it's my favorite part. Erase the rightmost figure,
yes the one with the cat, and it'll become a more mature,
less 'ham-fisted' composition. Like a meeting between
an urgent Darger and the strangely monastically reserved
Puvis de Chavannes.
Aww but see, all I think of now, when I see this jpeg,
is the video -- so my thoughts are suspect. Production
value versus artistic value. Fuck it. This one doesn't
have the weird nipple-sucking. I conclude this is crap.
kalm james
ReplyDeletethat's true, I am viewing the Japan through my western lense. So your are right I was viewing my time there through my own cultural bagage.
I was just responding to you thinking my experience was just as a tourist. We all jump to conclusions to fast.
For what its worth the pancakes are nothing like we have here, the are savory,
with vegtables, meat, or shrimp in them and they are big.
There is Tokyo style, and Hiroshima style
for anyone intrested.
For me the best way into any culture is through food and drink. Sit down with someone for a good meal with some good wine, beer or sake and you can find a lot of comommon ground.
(they are called okonomiyaki. they are about as much like a pancake as they are a pizza. they are neither.)
ReplyDeleteHokusai studied European engravings that were used as wrapping paper for goods smuggled into Japan by the Dutch. He learned about and adopted ideas of shading, coloring, realism, and landscape perspective - and lots of other stuff like depictions of people in nature, the commoner, etc. Later of course all of that re-invigorated Japanese art was used to wrap Japanese goods for the Europeans and studied by artists like Van Gogh.
Sesshu, an earlier *awesome* Japanese artist, studied intensively in China.
well all my Japaanese friends call them pancake(okonomiyaki)and they are kind of like that, or more like a crepes so I wont argue with you. I have been there(Japan) and that's what there like. Its a batter, water and eggs, with cabbage, chicken, shrimp or whatever you want cooked on a grill. With a brown sauce or mayo.
ReplyDeleteKJ you're so right about how we view things through our background....
ReplyDeleteHow much of the way we interpret a painting [like this one] is a reflection of us , rather than the artist....
Maybe you don't need to switch head-set.... just be aware of where you're coming from... and have the educated ability to separate the experience. [I suspect it's easier said than done]
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