At New York’s Japan society, the exhibition ‘bye bye kitty!!!: between heaven and hell in contemporary japanese art’ features the works of sixteen artists engaging in critical dialogue with tradition and contemporary culture.
Detail of makoto aida’s ‘harakiri school girls’ (2002), part of the ‘bye bye kitty!!!’ exhibition at new york’s japan society image © makoto aida, courtesy of mizuma art gallery
Many of the works sample from traditional aesthetics: a large triptych by hisashi tenmyouya treats the subject of battle in imagery characteristic of traditional depictions, but illustrates the feral brutality of war rather than the expected lofty religious imagery. likewise, yamaguchi akira’s ‘Narita international airport’ adopts the perspective of seventeenth century illustrations of kyoto, but with airplanes circling the skies and the classic misty clouds cast in a yellow suggestive of pollution. Other works include the debut of Kohei Nawa’s ‘pixcell-deer #24’, a taxidermized deer whose skin has been covered with different sized plastic beads; large-scale paperwork installations by Tomoko Shioyasu and Haruka Kojin; and Chiharu Shiota’s ‘dialogue with absence’, which links a painted wedding dress, pumps, tubing, and red-dyed water.
Yamaguchi akira’s ‘narita international airport’ (2005)
Chiharu Shiota’s ‘dialogue with absence’ (2010) on exhibition in paris image courtesy of galerie christophe gaillard
Bye Bye Kitty!!!
Japan Society, New York, USA
March 18th – June 12th, 2011
SOURCE
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