ART in TAKAMATSU
2012年10月29日
Sometime in 2004 I took a trip to the Mori Tower gallery in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo to see the Kusamatrix Exhibition, which featured, among others, the art of Kusama Yayoi. She turned up in her permanent red wig and wheelchair to the show.
Now a living legend, fabulously wealthy and fulltime resident (by choice) at a mental hospital in Tokyo. ‘The dot lady’ as I’ve always thought of her, is a woman living on the very edge of reality/insanity and we’re all the richer for it. Perhaps it’s from this place on the precipice of the know and the unknown & staring into the great singularity that she’s capable of seeing & painting the world she describes;
“Red, green and yellow polka dots can be the circles representing the earth, the sun, or the moon. Their shapes and what they signify do not really matter. I paint polka dots on the bodies of people, and with those polka dots, the people will self-obliterate and return to the nature of the universe.
An excerpt from “Infinity Nets”, Kusama Yayoi Autobiography
Well, she’s in town in the form of window-dressings for one of Takamatsu’s largest and best known department stores right in the heart of town. More to the point, she’s accepted design commissions from the swank French bag makers, Louis Vuitton.
Art-as-industry, this must be a lucrative deal for both indeed. Kusama’s art fetches millions for single paintings and with the help of numerous assistants that all big-time artists utilize, she really cranks this stuff out.
What I liked was the use of the ‘light-box’ technique to photo her bags etc. The Canadian artist Jeff Wall is very skillful with this and he has produced some stunning stuff such as this ‘a sudden gust of wind (after Hokusai) based on one of Hokusai’s Edo era woodblock prints.
http://www.artfund.org/what-we-do/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/5504/enlarged/1/a-sudden-gust-of-wind-after-hokusai
Wall uses the same technique of fluorescent lights behind photos printed on large sheets of plastic & there is such a wonderful pull into the visual area with this. Don’t trust me, go take a look, please ..
I took my wife to Osaka before spring to see her solo show at the Osaka Art Gallery and broke protocol by taking a few quick snaps, which are posted here.
I’ve never really understood if Yayoi is just nuts, a shrewd marketing force, or both? Perhaps it really doesn’t matter.
Anyway, please take a look at this when you’re in Takamatsu as it really is a good show and what’s more it’s free.
I’ll be back with more about Takamatsu and art in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep smiling, safe and warm …
タグ ：Osaka
"Pat has lived in Takamatsu continuously since arriving here on a one year study and leave 1981. Originally from Tasmania, Australia, he was involved in education at a variety of levels including as a specialist teacher for children with learning difficulties, and at senior high schools throughout the state. Pat is employed full-time by the i-pal Kagawa International Exchange as a co-oridintaor for international relations amongst other duties including traveling to schools and giving talks in Japanese to kids about Australia. He has been involved with youth education exchanges between Japan and Australia for many years.
Pat has been many things in his colorful life including a seaman, helmsman, welder, carpenter, traffic warden, scholarship/studentship winner at the university of Tasmania, staff at the Australian Embassy in London to name but a few. Pat has far too many hobbies which include tennis, playing jazz flutes and saxes, riding bicycles with the Takamatsu Cycling Club all of which his long-suffering family tolerate. Recently he's become interested in painting again. His wife wishes he would put more time in to helping around the house and the garden which he artfully avoids ..."
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Posted by pat at 19:59
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Thanks for the info on this, Pat. I will definitely check it out. And, I think your photography of this is well done, too. You captured these items very well. And the background information is nice to read. Interesting story here. Keep up the good work.
Posted by R.T. at 2012年10月30日 00:05
