佐藤允インタビュー：「求愛 / Q１」KOSAKU KANECHIKA ギャラリー展示会

AS-Pa-1 

佐藤允 Ataru Sato

求愛
2017
Acrylic, ink on canvas
22.2 x 27.3 cm 

Photo by Keizo Kioku
© Ataru Sato, Courtesy of KOSAKU KANECHIKA

今月よりニューヨークのカルチャー雑誌OFFICE MAGAZINEのライターとして、日本のアートを紹介します。記念すべき第一弾は、KOSAKU KANECHIKAで今月24日まで展示会を開催中の佐藤允さんへのインタビューです。英語版は、OFFICE MAGAZINEに掲載されています。（English version is available at Office Magaizne).


あたるさんの作品に私が心を惹かれるのは、理性的なものより、もっと直感的に肉体で感じられるものだけをアートにしているところ点です。感じるものを直ぐに表現しようとするその瞬発力が、あたるさんの才能のように感じます。


絵を描いていて、これはどういう意味の絵なのかと人に訪ねられた時、僕はとても困ってしまいます。その場合、僕がどんなことを話してもみんなは納得してしまうからです。
もし絵自体に意識や感情があった場合に、絵はベラベラと適当な言葉で絵の装飾をしている僕をじゃまだと思うでしょう。
もしも言葉でその絵のすべてを語ることが出来たとしても、それが素晴らしい事だとは思えません。

過去にこういうことがありました。
身の回りの色々な出来事に心も狭くなり、自分だけが苦しいと思いこんでしまって、みんな死んでしまえと思いながら長期間かけて描いた絵があり、その絵について人に訪ねられても、言葉にすることに抵抗がありました。するとある人が『この絵には愛がある』と僕に言いました。
僕はその後、とても混乱してしまいました。


僕は絵を描いているけれど描いてしまえば、僕は絵にとって不必要な存在なのでは？と考えることがあります。
僕にとっても、描いてしまえば不必要になり捨ててしまう絵が沢山あります。
僕に大切なのは絵を描く行為そのもので、それを人にどう受け止めてもらっても構わないと今では思っています。

生きる上で困難な事は、思いを吐き出す相手や方法が見つからない事で、僕は不健全な事に悩むその都度に絵を使ってその思いを吐き出すことでどうにか健全に生きられるような気がしています。

目については、実はその質問があるまで考えたことがありませんでした。今回の展覧会場に立つと３６０度から人に見つめられているように
絵が展示されていて、目や視線というものが展示の重要な要素になっていることにも気がつきました。
日本には『空気を読む』という言葉があります。日本人は自分から主体的に何かを提示するというよりも、その場の状況や起こった事、人の目に反応して動くという傾向があるように思います。僕もその中の一人で、子供の頃から人の目を気にする環境にありました。両親は共に聴覚障害者で、世間は僕達を色々な目で見た。僕もその目に合わせて生きた。よくよく考えれば人の目には精神や人生を左右するすごい力があるのかもしれません。



４つの基本的な色を巧みに使っているのが特徴ですが、それらの色（黒、赤、青、白）に特別な思いはありますか？日本の作家では田名網敬一を敬愛すると伺いましたが、海外の作家で特に影響を受けた人はいますか？私は、フランシス・ベーコンのような理不尽で背徳的な美をあたるさんの作品から感じられます。


油絵を始めようと思った時、恥ずかしながら僕には高価な絵の具を用意するお金がなく、はじめに購入した絵の具は、赤、青、黒、白の四色だけでした。所持する色数が増えた今でも、赤青白黒の同系色ばかりに惹かれるのはなぜなのかよくわかりませんが、子供の頃から好きで見ていた人体図や医学図は、部位や構造をわかりやすくするために血管や器官が実際の色と違う赤や青で塗られていました。その影響もあるのかもしれません。
ベーコンは好きな作家ですが、余り意識したことがありませんでした。似ている点と言えば、スタジオの床に絵や資料が散らばっていてとても汚いという点だと思います。
学生の頃ロバートクラムのドキュメンタリーを見て、とても感動しました。今でも時々彼や彼の母、弟や息子の事をよく思い出します。


幼い頃から絵を表現するのではなくて、ただ吐き出していたと言っていましたが、褒めてくれる人が少ない中で、隠れるように作品を作り続けることは辛かったのではないでしょうか？高校生の時に、自分の絵を褒めてくれる先輩に出会えたことが絵を描くことに自信を持てたように思います。今は、幼い頃に持っていた不安には解放されていますか？

僕の両親は僕が絵を描くことをとても嫌がっていました。どこで絵を描いても、誰に絵を見られても、気持ち悪いね。としか言われず、友人も少なく勉強も運動も出来ず取り柄もない。中学生になっても家の隅でこっそり絵を描いたり、人形遊びをしている僕を父親は河原に連れ出しました。そして地面に真っ直ぐ線を引き、この上を真っ直ぐ歩けるか？と僕に聞きました。
僕はとてもそれが悲しくて、大人になるまで、両親とどこかに出かける度に、棄てられるのではないかという不安がありました。
高校生の頃、女の子とばかり話している気持ち悪い僕の絵を誉めてくれたのは一つ上のある先輩で、僕がテスト用紙の裏に描いた絵を偶然に見つけ、お前の絵が欲しいからもっと描いてくれと言われました。このことは、僕にとってとても大きな出来事でした。
今でも描いていて、僕の描く絵が大多数の人に認められる絵だとは思えません。けれど、どこかにその絵を理解してくれる人がいるかもしれないという希望が、僕が絵を発表する理由になっています。
疎外感は常に感じています。


高校まではほとんど公に絵を描いていることを見せなかったありますが、晴れて京都の美術大学に入学した後は、どんな学生でしたか？多くのクラスメートと自分の作品を共有する機会に恵まれたと思いますか？


僕の入学した大学には金銭的に余裕がある家庭の生徒が多く、借金を膨らませて通っている僕とは精神的に大きな違いがありました。
クラスメイトとは仲良く過ごしていましたが、どことなく距離を感じていたし、現在、大学の同級生の誰とも交流はありません。
自分で選んだ進学なので、どんなに気に食わない先生の課題や意見にも、服従するのが僕のルールでした。とにかく、恥ずかしいくらい必死な学生時代だったように思います。
同年代の人の作品を観たり受け入れられるようになったのはつい最近のことです。クラスメイトの作品を冷静に観る余裕はありませんでした。


大学を卒業されてから制作された作品をギャラリーのサイトで見せていただきますと、インクや鉛筆を使った作品を中心に制作されていますが、最近になりペインティングを多く制作されていると伺います。その転換のきっかけとなったのはなんでしょうか？　ドローイングにないペインティングの魅力はなにでしょうか？


ペインテイングを始めたきっかけは、ミヒャエルボレマンスが３０歳からペインテイングを始めたと何かの本で読んだからです。僕はその時２９歳で、下らない理由ですが、始めるなら今だなと思いました。
ドローイングとペインテイングの違いについてですが、ドローイングは自分自身の内側に内側に潜っていくような感覚で制作していますが、ペインテイングは外側から客観的に自分を見ている感覚で描いています。今回はドローイングとペインテイングの両方を展示していますが、自分自身を表すときにそれぞれがあることは大切な事でした。



学生時代に脊髄の病気になってしまい「腐敗」をテーマに作品作りをしたと伺いました。あたるさんの作品には、とても切羽詰まった、生きることがもどかしくなるような危機感のようなものを感じます。死についてどのようにお考えですか？生きること・死ぬことは制作する際に意識していますか？


死ぬことは常に意識しています。
現在私たちは、少なくとも私は、死を恐れながら、生きることにも恐れている。
日本ではセックスに興味が無い若者が増加しているという現象が起きていて、フロイトの説いたエロスとタナトスの関係で言えば、エロスが減少しタナトスが増大しているという状況だと言えます。
僕もマスターベーションは好きですが、セックスに拒否反応が起きつつあります。性的なものを僕が描いてもエロティックに見えないのは、増大したタナトスの側から偏ったエロスを眺めているからであって、死の側から生を眺めている状態であるとも言えます。



本展のタイトルである「Q1」は、求愛でもあり、問うことを意味しています。私が作品を拝見させていただくと、自分の心の内を表す作品で、強烈に理解してもらいたいという叫びにも似た要求を感じます。かなり、精神的にきつい時期がありながら制作に臨んだのではないでしょうか？

人との出会いや繋がり方がインターネットによって大きく変わりました。電波や液晶画面、つまり、匂いのない、コミュニケーションでも人との繋がりを感じることができ、それで満足できる状況になりつつあります。
僕はやはり生身の人間に触れたいと思います。けれど様々な矛盾を抱えていて、人と向き合うことは簡単な事ではなくなっている。
強く求めながら、近づくことが出来ない。求められながら、受け入れられない。

僕は制作期間になると、恋人やギャラリーのオーナー以外に顔を人と合わせることがありません。
生活というものも捨てて、ただ絵を描く毎日です。
それでも気が狂わないのは、絵を描き続けられるのは、人の事を思い続けているからです。
芸術はやはり、人が、人のために作り出したものだと思います。

 

AS-Pa-17-016

佐藤允 Ataru Sato

Hilltop Hotel

2017

Acrylic, ink, oil on canvas

33.3 x 24.2 cm 

Photo by Kenji Takahashi 

© Ataru Sato, Courtesy of KOSAKU KANECHIKA

AS-Pa-17-004
佐藤允 Ataru Sato
MAN
2017
59.5 x 42.0 cm

Photo by Kenji Takahashi 
© Ataru Sato, Courtesy of KOSAKU KANECHIKA

  

AS-Pa-17-022

佐藤允 Ataru Sato

怒り

2017

Acrylic, ink, lacquer, papercollage on canvas

Photo by Kenji Takahashi 

© Ataru Sato, Courtesy of KOSAKU KANECHIKA

展覧会概要

展覧会名
佐藤允「求愛 / Q１」

展覧会会期
2017年5月20日（土） - 6月24日（土）
5月20日（土）18:00 - 20:00　オープニングレセプション

開廊時間
11:00 - 18:00（火・水・木・土）
11:00 - 20:00（金）
日・月・祝は休廊

会場
KOSAKU KANECHIKA
〒140-0002
東京都品川区東品川1-33-10
TERRADA Art Complex 5F
03-6712-3346
kosakukanechika.com

入場無料

---

佐藤允

1986年千葉県生まれ、現在は東京を拠点に制作しています。2009年に京都造形大学芸術学部情報デザイン学科先端アートコースを卒業。2007年にニューヨークのメアー・ギャラリーで、2011年と2015年にギャラリー小柳で個展を開催。主なグループ展に「第8回光州ビエンナーレ」（2010）、「ヨコハマトリエンナーレ2011: OUR MAGIC HOUR－世界はどこまで知ることができるか？―」（2011）、「Inside」（パレ・ド・トーキョー、2014）などがあります。作品は高橋コレクション、ルイ・ヴィトン・マルティエにパブリックコレクションとして収蔵されています。

Emerging Japanese Artist File 1: Kenta Cobayashi

Kenta Cobayashi (b. Kawasaki, Kanagawa-Prefecture, Japan, 1992, male)

Cobayashi was awarded the Bachelor of Fine Arts at Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo in 2015.  He has organized MMGGZZNN, a project to hand-publish mega-sized zines in collaboration with his international artist friends.  He has shown his work at many group exhibitions in Japan and Europe, including: 'The Devil May Care'（Noorderlicht Photogalle, The Netherlands, 2015), 'hyper-materiality on photo' (G/P gallery Shinonome, Tokyo, 2015), ‘New Japanese Photography (DOOMED GALLERY, London, 2015) etc.  

Cobayashi will have his first solo exhibition at G/P Gallery from February 27 to March 27, 2016 (curated by Shigeo Goto).  He is also working on an upcoming publication by NEWFAVE, after self-publishing a zine with Daisuke Yokota last year, and self-publishing two books in 2014.  His new book will include pictures taken at a shared studio (PALAST) he runs in Tokyo, where he has lived and worked with his artist friends since January 2015.

Cobayashi is highly inspired by Douglas Adams’s “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”.  He acknowledges the fact that we live in the world where everything arises from chaos, and he hopes that his work reflects the current state of society you would perceive if you could use a time machine and visit.

Kenta has collaborated with Daisuke Yokota, NORIKONAKAZATO (fashion designer) and Yuki Takada (programmer) for his exhibitions, and plans to work with the other artists and creators in the future.

http://kentacobayashi.com/

File 8: "Kamagasaki" by Seiryu Inoue, 1985, reviewed by Natsuko Oda

“Kamagasaki”, an ambitious photographic project that Seiryu Inoue embarked when he was only in his twenties, took him five years to complete.  The resulting book, originally published in 1985, was the only book of Inoue’s photography published during his lifetime.

The part of Osaka City known as Kamagasaki has a negative image for most Japanese because unemployed people gather from all over in Japan and reside in this area.  Kamagasaki has been either avoided as an object of dread or sought out as an object of curiosity for a long time.  Although it has improved slightly over the years, poverty and thus discrimination against Kamagasaki still exist in Japan.

The book, which revolves around the riot that happened in Kamagasaki in 1960, is comprised of three parts: the first part, “Ningen Hyakkei” (A Hundred Views of Humans), show the lives of the residents before the riot; the second part, “Arashi no Yume” (Dream of Storm), the four days of the riot; and the last part, “Zekkyou no Ato” (After Screaming), the reconstruction after the riot.

Inoue and Shinichi Tsukasa, a labor union activist in Kamagasaki, wrote the postscript for the book, and Osamu Higashibuchi, a poet based in Kamagasaki, inserted fourteen verses throughout the book and provided Inoue's project with lyrical effects. 
The book's first part, "Ningen Hyakkei", was originally exhibited in his solo show, "Ningen Hyakkei Kamagasaki" at Gekkou Gallery, Tokyo in 1960.  Unfortunately, his exhibition was not featured in any of the professional photo magazines.  But after a riot actually occurred in the next year, his work finally received a significant amount of attention  He also received two prestigious prizes, The Fifth Japan Photo Critics Association New Face Award and Camera Art New Face Award in 1961.

Social Documentary was one of the most popular subjects in Japan in the 1950s and 60s.  Ken Domon’s “Chikuhou no Kodomotachi” (Children in Chikuhou Prefecture), published in 1960, left a strong impact among Japanese photo community, so Inoue could more comfortably take the themes of poverty and unemployment for his project.  “Kamagasaki" was not merely objective documentary, but it explored Inoue’s personal concerns about social contradictions, and his strong and deep perspective on human beings.

Most of the photos were taken secretly, or taken without looking at the viewfinder, in order to avoid any possible conflict with Kamagasaki residents. The photos are therefore out of focus, and the compositions are often not fixed, although they successfully deliver the emotions of residents living in tough situations. The captured images are sensational; a woman, maybe a sex worker, is loitering on the street. A man, who maybe relieved himself, is exposing his back hip on the side of the road. A thin, malnourished girl has vacant eyes. Numerous hands of unemployed people looking for work float across the pages.

Through these straightforward and cruel close-up shots, we experience the actual events as they were. We feel the dust and smell the odors in the streets.

Inoue stated in the postscript: “What I thought about in taking the photos while living at a doya (cheap and neglected hotel for unemployed people) was that they made me realize that I liked myself so much, enough to make me cry, and that I hated myself so much, enough to make me want to die.” Inoue was looking at human weakness and wretchedness in an extreme situation while seeing himself in those he photographed, and he felt deep despair. The photographs are living documents about the relationships on the street, and Inoue wanted to affirm through them the human condition he found in Kamagasaki.

Natsuko Oda: photobook writer, currently based in Hiroshima, Japan, specializes in Japanese photobooks in the 60s-70s, earned the Master of Arts in Photography and certificate of Museum of Art Counsil from Nihon University in 2000.  Master thesis on Diane Arbus.

Book Info:

Title: Kamagasaki
Artist: Seiryu Inoue
Design: Haruo Shimonaga
Text: Seiryu Inoue, Shinichi Tsukasa, Osamu Higashibuchi
Publisher: Ginga Shobou
Date: 1985
Edition: 500
Size: 7.87×11.81 inches　
Binding: hardcover
Page: 129 images in 180 pages
　　
Artist Info:

Seiryu Inoue

Japanese, b. 1931- d. 1988

Born in Kouchi prefecture to a farm family, Inoue lost his left index finger and the middle finger of his dominant hand while cutting fodder when he was six years old. When he was in junior high school, he had to support his family as the eldest son because his father joined the military. At the age of fourteen, his mother died before his father came back. After his father’s remarriage, Inoue ran away from home because of a feud with his parents. In 1951, at the age of nineteen, his uncle introduced him to Takeji Iwamiya, a renowned photographer in Osaka because he was worried about his emotionally distressed nephew.  Inoue became Iwamiya's apprentice.  Inoue later went back to his hometown because of pleurisy,  although he never go back home and lived alone in a cave for a year. He then returned to Osaka and began working at Iwamiya Photos, a commercial photography studio.

In 1958, when he was twenty-seven years old, Inoue happened to visit Kamagasaki, which immediately attracted him, and he began to take reportage photos.  He moved to Kamagasaki and lived in a doya where unemployed people resided. He wore shabby clothes like the others, and drank and communicated with them. He did not take a single photo for a year since he wanted to lower the residents’ defenses.

Two years later, in May 1960, Inoue mounted his first exhibition, “Ningenhyakkei Kamagasaki,” at Gekkou Gallery in Tokyo. The following year he won two prestigious prizes for his exhibition: The Fifth Japan Photo Critics Association New Face Award and Camera Art New Face Award. In August of the same year, a huge riot occurred in Kamagasaki. More than ten thousand people fought with the police for four days.  Inoue got into the center of the arson, rock-throwing and vandalism. He wrapped a towel, which had a hole for the camera lens, around a compact camera with his hand and pretended to throw rocks while he took pictures. After the situation calmed, Inoue joined a Kamagasaki labor union as an official  photographer and covered news in the town.

Beside his Kamagasaki project, Inoue made social documentary of Koreans people who lived in Japan (after his death, published as “Hokkikou”(Return to the North) in 1994), but he remained connected to Kamagasaki for life by joining a literary circle, “Hadaka no Kai” (Naked Club) where people talk about Kamagasaki, and cooperated with television documentary programs.

Since 1976, Inoue had taught a photography course at Osaka University of Arts, and was engaged in the education of young photographers such as Kou Inose and Gen Yamaguchi.  In 1986, he began to photograph traditional life and the natural features of the Amami Islands located in southwestern Japan. He often went to the islands and developed a relationship with their residents, but unfortunately, he died in a drowning accident in the sea while taking photographs. This unfinished series was published as “Amami” with a help from people who were very close to Inoue.

Thanks to Daido Moriyama and Kou Inose, Inoue’s works are now being re-evaluated. Especially, Daido, who was Inoue’s younger apprentice at Iwamiya Photos, greatly admired Inoue so that he reminisced, “I could understand what street photography was only through my relationship with Inoue.”  Osamu Wataya, a fashion art director with Hysteric Glamour, reorganized Inoue’s work, and thanks to Wataya, Inoue’s photography was reborn with modern sensibilities and gains more attention.

Publications:

1985  Kamagasaki, Ginga-shobou
1990  Amami, Soubun-sya
1994  Hokkikou (Return to the North), Remembrance of Seiryu Inoue
2001  Hysteric One Seiryu Inoue, Hysteric Glamour
2003  Irresistible Steps Seiryu Inoue 1956-1988, Soukyuu-sya
2007  Seiryu Inoue/Ichirou Kojima, Rat Hole Gallery
2011  Hito to Ishi (Man and Stone), Zen Foto Gallery
           Kamagasaki Kodomo (Kamagasaki Children), Zen Foto Gallery


Exhibitions:

1960  Ningen Hyakkei Kamagasaki (Hundred Views of Human) Gekkou Gallery, Tokyo
1962  Zekkyou no Ato Kamagasaki (After Screaming Kamagasaki) Osaka city, Airin Hall
1962  ’61 Japan Photo Critics Association Awarded Photographers Exhibition, Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo
1970  Warera Nippon Dochakumin Ten (We are the Indigenous Peoples of Japan Exhibition) Kobe Gallery, Kobe
1971  Takeji Iwamiya Clan Photo Exhibition, Hankyuu Department Gallery, Osaka
1977  Document of Sinking Kunisaki, Ikeda Bank Yamashita Branch, Hyougo
1984  Association of Japanese Photographer 1984 Members in Osaka Exhibition, Fuji Photo Salon, Osaka
1985  Seiryu Inoue Exhibition, Ginga MiniHall・House of Poet Kamagasaki, Osaka
           Seiryu Inoue Photo exhibition Kikoku (Return to Country) Cafe Dorumen, Osaka
           Human Rights Week in Collage Seiryu Inoue Photo exhibition Ningen Sengen (Declaration of Humanity)
1987  Art Information Center Exhibit Hall, Osaka University of Arts
1996 Seiryu Inoue Photo Exhibition Kamagasaki, Konica Plaza Shinjuku and Osaka (Organized by Daido
           Moriyama, Kou Inose and Gen Yamaguchi)
2001  Seiryu Inoue Kamagasaki/Daido Moriyama Cherry Blossom, Place M, Tokyo
2004  1956-1988 Seiryu Inoue Exhibition, Place M, Tokyo
2005  Seiryu Inoue Photo Exhibition, Amagasaki Cultural Center Art Hall

File 7: "Stripper Zukan" by Yoshiichi Hara, 1982, reviewed by Natsuko Oda

Since 1975 Yoshiichi Hara has made more than fifteen hundred photographs of strip-tease artists – and Stripper Zukan is regarded as the starting point of this lifelong project.  In 1981 Hara held his first 'stripper' exhibition at the Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery in Tokyo – featuring the photographs of two hundred strippers created after visiting some three hundred Tokyo-area strip clubs.  The next year he published Stripper Zukan, which comprised of only sixty-five portraits from that series, a book inspired by E.J. Bellocq’s Storyville Portraits (Little Brown & Co, 1970, with images championed – and posthumously printed – by Lee Friedlander).

One immediately sees that each of the book’s portraits is from the clubs’ 'greenrooms'. The greenroom functions as a portal between the stripper’s often-mundane life and the bright stage-lights – a place where a woman metamorphoses into a stripper. Despite the photographer’s presence the women of Stripper Zukan appear relaxed, innocent, and defenseless – alone in their greenroom, protected from the outside world, their true selves before becoming fantasy objects.

Stripper Zukan presents a variety of images of women comfortably napping or lazily smoking – often with too much makeup on a stressed face, but posing proudly with a cheerful smile. There are also various body-types, with too small breasts, fat bellies, skinny arms and legs, and peculiar tattoos – in underwear or showy sequined costumes. In the background may be club notices stuck on the walls or an unmade futon. One discovers the strippers’ fatigue, bravado, sadness, and coquetry throughout Hara’s work. You cannot help but wonder how Hara achieved such free and relaxed expressions – and why he chose to show us these greenroom scenes instead of more typical stage shots.

When Hara was eighteen-years old he traveled to an old spa town in northern Japan and found a strip-club there. A middle-aged stripper, with her fat belly, was standing on the stage – at the side of stage a child (possibly her own child) was roaming about. Hara lost any sexual desire associated with this art because this stripper remained him of his mother – and that the child could be himself. This triggered his introspection and empathy that – under different circumstances – she could have been his mother. 

In short, Hara understood that strippers each have individual lives behind the bright lights – and he recognized that behind their attitude and toughness, these women, who used their own bodies to earn a living, had everyday, often ordinary, lives, needs, and dreams.

In 2013 Hara held an exhibition of vintage prints at Gallery Sekka in Tokyo. As he looked back on his early days he said, “Most of the strippers I met in the past were older than me. And now they are growing older, but I’m sure they still strive to maintain a shadow of how they once looked. I also have aged – I’m already sixty-five years old. I want to show you how the photographs I made and those days haven’t changed. They remain portraits of proud strippers who I love very much”.

Hara’s sincere respect for strippers and their lives can be felt in these words. He praises their spirit and intellect as they try to first be authentic women before dancing as (male fantasy) strippers. In addition he admires their courage as they live hard lives while conscious that they are regarded only as sexual objects to their viewers.

With his sympathy for every stripper he met – and for her life behind the stage, Hara persistently focused on the greenrooms, where strippers show their naked faces as real women. By arranging their portraits in a simple 'zukan'-style (illustrated reference book) Hara presents anonymous identities, but elevates these lives, and their special occupation, into the universality of being any women.

(English translation by Masato Fukuda, Michael Lang, Miwa Susuda)

Natsuko Oda: photobook writer, currently based in Hiroshima, Japan, specializes in Japanese photobooks in the 60s-70s, earned the Master of Arts in Photography and certificate of Museum of Art Counsil from Nihon University in 2000.  Master thesis on Diane Arbus.

BOOK INFO:

Title: Stripper Zukan

Artist: Yoshiichi Hara

Designer: Yoshiichi Hara

Publisher: Del-sha (self-published)

Date: 1982

Size: 31×26 cm

Binding/pages: softcover/128pp

ARTIST INFO: 

Yoshiichi Hara

Japanese, b. 1948

Born in Tokyo, Hara grew up near the theater house where his parents used to take him.  Later the theater became his life long fascination for his work.  Hara was first introduced to camera at his early age and he used to take pictures of his cat, family and any surrounding with a camera that his elder brother won as a prize.  In 1971 he entered Chiyoda Design Photography school.  He held his debut exhibition, “Touhoku Zanzou” (Afterglow of the North Eastern Province), at Ginza Cannon Salon Gallery in 1973. During this period he also joined a circus in Miyazaki prefecture and he took many photographs of their performers. In 1974 he became a photographer for a tabloid paper that was the only newspaper featuring strip-clubs in Japan at the time. After leaving this newspaper company, he devoted himself to photographing strippers around Tokyo – and he has taken their portrait photos as his main subject ever since.

When he worked as a photographer for adult magazines, he had taken, on average, photographs of three strippers per week for forty years, which he used to consider to be his duty.

In addition to this photography books, Hara has published many books about the culture and history of the vanishing world of striptease.

Recently he stopped to take any assignment for adult magazines (because of heart illness) and devotes himself only to his own personal projects. Especially his later work was created from his view of life and death and his understanding of life’s uncertainty. Hara continues to pursue the question of “what is life about?” and always goes back to the days when he first took photographs of strippers.  His photography has been recently reviewed favorably in Japan.

Publication:

1978 Fuubaika (Wind-pollinated Flower), Del-sha, self-published

1980 My Gypsy Rose, Yagenbura Sensyo, Bansei-sha

1982 Stripper Zukan (Strippers Illustrated Book), Del-sha, self-published

1984 Shyukujo roku Hara Yoshiichi Collection (Documents of Ladies in Yoshiichi  Hara Collection), Bansei-sha

1988 Mandara Zukan (Illustrated Book of Buddhist Visual Schema of the Enlightened Mind), Bansei-sha

1994 1994 Strippers Meikan (Directory of Strippers 1994), Fuuga-shobou

1995 Kageyama Rina Densetsu (The Legend of Rina Kageyama), Seijin-sha

1999 The City Where Strip Club (Stripp no Aru Machi), Jiyuukokumin-sya　

2000 The Strippers, Futaba-sha

2000 The Strippers 2, Futaba-sha

2001 The Strippers 3, Futaba-sha

2008 Utsutsu no Yami (The Darkness of Reality), Soukyuu-sha

2010 Showa Strip Kikou (Travel-writing About Strip in Showa Era), co-published by Tetsuhiko Sakata & Pot Publisher

2011 Hikari aru uchi ni (While It Is Still Light), Soukyuu-sha

2013 Tokoyo no Mushi (Insects in the Eternal World), Soukyuu-sha

2013 Tenshi Mita Machi (In The City With Angel), PlaceM　

Exhibition:

1973 Touhoku Zanzou（Afterglow of the North Eastern Province) Ginza Cannon Salon Gallery

1980 Stripper Zukan (Strippers Illustrated Book) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

1981 Nobori No Enkei (A Distant View of Flags Flying)group exhibition Sinjuku Nikon Salon Gallery

1983 Shyukujo roku  (Documents of Ladies ) Shinjuku Minolta Space Gallery

1986 Mandara Zukan (Illustrated Book of Buddhist Visual Schema of the Enlightened Mind) Shinjuku Nikon Salon Gallery and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

1987 Mandara Zukan Ⅱ(Illustrated Book of Buddhist Visual Schema of the Enlightened Mind Ⅱ) K Gallery Fukushima 

1993 Eros No Kokuin（Carved Seal of Eros)Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

2002 Utsutsu no Yami (The Darkness of Reality) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery 

2008 Utsutsu no Yami Ⅱ(The Darkness of Reality Ⅱ) Soukyuu-sya Gallery

2009 Maboroshi no Machi(The Lost Illusional Citys) group exhibition Third District Gallery Shinjuku

         Maboroshi no Toki(The Lost Illusional Times) Soukyuu-sya Gallery

　　   Tokoyo no Mushi Ⅰ(Insects in the Eternal World  Ⅰ)Third District Gallery Shinjuku

2010 Hikari aru ichi ni Ⅰ (While It Is Still Light Ⅰ) Third District Gallery Shinjuku

2011 Hikari aru uchi ni Ⅱ (While It Is Still Light Ⅱ) Totodo Gallery Shibuya

        Hikari aru uchi ni Ⅲ (While It Is Still Light Ⅲ) Ban Photo Gallery Nagoya

2012 Hikari aru uchi ni (While It Is Still Light ) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery  and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

         Shashin no kai syou ten (Exhibition of the Prize of “Society of Photography) Place M Gallery Shinjuku

　　 Tokoyo no Mushi Ⅱ (Insects in the Eternal World Ⅱ )Third District Gallery Shinjuku

2013 Participated in Japanese Art Photographers 107 at Tokyo International Forum

　　  Tokoyo no Mushi (Insects in the Eternal World ) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery  and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

　　 Tenshi Mita Machi (In The City With Angel) PlaceM Gallery, Shinjuku

　　 Stripper Zukan(Strippers Illustrated Book) Sekka Gallery, Ueno

File 6: "Bible" by Momo Okabe, 2014, reviewed by Betsy Clifton

If God is dead, he’s surely rolling in his grave. Momo Okabe’s Bible, in both stature and spirit will not fit into your bedside table, although its alluring gold foil stamping and crimson suede cover will persuade you to keep it close. Juxtaposing images of underground Tokyo nightlife and the destruction wrought by the tsunami in Miyagi, and India between 2008 and 2014 Bible is a testament to the unwavering complexity of Momo Okabe’s everyday life with her lovers and friends. Alongside their pursuance of a genuine identity and sense of belonging, Okabe unfolds the “sad, yet beautiful scenery that they could perceive after overcoming the long and difficult struggle out from their traumatic past.” The sincerity and depth of Okabe’s work unwinds a sweetness within the tension of collective alienation; a window into a kaleidoscopic heart.

 Bible is published by Session Press as a part of an ongoing, earnest mission to acquaint Japanese artists to an international audience. This is Okabe’s second US monograph published by Session Press following her unique artist book Dildo, an incredibly labored small edition in 2013. Okabe has been highly acclaimed by Nobuyoshi Araki at New Cosmos of Photography in 1999 and Masafumi Sanai at Epson Color Image in 2009 as well as by many other prestigious competitions in Japan. It is difficult, however, to position Okabe’s work into the norm of contemporary Japanese photography often associated with its perfection in composition and quiet meditation with subjects. Outside of the mainstream photo community, Okabe has pioneered her own electric yet sensitive color pallet to convey her overflowing emotions onto her work. It’s the kind of color that reminds me of what wandering around a desert would look like; the purples your eyes find after you’ve stared at the sun, the reds that hover over hot sand, and the depths of blues and greens that are only remembered through your imagination.

Since I first finished Bible it continued to swim around my head and churn up a poignant realizations of all how so few things are our own that we can really talk about. Take our designated terms — a mother, a father, a family — words that describe what we already know as feeling above all.  The language in Bible — of a boy, a girl — struck this same cord as a visceral dichotomy, headlining what photography handles that words cannot. Okabe has brought a new breed of personification forward to a Japanese subculture long deserving of a platform. Her pulse between landscape and body imagery is not for the faint-of-heart, Okabe’s intimate access to gender identity (both pre and postoperative) is as urgent as it is courageous. Her rhythm continues to kick up the sediment of my mind once settled in the overtly intellectualized practice so prevalent in today’s contemporary photography scene, and begins to reposition critical perspectives towards compassion, intimacy, and camaraderie. Momo Okabe is enlightened over the weight of the history and tradition that stands before her, and keeps dear a why to live that endures almost any how.

Betsy Clifton is a book designer and distribution manager at Dashwood Books in New York, NY. She has contributed to numerous Dashwood publications over the past three years, most recently with artists Jason Polan, Stefan Marx, and Ari Marcopoulos. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and is currently an M.Arch candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.

BOOK INFO:


Title: BIBLE

Artist: Momo Okabe


Design: Momo Okabe

Text: Ko Kosugi

Translation: Daniel Gonzalez

Publisher: Session Press


Date: 2014

Edition: 300, SIGNED, regular edition 
Edition: 20, with an archival color C print SIGNED, NUMBERED by Artist


Size: 9.84 x 14.17 inches


Binding/printing/weight/page: hardcover, off-set color printing, 95 color images in 122 pages, 7 pounds.

ARTIST INFO: 

Momo Okabe

Japanese, b. 1981

Momo Okabe was born in Tokyo in 1981 and received her B.F.A. in photography from Nihon University of Art in 2004.  Her work has been nominated by many prestigious competitions in Japan including:

-Special Award “The 8th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography selected  Nobuyoshi Araki “, P3 art and environment, Tokyo, 1999.

-Fine prize for” the 19th 3.3㎡ Exhibition”, Guardian Garden Tokyo, 2002.

-Excellent Work Prize “Color Imaging Contest of EPSON”, Tokyo International Forum, 2004.

-Fine work prize “The 30th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography ”,  Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2007.

-Special Jury Prize , “Color Imaging Contest of EPSON selected by Masafumi Sanai” EPSON, Tokyo, Japan, 2009.

-Selected for Yokohama Photo Festival Exhibition, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, 2010.

-Selected for Tokyo Portfolio Review Exhibition, NADiff A/P/A/R/T,Tokyo, 2010.

-“DILDO” (session press, 2014) selected for 2013 PHOTOEYE BEST PHOTOBOOK by Hisako Motoo.

Publication:

dildo

Artbeat publsiher, Tokyo, 2010, 100 ltd edition

UNSEEN/TSUMAMI (with Kokey Kanno)

Dashwood Books, NY, 2012, 200 ltd edition

DILDO

Session Press, NY,  2013, 55 ltd edition

Momo Okabe Publisher's Site