Real Tokyo versus Neo-Tokyo: Aida Makoto and Yamaguchi Aikira as Urban Visionaries (original) (raw)

Visions of Tokyo in Japanese Contemporary Art

Impressions: Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, 2014

A highly visual introduction to Japanese contemporary art (and my book Before and After Superflat), seen through the varied representations of Tokyo. I contrast the touristic fanstasties of "Neo-Tokyo" seen in Japanese pop art with the more gritty social and political visions of "Real Tokyo" seen in many less well known local artists. A live Pecha Kucha presentation of this paper can be found here: http://www.pechakucha.org/cities/tokyo/presentations/before-and-after-superflat

Tokyo: a bridge between tradition and modernity

Compared to Kyoto, Tokyo is bigger, busier and cosmopolitan. My friend Ornella and I had plenty of time by ourselves as my daughter was busy with her course at the Bunka Gakuen University where she is attending a Master in Fashion and Design. We had a tight schedule as our days in Japan were expiring. Planning our visits, we realised there were many places to see but we decided to dedicate one whole day to shopping all the same. Besides this, my daughter told us there was a special festival in the outskirts of Tokyo at a temple dedicated to fertility and also the Yayoi Kusama Museum we could not miss.

"Intermedia" (MoMA catalogue essay) in Tokyo, 1955-1970: a new avant-garde

Choice Reviews Online, 2013

"Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde" explores the extraordinary convergence of artists, intellectuals, and creators in Japans capital city during the radically transformative postwar period. Examining works from a range of media paintings, sculpture, photographs, drawings, prints, videos and films, as well as graphics, architecture, musical compositions and dance this is the first publication in English to focus in depth on the full scope of postwar art in Japan. The city during this period was a vibrant hub that attracted such critical artistic figures as Taro Okamoto, Hiroshi Nakamura, Ay-O, Yoko Ono, Mieko Shiomi and Tetsumi Kudo; photographers Daido Moriyama, Eikoh Hosoe and Shomei Tomatsu; illustrators and graphic designers Tadanori Yokoo, Kohei Sugiura and Kiyoshi Awazu; and architects Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa; as well as many important artists collectives. Curator Doryun Chongs introductory essay investigates Tokyos sociopolitical context and the massive urban changes that redefined the city as a vital node in the international avant-garde network. Essays by scholars Hayashi Michio and Miryam Sas and curator Mika Yoshitake discuss central notions of postwar Japanese art, including design and graphics; the development of new sculptural languages; and the intermedia trend that engendered experimental performance works and cross-pollination among artistic modes.

Tokyo Roji -Alleyways between Conflict, Change and Cultural Innovation

The paper Tokyo Roji-Alleyways between Conflict, Change and Cultural Innovation, explores three alleyway networks spread across contemporary Tokyo through the experiences of the people who make use of these vernacular places to offer an in-depth, sociological portrait of the contested city. The roji was once part of people's personal spatial sphere and everyday life, but has increasingly been transformed by diverse and competing interests. Marginalized through the emergence of new forms of housing and public spaces and re-appropriated by different fields, the social meaning attached to the roji is being re-interpreted by individuals, subcultures and new social movements to fit hybrid and multiple concepts of living. This paper investigates the kind of functions the roji fulfilled in the past, and the qualities of urban life that have been lost or changed as the alleyway has ceased to be an everyday part of contemporary Tokyo, being pushed to the edge of the built and social environment. Moreover, the roji functions as a lens to inquire what the human perception of vernacular urban textures is and how it has changed over time. Providing multiple narratives of change, the paper's main purpose is to critically reflect on the diversity and versatility of the Japanese urban alleyway, arguing that the interstitial place of the roji is a valuable space as it is desired to express local voices, thoughts and personal opinions and needed to reclaim the city and make neighbourhoods more resilient to large scale urban change.