The first thing I notice when I walk into Japan Society is a wall of pachinko machines brightly flashing and emblazoned with characters from Evangelion, "a complex amalgam of science fiction and human drama in the form of robot anime," that is also, "an unsurpassed milestone in the history of otaku culture." Writ large, otaku - which translates loosely into something like "pop culture junkies" - obsessions are the focus of
The first gallery opens with an unusually vibrant cacophony of various seminal animation clips on flat screens, an entire wall of Hello Kitty merchandise and accompanying celebratory video, as well as numerous paintings and drawings. Aya Takano's acryclic paintings are captivating, especially the two displayed side-by-side; the one on the left depicts a morose young woman, whose grey-green lank hair is the same color as much of the painting, wearing only a rabbit-eared black cap with a white flower clipped over one ear, black briefs, and flats, lazily holding a cigarette in the arm that rests on one knee. She looms large, while the background features a woman on a tightrope, a partial city skyline, fireworks, a volcano, lush vegetation, and a sharp crescent moon. It's called In Those Woods, She... (2005) and it mirrors the opposite work, called In That Town, She... (2005), where the "she" on the left re-appears on the tightrope in the painting on the right, expressionlessly balancing with an open white umbrella, in a perfect illustration of the palpable contrast between tension and weightlessness.
In the next gallery, alongside a display dedicated to Godzilla, several drawings by Shigeru Komatsuzaki dazzle the viewer with visions of a future just beyond view, e.g. Flying Train, Underground City. However, the usual optimism of such predictions is notably absent, and the artist's black, grey and white palette imbues the work with an ominous sterility.
More amusing are the childish adventures of Doraemon, a "cat-shaped babysitting robot made in 2112," and Nobita Nobi, "an underachieving grade-schooler." Nearby, Bishojo, or "beautiful girl", drawings and figurines are instantly recognizable as the currency of Lolicom ("Lolita complex") and their hyper-stylized fixations.
Hideki Kawashima's paintings of large, dewy-eyed creatures are boldly realized in that sense but intruiguingly shapeless in other respects, such as Soak, a sort of upright thumb-shape with a sexy mouth and translucent fring of bangs to highlight her red-rimmed, up-turned eyes. Amoeba and Wisdom also stand out in this section. A couple of pieces by the genuinely-huge-in-Japan superstar Yoshitomo Nara honestly aren't my favorites that I've seen of his work, but the text does helpfully relate his experiences arriving to study and live in Germany with little understanding of the language and culture to his honest depictions of childhood as a time of almost painful awareness (and occasional lack thereof).
Chinatsu Ban's paintings, Elephant Underpants vs. Apple Half 04 -- deliriously charming and exactly what it sounds like -- and Digital Elephant Underpants 05 -- a pixelated fairyland -- are, like the show as a whole, quite fantastic. The initial cuteness overload belies a much deeper meaning and beauty.
Related from the LL Archives: So Kawaii.
