Nobuyoshi Araki "Tokyo Life"
at Edo-Tokyo Museum
in the Kiyosumi, Odaiba area
This event has ended
102 people bookmarked this.
21 people recommend this.
3 people reviewed this.
Je te veux confiante je te sens captive
Je te veux docile je te sens craintive
Je t’en prie ne sois pas farouche
Quand me viens l’eau à la bouche
Her lips for the second time, fresh and smiling. Her hair bonding with my fingers. I have no resistance to the senses. I bend to sensuality. We were riding a train to Edo. Alleys, gardens, local urban life… Tokyo is a village.
In Edo, we had to cross a bridge. “ええじゃないか“. I could already feel her skin, my “Schiele” hand on her “Salome” waist. I’m high… high on desires. There is the life of Tokyo around us, a swirl of black and white photographs by Araki. Laughs, tears, abandons, memories and joys, yes, spring of pleasures, strings of tenderness, raw moments of emotions. He’s a poet. Sharp eye, rough view, just the rhythm of Tokyo beats.
We entered a red room with giant photos of women. Damn. I can smell her body. She’s touching me. Room emptied, watched by silent women, my hands on her hips, wandering fingers, camera hanging off my shoulders, she pushes her tongue deep in my mouth. Noise… too quick, two persons entered the room. We had to move on. Trembling.
Some video on a screen, some last photos somewhere else, by surprise, walking through the giant hall… but we were not here anymore. Then through Tokyo alleys - the secret passages of Shinsen and Komabatodaimae - we touched and remembered Araki’s poetry. There was a storm on the horizon, a need for thunder sleeping deep in their bodies. As soon we arrived, on the tatami, knots now untied, we were floating in our world. Aboriginal, primal sex.
Life is a daydream of poetry. Araki is one of its authors.
Joseph Bolstad
2006-12-15
Funny, I thought this would be an art review. Thanks for ruining my day with this awful literary ejaculation that apparently is passing for criticism. Maybe Araki would like it, though…
Ashley Rawlings
2006-12-18
It actually ruined your day? Wow.
Although admit it, if we had a category called “awful literary ejaculation,” you’d still read it, wouldn’t you.
Joseph Bolstad
2006-12-18
Ok, well, maybe it just ruined my breakfast.
Ashley Rawlings
2006-12-18
I can see why this response to Araki’s exhibition would disappoint people looking for a more straightforward review.
I think it’s good to try and approach things from a totally different angle, though. Modern art and photography as art began in the 20th century, and despite how recent that is, views on how we should present art or how we should talk about it are pretty fixed.
Maybe Karl’s article is the way forward, maybe it isn’t — either way, I hope it makes people think about what they want from art writing, and how they would write about art if given the chance.
karl
2006-12-18
What was in the breakfast?
I’m ready to invite you for your next breakfast in Tokyo, if you happen to be here :p
Joseph Bolstad
2006-12-19
First off, different angles are good — if anything, I think we should be try to be honest when we write about art, and if that’s what Karl’s doing, so be it. But readers of criticism have to be honest, too. Opinions are opinions, and everyone’s allowed to have one. That’s why the little “Post” button at the bottom of this page exists.
So, maybe my response sounds a little extreme in retrospect. But come on, hyperbole is a part of how we communicate — it’s certainly all over Karl’s review.
The truth is, I’m glad that Karl, or any one else writing for this site, even bothers to write in the first place. Tokyo definitely needs this kind of thing. But, hey, it’s a discourse, warts and all — all comments should be welcome ones.
Ashley Rawlings
2006-12-19
Your comments are very welcome.
There aren’t many sources of writing about art that allow readers to make instant, unedited comments in response to what they have read. Some newspapers and magazines publish letters sent in response to their articles, but I’m not aware of any art magazines that do. Online publications do allow that kind of dialogue to emerge between writers and readers, and Tokyo Art Beat definitely wants its readers to get involved and leave comments.
Time Magazine just voted “Person of the Year 2006″ to be “You” as in we, us, everybody who has changed the minority-controlled media with their ad-hoc reporting with camera-phones, blogging and so on. Whatever people may think about the validity of that award, it shows that the mainstream has recognized a definite shift in the way people are shaping the media.
So that’s what I was getting at in my last post: I hope that people will try new and different things in the way they present art and write about it in the 21st century, so that we don’t just replicate the frameworks of presentation that began in the 20th.
Karl’s writing may be more of a “response” to Araki’s exhibition than a “review” or a “critique”, and it would be good if we had more feedback from more people to know what the general response is, but at least we can make a safe bet that Araki would probably like it.