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A Restatement: The Art of ‘Ground Zero’ (Part 15) The decontamination of land and art II Shuji Akagi – 20130106 Fukushima City Concert Hall (2013) Shuji Akagi is a former painter. Actually, he is still an artist, although he noView More >

Provoke and Con-pora V: Shigeo Gocho Self and Others Reconsidered In my opinion only one individual, Shigeo Gocho, strikes me as standing out in this period as a representative of the theatrical first-generation post-modernist type. It would be impossible toView More >

Provoke and Con-pora IV: Post Con-pora Expression The Con-pora photography of Japan has a characteristic that the original Con-pora photography could never have had. That is, an American flavor that was somewhat liberated from the prevailing sense of Japan atView More >

A Restatement: The Art of ‘Ground Zero’ (Part 14) The decontamination of land and art I Shuji Akagi – 20120220 Fukushima Prefectural Library 2 (2012), lightjet print, 31.5 x 42cm. Courtesy Arataniurano and Yamamoto Gendai. Previously in this series, IView More >

Provoke and Con-pora: In the blank space of ‘1968 – Japanese Photography’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) III Every aspect of society has been turned into image, into media. The utopian “exterior” of the world is gone, and the worldView More >

Provoke and Con-pora: In the blank space of ‘1968 – Japanese Photography’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) II Awareness of the fact that, as a result of the inundation of image information, the real world itself is being turned intoView More >

A Restatement: The Art of ‘Ground Zero’ (Part 13) Nukes and Niigata – Addendum III The five children of Hidenaga, fourth generation of the Yoshihara Photographic Studio (1936), from “SPIRAL LIFE – 140 Years of the Yoshihara Family” (2011). PhotoView More >

Provoke and Con-pora: In the blank space of ‘1968 – Japanese Photography’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) I Shigeo Gocho, from the series “Hibi – Day to Day” (1967-70) Settling the question of whether theories on Con-pora are correct hangsView More >

Flowers of Japan: Katsuyuki Shirako: “exhibition 4” @ eN arts untitled (2009), from the “scribble” series. All images: © Katsuyuki Shirako, courtesy eN arts, Kyoto. In every genre, the postwar Japanese craft movement has experienced the misfortune of splitting intoView More >

A Restatement: The Art of ‘Ground Zero’ (Part 12) Nukes and Niigata – Addendum II The Kanbara region of Niigata in earlier days. “Transformed into a lake following collapse of the Hisoyama drainage canal. From Hakusan looking toward Tagoshima,” fromView More >

From ‘negative’ eternity to ‘positive’ eternity: Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto – SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II (Part 2) Scene from Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II. © Sugimoto Studio, courtesy ofView More >

From ‘negative’ eternity to ‘positive’ eternity: Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto – SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II (Part 1) Scene from Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II. © Sugimoto Studio, courtesy ofView More >