contemporary art | The Lobster Dance

Posts Tagged ‘contemporary art’

Chiho Aoshima: Rebirth of the World

Posted in Art, Gender, Japan in Seattle, tagged Chiho Aoshima, contemporary art on 2015/06/23| 2 Comments »

Chiho Aoshima. Moimoi and Kitty Leave for a Journey, 2009. Seattle Art Museum.

Chiho Aoshima. Moimoi and Kitty Leaving for a Journey, 2009. Seattle Asian Art Museum.

CHIHO AOSHIMA: REBIRTH OF THE WORLD
MAY 2 – OCT 4 2015
Seattle Asian Art Museum

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibitions/chiho

Here’s what I love about Chiho Aoshima’s show, in a nutshell: the repetition of the theme of the delicate sylph whose flatulence creates smoke clouds billowing from volcanos while Buddha and entourage look on.

Aoshima’s digital and hand drawns are in the superflat style, but whereas the tween-girl characters of Mr.’s show had cutesy moe details, like bandaids and pigtails, Aoshima’s figures reject that aesthetic. Her mural-size piece Rebirth and the video installation Takaamanohara have been compared to Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights.

TO THE SEA, BEARING MOI MOI, 2009, CHIHO AOSHIMA, JAPANESE, B. 1974, COLOR ON JAPANESE RICE PAPER, 12 5/8 × 8 1/16 IN., ©2009 CHIHO AOSHIMA/KAIKAI KIKI CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Moé, Art, and Capitalism in Live On: Mr.’s Japanese Neo-Pop

Posted in Art, Gender, Japan in Seattle, tagged contemporary art, Japanese art, kawaii, moe, Mr., neo pop on 2015/01/02| 2 Comments »

Live On: Mr.’s Japanese Neo-Pop at the Seattle Asian Art Museum is, to use an old slang term, frantic. My friend and museum companion hadn’t been through the permanent collection yet, and after an hour or so of contemplating mainly contemporary ink pieces, delicate snuff bottles, and lavishly detailed Persian paintings set in the elegant art deco building, we arrived at the eye-popping, jarringly neon moé world of Mr.’s neo-pop art.