"Creative East-West cosmopolitanism: the changing role of international mobility for young Japanese contemporary artists" a talk by Adrian Favell at School of Arts & Aesthetics ( SAA ), JNU, New Mehrauli Road > 4:30pm on 11th March 2011
Time : 4:30 pm
Event Details : 'Creative East-West cosmopolitanism: the changing role of international mobility for young Japanese contemporary artists' a talk by Adrian Favell, Aarhus University.
Internationally ambitious artists from Japan have often faced the dilemma that to be successful in the West they are expected to reference, represent and package versions of Japanese society and culture for Western consumption. A contrast can be drawn, however, between the passive-aggressive anti-orientalist response to the question of nationhood adopted by the well known 60s generation – i.e., Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Mariko Mori, Makoto Aida or Yukinori Yanagi – when they internationalised their careers, and the different way that younger globally minded artists from Japan born post-1970 incorporate post-national themes, attitudes and experiences in their work. The international visibility of Murakami’s curated touring shows Superflat, Tokyo Girls Bravo and Little Boy, has succeeded in imposing a particular frame on nearly all Japanese contemporary art seen in the West. This neo-japonisme almost always emphasises the cross-over of pop culture and pop art (esp. manga/anime), an aesthetics of cuteness (kawaii), and Japanese art as a nationally-specific reflection of the country’s post-war complexes and social problems (as identified with the otaku generation). These characteristic ideas in fact distort and misrepresent the most important emerging artists from Japan of the last decade. The differences are cohort specific, and also lie in the distinct ways artists of the two generations have processed their invariably itinerant international mobility in their 20s. I will discuss the example of artist groups The Echo www.the-echo.jp and Tokyo Nonsense http://www.neublack.com/art-design/tokyo-nonsense-10408-scion-installation-la-gallery. Their work, which is beginning to get noticed internationally, reflects a more positive psychology about Japan’s relation to the rest of Asia and the West. The Echo suggests distinctly global/cosmopolitan concerns about the environment, new technologies, while Tokyo Nonsense engages politically with forms of youth and street culture. However, it is true that among the most well known emerging artists – i.e., Tabaimo or Miwa Yanagi – there is still a strong element of neo-japonisme that makes it marketable internationally.
Adrian Favell is Professor of European and International Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has published a variety of works on international migration/mobility, multiculturalism, and citizenship, and is the editor of The Human Face of Global Mobility (2006, with urban theorist Michael Peter Smith), and author of Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe (2008). Since 2006, he has been conducting research in Japan, the US and Europe, about the international export of Japanese contemporary culture, including contemporary art, photography, street fashion, pop music and food. For further information see his website: www.adrianfavell.com
Related Events : Talks
Entry : Free
Place : Auditorium, School of Arts & Aesthetics ( SAA ), Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU ), New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi - 110067
Venue Info : www.jnu.ac.in | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Hauz Khas'
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Internationally ambitious artists from Japan have often faced the dilemma that to be successful in the West they are expected to reference, represent and package versions of Japanese society and culture for Western consumption. A contrast can be drawn, however, between the passive-aggressive anti-orientalist response to the question of nationhood adopted by the well known 60s generation – i.e., Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Mariko Mori, Makoto Aida or Yukinori Yanagi – when they internationalised their careers, and the different way that younger globally minded artists from Japan born post-1970 incorporate post-national themes, attitudes and experiences in their work. The international visibility of Murakami’s curated touring shows Superflat, Tokyo Girls Bravo and Little Boy, has succeeded in imposing a particular frame on nearly all Japanese contemporary art seen in the West. This neo-japonisme almost always emphasises the cross-over of pop culture and pop art (esp. manga/anime), an aesthetics of cuteness (kawaii), and Japanese art as a nationally-specific reflection of the country’s post-war complexes and social problems (as identified with the otaku generation). These characteristic ideas in fact distort and misrepresent the most important emerging artists from Japan of the last decade. The differences are cohort specific, and also lie in the distinct ways artists of the two generations have processed their invariably itinerant international mobility in their 20s. I will discuss the example of artist groups The Echo www.the-echo.jp and Tokyo Nonsense http://www.neublack.com/art-design/tokyo-nonsense-10408-scion-installation-la-gallery. Their work, which is beginning to get noticed internationally, reflects a more positive psychology about Japan’s relation to the rest of Asia and the West. The Echo suggests distinctly global/cosmopolitan concerns about the environment, new technologies, while Tokyo Nonsense engages politically with forms of youth and street culture. However, it is true that among the most well known emerging artists – i.e., Tabaimo or Miwa Yanagi – there is still a strong element of neo-japonisme that makes it marketable internationally.
Adrian Favell is Professor of European and International Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has published a variety of works on international migration/mobility, multiculturalism, and citizenship, and is the editor of The Human Face of Global Mobility (2006, with urban theorist Michael Peter Smith), and author of Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe (2008). Since 2006, he has been conducting research in Japan, the US and Europe, about the international export of Japanese contemporary culture, including contemporary art, photography, street fashion, pop music and food. For further information see his website: www.adrianfavell.com
Related Events : Talks
"Creative East-West cosmopolitanism: the changing role of international mobility for young Japanese contemporary artists" a talk by Adrian Favell at School of Arts & Aesthetics ( SAA ), JNU, New Mehrauli Road > 4:30pm on 11th March 2011
!["Creative East-West cosmopolitanism: the changing role of international mobility for young Japanese contemporary artists" a talk by Adrian Favell at School of Arts & Aesthetics ( SAA ), JNU, New Mehrauli Road > 4:30pm on 11th March 2011]()
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Friday, March 11, 2011
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