"The panty shot is very traditional in Japan," Nobuyoshi Araki said, "but I don't really like that any longer. Now I want more! more! more!"
Araki was ebullient during the opening of his exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. From the press conference to the karaoke outing, he lived the role of the flamboyant art star. At the opening itself, he pranced around like a frolicking satyr in spangled tuxedo tails. His photographs, which are in many ways autobiographical, let people know he has seen a Bacchanalia or two in his time.
Araki, as everybody calls him, is arguably Japan's most important living photographer. He is famous there for television appearances and his eccentric showmanship. He is also critically acclaimed among international art circles. His entrance into the pantheon of high art was confirmed a few years ago when he exhibited with Nan Goldin and Larry Clark, two of the hottest photographers in the New York art scene.
His current show at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Araki Alive (until Nov. 28), is the second of four exhibitions that will continue to make the case for his eminence. Araki was allowed his first show at a public Japanese museum, MOT, this spring. Major solo exhibitions in France and Italy will follow next year.
Though the current focus is on Araki the famous artist, he is perhaps more infamous than famous -- as one of Japan's sex photographers. Whether his work is artistic or obscene has been the subject of much controversy. Throughout his 36-year career, Araki has embraced pornography as an almost constant theme, approaching it both as a genre and critical subject matter. In the late 70s and early 80s, his work was featured in magazines like S&M Sniper and Japanese Playboy, and he fueled some of Japan's more illicit fascinations through his first commercial film, Pseudo Diary: Highschool Girls. Throughout the 80s, he documented Tokyo's underground pornography scene in an unforgiving series more telltale than arousing.
As his reputation increased, Araki pushed the limits even further -- often too far for Japanese authorities, who still censor images of genitalia. In 1988, his contributions to the magazine Photo Age led Japanese police to recall an issue on grounds of obscenity. In 1992, he was fined 300,000 yen for an "obscene" gallery exhibition, and in 1993 police arrested gallery workers for selling his book, Erotos.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF NOBUYOSHI
The current exhibit, however, is not concerned so much with the line between obscenity and art. "Araki ALive" is about the photographer as a documenter of his own life. The Araki of this exhibition is one who photographs everything he does and everything he sees.
If the images he displays are coarse, that's because his own experience is coarse. Araki's is a universe of cityscapes, street life, anonymous faces, and, yes, erotic moments. He shows both the beautiful and the banal. Sometimes he even takes the risk of disregarding aesthetics.
In a statement accompanying the exhibition, Araki says, "to keep this thing going for a long time, you just have to carry on taking photographs ... photography is my teacher. The main thing is to keep on taking photographs -- forever and ever." Embracing photography as a way of life also helped Araki cope with the death of his wife, Yoko, in 1990; it gave him the "impulse to carry on.''
The photos lining the walls of the Fine Arts Museum have come from a recent tour of eight Asian cities, including Taipei. The Taiwan pictures offer a sidewalk view of the island. They include shots from taxis, binglang girls, scooters, male burlesque dancers, traffic, Lee Teng-hui on TV, and naked women. But even though the island is a new location for Araki, the subjects are still the same old inhabitants of Araki's world. As such, there is a tremendous consistency to all the images.
In many ways, the exhibition displays a photographic stream of consciousness. That's why Araki and his curator, Akiko Miki, created special formats for arranging the pictures in groups and clusters. Photographs are displayed in several different ways: large wall-sized grids, horizontal bands, books, CD-ROM, and an eponymous slide show, Arakinema. No image is shown by itself. The pretense that a photograph can objectively describe frozen moments has been discarded. Araki's photographs impress through juxtapositions and sheer volume.
In many ways, seeing this show is like flipping through a pile of photos Araki has just brought home from the lab. It is about how people relate to multiple images, about how single images are losing power in the era of image inundation and one-hour processing. At the same time, however, the pile of photos also implies a more troubling question: how many pictures does it take to capture a life?
With over 100 books to his credit, Araki has still not succeeded in that quest. But there is always more living and photographing to be done. For now, Araki has shown that he is still alive, with all that entails.
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
RSS