When you make such works – for example, the war pictures series – how much research do you put into the styles you reference? Takahashi Collection, Tokyo (Deposit Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo).ĪRT iT: For many people, this exhibition has been the first opportunity to see the entire “War Picture Returns” series exhibited together in one room, and it underscores how precisely you reference historical genres of painting like Nihonga, Bijinga pictures of young women and the Sensoga genre of propagandistic “war pictures” made in Japan during World War II. Bottom: Beautiful Flag (War Picture Returns) (1995), Pair of two-panel folding screens / charcoal, self-made paint with Japanese glue, acrylic on fusuma (sliding door), hinges, 174 x 170 cm (each). Photo Watanabe Osamu, courtesy Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Top: Installation view of works from “War Picture Returns” series in the exhibition “Aida Makoto: Monument for Nothing” at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, November 2012 to March 2013. Recently I made a painting with heaps of dead salaryman figures, Ash Color Mountains (2009-11), but rather than being motivated by a desire to overturn the traditional values of East Asian ink painting, it was simply the method that I used for the work. Now that Nihonga is no longer so dominant, my interest has gradually shifted elsewhere, and my desire to upend the values of the system, or, say, the art establishment, has weakened. Works like those from the Dog (1989- ) series, depicting girls with amputated limbs, emerged from this mentality: one point was to use an established cultural genre like Nihonga to depict crass and shocking images. Perhaps out of youthful insolence, I wanted to shake up the value of Nihonga, and made all kinds of works challenging that establishment. MA: When I was young, Nihonga Japanese-style painting had an authoritative social status – this was also during the bubble economy – and I heard that such works were being sold for ridiculously high sums of money. It could be classical art or contemporary manga or advertising, but as long as I have some kind of base or springboard then it’s easier for me to make something.ĪRT iT: Yet, reflecting on the more than 20 years of your career, I would say that you have taken a decidedly unique approach to simulation art. Rather, I am better suited to starting with a preexisting form or work, and mixing that premise with my impressions of contemporary society to reconstitute a new image, as it allows me to establish some distance from myself and to work in a more objective way. I don’t have any great need to express my “inner voice,” so the idea of starting from nothing with a blank canvas and putting my soul into the work doesn’t appeal to me. MA: Simulation art was one of the trends when I was studying at university and just starting my career, and I think that’s where it influenced me the most. All Images: Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo.ĪRT iT: Your work is often discussed in terms of “simulation art,” or the appropriation of existing works and styles. The video of a man calling himself Bin Laden staying in Japan (2005), video, 8 min, 14 sec.
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