Description
In this book the analyses of the imagery of sex and consumerism move far beyond the gallery and into the public and private spaces of the city and the nation, worlds where the complex network of relationships powered by gender, class, race and commerce are directly encountered in both the fast-changing consumer market-place and the dominating ideologies within Japanese society. This is a society in which contemporary art, and indeed the artist, still have a somewhat precarious place, circumstances that have contributed to the frequently provocative and confrontational art made by Makoto Aida, Hiroshi Masuyama, Koji Tanada and other leading figures in contemporary art.
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Consuming Bodies explores the themes of sex and consumerism in contemporary Japanese art and how they connect with the wider historical, social and political conditions in Japanese culture. Essays by writers, historians, curators and artists, plus diary extracts of a sex worker, engage with a range of artistic practices, including performance, digital media, painting, sculpture and installation. Together the contributors examine the contradictions and ambivalences embedded in the Japanese experience of modernity, and the effects of commodification on the individual and the nation state. Sex and consumerism in art are inextricably linked to issues of power, gender, class and race, and move beyond the gallery into private and public realms, where the complex relationships surrounding sexuality and commerce are directly encountered in both the fast-changing marketplace and in the dominant ideologies within Japanese society.With over 150 intriguing illustrations, Consuming Bodies provides a wide-ranging perspective on an under-researched area of contemporary Japanese art practice and the critical issues it uncovers.
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