Yoshitomo Nara + graf
Monday 11th of August, 2008
We visited the Baltic this weekend to check out the new Summer exhibitions. I spent the whole train journey from Newcastle to London (3.5 hours) attempting to put down in words my experience of Yoshitomo Nara and Graf's A-Z exhibition (short version, I liked it). Now I'm going to try and re-explain it without sounding like a wordy tosser, on the fast train from London to Milton Keynes (about 40 minutes).
To start off with, it was brilliant. It's really two exhibitions — one of Nara's amazing characters, in a huge variety of scales and media. The other was the setting — a small village of hand-made huts, connected by walkways and just begging to be explored. Actually walking around the exhibition is a complete joy, requiring you to duck under low archways to reach new spaces (there are mind your head signs dotted around — I failed, and everyone looked at me). Each space is totally different — some contain hundreds of tiny illustrations, some have just one huge painting. My favourite was had workbenches, construction notes, empty beer cans, and even a list of the project's musical influences scattered around the walls — a fitting way to add a signature to this unusual artwork.
Ignoring the other signs that were scattered around, I took some pictures (on my phone, unfortunately -hence the quality). I always want to take pictures when I'm walking around and exhibition I like — I guess a lot of people do, or there wouldn't be so many black-suited gallery employees seated around these places. Of course, this whole exhibition was set up in such a way that when you were inside, viewing the individual pieces, you had an area of genuine privacy — just you and the artwork. Add to this the atmosphere of youthful mischief, and it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. I wish all exhibitions were like this.
As for Nara's work, there isn't a huge amount that needs saying about it. If you like the images you see here, chances are you'll like all of it. The pieces are endless variations on the same theme — cartoonish small girls, some holding knives, saws, guitars, and the like — with a few dogs thrown in for good measure. My first thought was of the Lenore story where she swaps her blade for a monkey stick, explaining that "Little dead girls with knives are such a cliche — I keep seeing them on t-shirts". But these images are so charming, and so endlessly versatile, that you have to admire the amazing myriad ways a single idea can be expressed. And despite the identical subject matter, the switches in media give very different output — the graphite drawings are brash and dynamic, while the giant, pastel-shaded paintings in the center of the structure give a feeling of great deliberation and care. I won't go too much further into these — there are better, more informed writings on Naya's subject matter and output. Suffice to say, I enjoyed the exhibition immensely — if you get a chance to see it (either in the Baltic until the end of October, or at any of the international shows that are scheduled), I highly recommend it. Also, take a proper camera — you'll want it.
Much better, and we only just hit Leighton Buzzard. Result.
Comments - only one
Enligndiece Sunday 12th of October, 2008
Hello.
:)
The images were released to celebrate the arrival on Monday of Emma Tallulah, the couple's third daughter.
Bye.
Leave a comment?