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Soyang Patk
rJTeekly Reading Response
- Mutakami's Nonsense
Article by Dana Ftiss-Hansen

"ffh. pervasive marketing of I(awaii or cuteness is a] national campaign for a watm, soft friendly
quality with immediate appeal. , . [that] sometimes feels like an escapist, tnfandltzed and anti-
intellectual cloud [that] has been cast over the country."
ftIansen 34)

This point is something that I believe Japanas an aging society is sorely in denial about. The I
objectification of the female as a cute, submissive being, ready to be penetrated by pervasive adult I t'
intention, is seen very commonly and freely in Japanese culture, WMurakaml's later models of the I

kawaii animal motif just poke at that hunger allJapanese people seem to have fot an etetnally
innocent lifestyle. The ovetbeadng kawaii culture can be seen as afl attempt to "provide important
optimrsm in the wake of continuing bad news." However this ultrmately victimrzes a nation who has
committed much wrongdoing in the past before the A-bomb treachery that inspired murakami's
Superflat and mushroom cloud motifs. What is being ignored here is the fact that most problems
japan must face are internal, with economic crisis, corrupt government, teenage prostitution aka
I{ogal / Ganguru Girl cultutes, and subway incidents. Ii seems that the I{awaii subculture that /
Murakami aim's to feed off of is just being created to distract the aging population for their own
faults, as if to say "everydring IS alnght, okay?" rather than "!7e must change." The comforting face
of a bug-eyed gid with the body mass of a 1.2 year old and the seductive techniques of a seasoned
prostitute, an electronic pet you keep on a keychain while strays run wild, ot a mafl in tight silver
leather and a protective helmet saying he will save the wodd from evil, all contribute to a culture
who perhaps subconsci.ously thrives off idealistic images touching areas in where they themselves
have failed to succeed. That is to say this aging population that Murakami claims to want to exploit,
suffers from eternal rnfantile syndtome, refusing to take responsibrLity for themselves as a society
and nation. People would rather hold on tight to a fluffy cute bear toy than a rough wooden stick
attached to a srgn protesting the financial cotruption of the government, and I believe that
Murakami's work along with some contemporary pop culture artists aims to shpw thi9. ', '/' l(",iT
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"flhere is] tension betrveen Japanese traditions and the modernized, Westetnized Japan of today."
(Hansen 36)

The great divide between Japan's generations are becoming more and more apparent as the culture
is "exploited" in today's media and Internet culture. No longer is the salary-man who sacrifices his
life for his wife and childten's future important, now it is more about the self and consumetism,
about matt sporting a fancy leather bag and gtttery hairdos, not a girlfriend or a car.It is about a
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teenage gd joinmg an Oni-san cult of some sort, not necessarily educating herself to be intellectual
and independent. The younger generations are caught up with the image of the self that is self-
absorbed and self-impoltant. Murakami shows this in his wotk with his fashion collaborations, a
"smiley, professional trade-show. . . of the department Sr. .oltnr. that. . . has elevated to
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form" but did not start as such. Japanese corporate marketers work closely with artists to futther the
consumerist problem Japan faces, and they rejoice at the new capitalist-driven, consumer-oriented
society that is now neo Japan. Murakami aims to show he is a child of this culture and therefote will
appropdately take part in it, capitalizrns his own popularity and success as a good businessman
would, tather than a starving artist.
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Reading Response #10 Allen Huynh

"For mew tradition I something that is conveyed into the present what is living and being , while what
is preserved and put into a museum is not traditional. For me, Korea, Korean or Korean--esque don't
exist. The Korea that we use now is my Korea. I'm not Korea. I'm Choi Jeong Hwa." (Wong 4l-42)

In speaking about his work, Choi Jeong Hwa highlights his views on art and his drive to make

art. Taking motifs and patterns he experiences in the street culture of the East he ineoryoratesie

incorporates them in his work amalgamating lowbrow objects and high brow art. But as the interviewer

progresses on their questioning, they ask him if there was anything he saw as uniquely Korean in his

work. The artist responded aggressively and rightly so. To call ones work ooKorean" or originating

from any locale might run the risk of pigeonholing the work into an area that confine it labeling. This

act does not allow the work_to_go beyond these limits. In other ways, by labeling it as a continuum of 1

tradition this roots the artwork to the past which ignore the phenomena of the present which often is

much more conlplex, especially with influences by immediate forces, like globalization, new

modem.ltlgs ancli49g1i1ies. Histori cizingwork is oftq1a violent act. Dominating the work in a discourse t L

that offers a binominal view between East and West. Differentiation between these two . it is inevitable

that the West will usurp dialogue. The artist asserts that he is not "Korea". A resistance to this kind of

locked framing. a framing that he believes does not truly exist. This alludes to Benedict Anderson's

'oimagined community", a term which he had

that live within it under one uniform history. ideology, and tradition, ignoring the individual

phenomena and often marginal groups within this imagined community.

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Ryan Sziolopiak
2269611

"Cho was not active poliliqplly at this time because of the rigidity of abstract-minimalist-
dominated art eilucation in Korea crushed his creativity forcing him to look inward"
(Martin 76)

It would have been hard for Cho at the time to be political - especially since it there was
a greater power preventing basically all free thinking to be quelled. What I find even
more interesting - and clever * was how the president in order to suppress artists forced
the universities to press upon their student's abstract-minimalism; which in my opinion | | L '
allows for the least amourrt_ of free thinkingin any form of art. I see this almost as a
colonization ofehoE aee ijii-nting/mind, ir o;tsia" sources forced their a new way of
thinking upon Cho. Who developed a number of qymptoms of colonization that we're at
the time seen in the Korean People. Cho lost his sense of direction, lost his sense of
identity and any creativeness he felt so much so that he went out to join the army in
attempt to escape from his problems. When Cho returned to the art world with a better
sense of direction, he had to go through the same cleansing process that Korea was going
through - they both needed to come to terms with the colonial experience. While Korea
decided to demolish those buildings that represented colonialism in hopes to forget the
past, Cho believed in appropriating the past and bringing it to the foreground so that he
and the Korean people can accep and come to terms with the horrors 'hey endured.
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"'Teacher's in art school looked down on the kind of draw ti[{ui;'o'1[lluifMru*rng"
of people - because it wasn't abstract enough.' Cho finds it ironic that the art
establishment in Korea pushed abstract-minimalism down the throats of students after it
had already died in its place of origin - the West" (Martin 76)

I found this extremely interesting and yet upsetting at the same time. It is the same artist
archetype that has continued throughout history and yet no one has learned from it;
suppressed artist does not fit in with the norm, goes on to do the type of art makes a huge
impact on the world. The same thing has gone on for a long time throughout history,
especially in the past 200 years. Van Gogh, Matise, Picasso Pollock we're all seen as
radicals who turned the notions of art upside down, and they all did not fit in with the
'normo of the time. They were looked down on by their peers and then turned out to make
such a big impact on the history of art. It seems to me to be a repetitive cycle that will t

continue as long as humans make art. I've seen it multiple times even at OCAD, teachers I
and students giving a student a horrid critique because the piece did not fit into post-
modernism ideologies. To me this is the single most frustrating thing, as -teacherls I' who I lr"''
tell students to 'think outside the box' are so busy trying to do that, that they don't even
notice that they are still within the box. - U/{-v t-'
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