“Cowardly and Politically”
I have never experienced difficulty in production. My colleagues at work like pachinko, mah-jongg, obscene entertainment, or horseracing. I like none of them. While they are keen on playing pachinko, I play with photographs or homepages. Production work is a pleasure to me, as obscene entertainment is to them. Thus I have no troubles. When I can’t be engaged in my photography, I find it painful. I have to work for a living, but it gives me nothing but pain. In order to drive this pain away, I devote myself to production work. Photography is like a protective outfit to me. “Here is a grotesque, slimy monster. The environment on the earth does not suit it, so a special protective outfit is necessary for it to exist on the earth. That outfit is what it needs to live on the earth. Without the outfit, it would die, sending out smoke while its outer skin melts. It can be alive somehow or other in the protective outfit.” Photography is this protective outfit to me, and it is essential to keep my outer appearance. But for it, I would find it difficult to remain in the shape of a human being; I would be either soft-headed, resort to violence, or kill myself. This outfit is the equipment I need for my life.
Selecting judge: Fumio Nanjo
Thus far, I have never seen this kind of intellectual approach. Because I think it is interesting and attractive, I want to give it a prize. In the history of art, this sort of conceptual art has existed since the 1960s. It has been rare, however, in the field of photography. Also I like the title. It reminds me of its connection to “Politics and Speed” by Paul Virilio. As a whole, the quotations are not well balanced, but refined. There are Jean Genet’s “Our Lady of the Flowers,” Yonosuke Nagai, Max Weber, etc. It is touching that the first page shows the words of Kishio Suga. As far as images are concerned, it is difficult to see how they are related to the quotations. It depends on how they are viewed. There is political violence and many brutal things. A dead bird with the inside bulging out, a bowl of rice topped with cooked beef, spaghetti, and a close-up of an omelet.... The omelet does not look like an omelet, rather it seems to be related to the dead bird. And the graffiti on a telephone pole read, “Die. Don’t come to school.” Then comes a dummy’s neck. Erotic comics, blue sky, quotation from Trotsky, and close-up pages of a book follow. Lastly come the words “It is important to dream” written on a death mask of Lenin (I think). This is the last page. His work touches viewers’ heartstrings. Even if it were a deliberately constructed trap designed by the artist, it would make us feel like being caught. Probably Araki would say that it is overdone, and would not accept the written expressions. However, young Araki himself tried to use a lot of vocabulary of contemporary art, and he has reached his present position. I am not saying that Yamada should reach Eros after passing through the conceptual approach, but I would say that his work is excellent and he should develop this line throughout his life.
