MONUMENT FOR NOTHING

Download or read book MONUMENT FOR NOTHING written by 会田誠 and published by Graphic Sha Publishing. This book was released on 2007-06-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mid-career retrospective of the artist's work covering the last twenty years, this publication takes on the difficult task of reconciling an oeuvre that is defined by seemingly contradictory impulses. Where some of his work displays a profound cynicism, evidenced by by scenes of brutal violence and sexual sadism, others are rife with comedic irony and sarcastic wit that makes fun of even the most serious of topics. This jarring combination of the erotic and the grotesque, of a practice marked by light and dark impulses finds outlet through endless approaches, from painting, to sculpture, video and performance art so that it is the examination of Aida's contradictory nature that is key to understanding his work. For Aida, art itself is the only authority, and it is the artist's mission to challenge conventional morality in depicting history and culture and it's attendant violence and complexity. This beautifully designed bi-lingual monograph proclaims Aida a conflicted, complex and singular figure of contemporary Japanese art.