We Can Make Another Future Japanese Art After 1989
Takashi Murakami, Japan b.1962 / And then, and then and then and then and then 1994 / Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / Purchased 1996. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / View full image
When
6 Sep 2014 – 20 Sep 2015
Where
Gallery of Modern Art, Gallery 3.1 & Gallery 3.2
About
'We can make another future' surveys the art of Heisei, the current era in the Japanese imperial calendar, through 100 works by over 40 contemporary Japanese artists.
Increasingly cosmopolitan in character and operating with an unprecedented level of international mobility, the art of this period offers a sophisticated reflection on the social conditions behind art's production in Japan.
Beginning in 1989, Heisei has seen significant challenges for Japan, but it has also been the period of 'Cool Japan', with widespread international interest in Japan's contemporary cultural production. As well as 25 years of Heisei, this also marks 25 years of the Gallery's public engagement with the contemporary art of Japan.
'We can make another future' profiles several overlapping themes for this fascinating period in Japanese. The exhibition explores the emergence of the digital sublime; responses to the rich field of consumer culture and new technologies of representation and communication; and critiques of national and sexual identity through figuration and performance.