Exhibitions
WestLicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie, Vienna
The Polaroid Project
18.11.2017–25.02.2018
Nobuyoshi Araki
Araki regards photography as some kind of visual diary. The series "Sentimental Journey" for example is the documentation of his honeymoon with his wife Yoko. The subjective sensation and perception of the world plays a decisive role in his art. After the death of his wife, love became the principal theme in his works. Therefore the photographs of artfully tied-up women can be read as the intimate expression of himself, beeing tangled up in his yearning and past. "I tie womens bodies up becaus I know their souls cant be tied. Only the physical self can be tied. Putting a rope round a women is like putting an arm round her.", he explains. Shibari is the erotic art of binding, Araki exposes on his photographs. It is derived from the traditional military art of tying up, called Hoj jutsu. Hence his "Bondage" series is much more than mere provocation or pornography. It refers to traditions of Japans cultural history, like the Shunga, erotic paintings of the 18th and 19th century, linking them to the artists subjective world view. In the exhibition of the kestnergesellschaft in Hanover, Germany, Arakis photographies are presented together with classical Japanese woodcuts, disclosing this relationship. Here, Hokusais famous wave, which became a symbol of traditional Japanese art, enters into contact with Arakis disturbingly direct pictures of an imagined Japanese reality. In addition, there is another catalogue, containing Arakis photographs: Hokusai - Japanese Woodcuts of the Thun Collection. Both books are available separately, or combined in a slipcase: Araki meets Hokusai.
Hardcover
17,3 x 24,5 cm
144 pages
100 color illustrations
German, English
Out of print
ISBN 978-3-939583-97-4
2008
Artists:
Editors:
kestnergesellschaft Hannover, Veit Görner, Frank-Thorsten Moll
Product information "Nobuyoshi Araki"
Araki regards photography as some kind of visual diary. The series "Sentimental Journey" for example is the documentation of his honeymoon with his wife Yoko. The subjective sensation and perception of the world plays a decisive role in his art. After the death of his wife, love became the principal theme in his works. Therefore the photographs of artfully tied-up women can be read as the intimate expression of himself, beeing tangled up in his yearning and past. "I tie womens bodies up becaus I know their souls cant be tied. Only the physical self can be tied. Putting a rope round a women is like putting an arm round her.", he explains. Shibari is the erotic art of binding, Araki exposes on his photographs. It is derived from the traditional military art of tying up, called Hoj jutsu. Hence his "Bondage" series is much more than mere provocation or pornography. It refers to traditions of Japans cultural history, like the Shunga, erotic paintings of the 18th and 19th century, linking them to the artists subjective world view. In the exhibition of the kestnergesellschaft in Hanover, Germany, Arakis photographies are presented together with classical Japanese woodcuts, disclosing this relationship. Here, Hokusais famous wave, which became a symbol of traditional Japanese art, enters into contact with Arakis disturbingly direct pictures of an imagined Japanese reality. In addition, there is another catalogue, containing Arakis photographs: Hokusai - Japanese Woodcuts of the Thun Collection. Both books are available separately, or combined in a slipcase: Araki meets Hokusai.
Hardcover
17,3 x 24,5 cm
144 pages
100 color illustrations
German, English
Out of print
ISBN 978-3-939583-97-4
2008
Artists:
Editors:
kestnergesellschaft Hannover, Veit Görner, Frank-Thorsten Moll
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