REVIEWS MORIMURA

OF
ER - 16 DEC

I TOKYO

Yasumasa Morimura's new exhibition Seasons of Passion/A Re ter 7is

on the documentary photography of various dreadful incider
coup d'6tat in 1970; a seventeen-year-old right-winger's stabb
Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963; the execul
are (in)famous scenes of the twentieth century and yet repreSE
For the last two decades Morimura has been known
dresses up as Marilyn Monroe or Faye Dunaway, and Daught
the figures of Western masterpiece paintings. Unlike his effort:
body sculpting, inthis new series he attempts to become brutal 0 get cIOSE (pressio Sthroes
of anger, death or blind faith.
As inhis previous series, Morimura plays all the charact ages, appearir )nd victim.
The exquisite silver gelatin prints of three historical incidents ar n: Mishima
1970.17.25 - 2006.4.6 (2006), a colour photograph and a vid lorimura's
recent monochrome prints are also of Mishima, based on Ei , Mishima A Requiem; OrSWALD,1963.11.
posed in 1963. We can easily see how keen Morimura is to g
extreme nationalist; a hairy, macho, naive man.)
On 25 November 1970 Mishima attempted a coup
d'6tatat Ichigaya Self-Defence Force headquarters, inTokyo.
He made a last speech from the balcony before c

"Be quiet! Listen to me! Listen to what I say!" f,

shouts. "You are artists [samurai], aren't you? If you ai
it you are so enthralled with forms of expression [con!
that deny who you are? Why do you kiss the ass
passing fad and fancy in Japanese art today [cons
as they undermine your identity?" Mishima's origina
was met with a chorus of jeers and curses, but the
Morimura echoes in a sunny, empty public park. Th(
ends with "Banzail Banzai! Long live art [your r
Banzai!" Transfusing the passion as well as the mor
of men into his own body, Morimura tries to engac
twentieth century as it is symbolised by men; the cE
creation and demolition through modernisation, den
the twenty-first century, symbolised by women. Of cc
has little to do with the new Japanese prime ministe
Abe's promotion of patriotism or Takashi Murakami
strategy of superflat. After elucidating Japan's compi
hate relationship with Western culture through the rr
of the father/daughter relationship, the new Seasons o,
/A Requiem: Chapter 1 seems a flourishing of Mc
ambitious approach to the issue of the relationship of
cultures through examination of the past, the ambi
gender and the play of fiction and non-fiction.
ChiakiSakaguchi

X\N 157 AIRTýýFYI

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

TITLE: Yasumasa Morimura: Seasons of Passion / A Requiem:

Chapter 1
SOURCE: Art Rev no8 F 2007
WN: 0703204391054

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