EVENT DETAILS

Adrian Favell, "Bye Bye Kitty or Bye Bye Little Boy?: Representing Japanese Contemporary Art Internationally"

The UCI Department of Art History and the Center for Asian Studies present
Bye Bye Kitty or Bye Bye Little Boy?: Representing Japanese Contemporary Art Internationally
Adrian Favell
Sciences Po, Paris

David Elliott's "Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art", at Japan Society New York, which opened March 2011, offered a timely and challenging re-assessment of the recent history of Japanese contemporary art that has been largely set internationally by the famous touring shows by artist/curator Takashi Murakami ("Superflat" in 2001 and after, "Little Boy" at Japan Society in 2005). I explore what is it at stake in this curatorial struggle, as well as showing some of the striking and brilliant works by artists not given adequate representation in the Murakami story. The issues largely centre on the legacy of Japan's economic "Bubble" and after, and the decadent, crisis-dominated culture of the long, sluggish years of Japan's decline since 1990.

Adrian Favell is professor of Sociology at Sciences Po, Paris, and a specialist on migration, mobility, globalisation and multiculturalism. He is the author of Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990 - 2011 (Timezone 8 April 2012)
http://www.adrianfavell.com

Free and open to the public.
For more information, please contact arthis@uci.edu.