Morimura Taichang's Deconstruction of Classics

TaiChangSen Village likes fairy tales since childhood. 1975 after graduating from the design department of Kyoto university of the arts, I found a job in a design firm, but I resigned after working for only three days. Full of fairy tales, he always has persistent expectations for his career, although it is not clear. Later, he became a guest lecturer at his alma mater. In the early 1980s, the activities of young artists in Kansai region where Kyoto is located have attracted the attention of Japanese modern art circles, and several of his students were also very active at that time. However, on the surface, Morimura Taichang is still quietly immersed in the screen prints of the constructivist style, and his introverted personality prevents him from rushing onto the stage with everyone. But deep down, in the unknown studio, he is pregnant with his own artistic newborn. 1985, in a small three-person joint exhibition, Morimura Taichang magically unveiled his fairy-tale new work "Self-portrait". This is a replica based on Van Gogh's self-portrait. Morimura Taichang imitated the original shape and color, directly painted oil paints on his face and clothes, put on a cotton hat imitated with plasticine, and completed the "reproduction" of famous paintings in front of the camera. At first glance, it seems to be a copy of Van Gogh's works, but with the deepening of observation, people's eyes are attracted by the details and they soon find themselves cheated. Those living eyes are obviously beyond the reach of a brush. The coexistence of reality and virtual makes the picture project a rare ambiguity, and its unique technique makes everyone feel refreshed.

In 1980s, Japanese modern art circles were in the process of a group of young artists' reflection on the development of Japanese art since modern times, trying to break the long-term situation of blindly following western art from spirit to style. Through the deconstruction and reconstruction of fine arts classics, Morimura Taichang's works first correspond to the general environment at that time in form, and establish the substitution relationship between contemporary art and classic masterpieces to express his criticism of the development of western culture and even civilization. Since then, it has been out of control, and similar works have been continuously introduced. 1988, Taichang Morimura received the invitation of the 43rd Venice Biennale, which made his art go to the world.

This road.

New "Stylistism"

Some Japanese critics branded the art of Morimura Taichang as "Stylistism". Perhaps, judging from the technique of his works, he borrowed artistic classics as a special carrier of his own art, but the intention of his works is obviously different from that of the Italian artists at the end of 16. Deconstruction and subversion are the evolution paths of western post-modern art, and the meaning, boundary and form of works are constantly expanding. As early as industrial products such as bicycle wheels and urinals were labeled as "art" by Duchamp and moved into the art museum, the concept of "works" was seriously subverted. Since the 1920s and 1930s, with the rapid expansion of American-style urban consumer culture, the proliferation of information has become a fact that artists have to face, so drawing lessons from or borrowing existing styles has become a basic feature of popular art; Images and symbols popular in post-modern culture since 1960s have become inexhaustible "ready-made products" for artists. Therefore, it has become a common technique of post-modern art to "transform" existing images or classic works by means of misappropriation, copying, simulation and dislocation.

The main technology of Morimura Taichang is photography. Although photography was rejected by painters in the early days of invention, no one doubts that photography as an image production system is irreplaceable today.

Meaning. When the "originality" of art is abandoned, it is logical to question the authenticity, originality and value of art by publicly copying the classic works of masters with photography; In the contemporary environment where strategy, humor and text criticism are the main orientations of works, imitation or plagiarism is no longer an obstacle to the value of works. Especially in today's so-called "picture-reading era", it seems that a new "stylism" has been formed, which has been fulfilled in the form and technique of Morimura Taichang's works. But what's important is that the "ready-made product" here, as the matrix, must be a classic "text" recognized by everyone. By recreating the matrix, the artist gives the original a new meaning. With the transcendence or even subversion of the original definition, the meaning of the work also expands and derives. It seems that Morimura Tae-chang knows his way very well. He chose the classics of art history as the "material" he copied and transformed and the "text" he freely explained. His art subverts the modern rigorous posture, breaks the authoritative order mode, and shows his unique identity and unique perspective as a Japanese artist.

Another explanation of civilization

1990, Taichangsen Village launched the Princess Margaret series based on17th century Spanish painter Velazquez's work Gong E, and the characters in the painting are still his own black and pink. He omitted the scenes of many characters in the original work and only played the heroine. Based on this, he held a personal exhibition called "Daughter of Art History", and all the works on display were his imitations of female images in art classics. Dressing a western image from a girl to an old woman as an oriental man, the distortion of the form of the work and the absurdity of the technique correspond to people's doubts and questions about their own life and survival significance in the post-industrial society. This exhibition highlights TaiChangSen Murasuke's deep exploration of art and even human civilization, from which he found his own artistic foothold and established his position as a professional artist in contemporary Japanese art circles.

It must be pointed out that Morimura Taichang highly praised Nietzsche's philosophical thought. In Nietzsche's view, modern society is already a morbid mixture, and modern culture is characterized by spiritual decadence and the disintegration of values. Nietzsche's analysis of modernity is not only superficial description, but also resistance and criticism. Nietzsche believes that art has the positive power of resistance and criticism, and he regards art as the only dawn of modern human beings. Morimura Taichang once had a bold and vivid frankness about his works: "Human beings are actually diseases of the universe, and the harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature is only an illusion. It is an indisputable fact that human beings are cancer cells in the universe. The so-called "humanitarianism" is actually far from "human dignity". As the cancer cell of the universe, human beings can only talk about the beginning of "dignity" if they bravely and openly show a clear understanding of themselves. Culture is an incurable disease. When the illness becomes more and more serious, even if you want to turn back, it is useless. Sliding into the abyss of' terminally ill' is the inevitable fate of those' cultural people'. " From this, we can easily see that he got inspiration from Nietzsche's philosophy, and it was based on this ideal that he began a large-scale "invasion" of famous works. Under his clever interpretation, from Renaissance to Modernism? The works of Finch, Angel, Rembrandt, Goya, Miller, Monet, Cezanne and others have been endowed with new faces and new meanings, and at the same time, he has redefined the concept of "art history" or "masterpiece" through these works. In his view, even if there is so-called "civilization", human beings are always separated from "nature", and "culture" is the expression of this helplessness and exclamation, so for human beings, culture is "disease", and "art" is a typical form to reveal this morbid state. From his works, we see an absurd world, which is exactly his interpretation of contemporary civilization. The imbalance between man and nature and the isomorphism between man and the universe are vividly described by him as "the disease of the universe" and "cancer cells". In other words, he realized the pathological anatomy of human civilization through self-image anatomy.

From the luxurious costumes and furnishings in Princess Margaret, it is not difficult to see a fetish-like morbid psychology; From Manet's Bar, we can also see the impetuousness and burnout of urban life. Olympia suspected of plagiarism was once again used against one's will; Bruegel's Blind Man has been transformed into a group of vulgar elderly Japanese tourists who go shopping overseas. Millay's "The Late Bell" shows us a scene of modern war: cannons and gas masks stand in charred farmland, and two farmers confront each other with guns in front of the mushroom cloud exploded by a nuclear bomb. And so on, the theme of his works almost covers all kinds of disadvantages inherent in modern civilization in today's world and the spiritual distortion caused by it. Like a magician, Morimura Tae-chang changed his face, turned classic works into his freely controlled scripts, and told us one fairy tale after another that he wrote, directed and acted. He established a unique system of dialogue with history and reality by exploring the possibilities of his works.

"Female Classics" in Popular Culture

Another important work of Morimura Taichang is The Actress Series. He believes that movies are the representative products of the 20th century, from which we can interpret the track of the process of contemporary civilization. In this century of great cultural change.

In recent years, the speed and scale of cultural popularization are unprecedented. Film is the most powerful media in the form of visual experience enjoyed by the public in the foreseeable period, and its influence is irreplaceable by other media. As the symbol of their visual image, they are all kinds of female movie stars, so he defined female movie stars as "symbolic products of the 20th century", and "female movie stars" became an important breakthrough point for Morimura Taichang to dissect the 20th century visual culture.

After the "invasion" of art history, Morimura Taichang began in the mid-1990 s and started from Marilyn? Many female movie stars, from Monroe in the East to Yamaguchi Momoe, have become the objects of his interpretation. His works have gone to the extreme of secularization, and the exposure of the "disease" of culture and even civilization has become more direct and concrete. It can be called "actress series". It's a solo exhibition of "Beauty of Illness-I Become an Actress" held by Morimura Taichang 1996 at Yokohama Art Museum. Behind the seemingly dazzling costumes and imitations, there is a helpless morbid and inexplicable emptiness.

Modernism interprets women on the basis of material body, which is transformed from material object to moral subject; In the process from modern to post-modern, women's images are also changing: expressionism transforms loneliness and anxiety in modern society into hostility and hatred towards women; Picasso's women are a bunch of fragmented monsters, and he regards "women" as the embodiment of evil; In surrealism, the image of women has evolved into a beautiful martyr, and women have lost their independent personality. As a result, elegance and vulgarity are integrated, the grandeur of the past has become the joke of today, and the female image has fallen into a "will field" that is difficult to predict and define. It is precisely because of the special position of women in the field of vision that Morimura Taichang's art has charm. He eliminated sex through transvestite, and he defied the natural attributes of the body in a perverted way, thus completing a "non-female" "female image". His works are full of boredom, frivolity and anxiety to satirize and ridicule popular culture, and at the same time, it implies a mockery of kitsch art. From art classics to pop stars, whether it is lofty civilization or mass civilization, Morimura Taichang has modified it with his own understanding and techniques and has been given new concepts.