Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture

To get the real gist of this exhibition at the Japan Society, read the second half of this article. The actual viewing of the artwork doesn't really seem necessary; seeing the stuff simply reinforces curator Murakami's thesis about the infantilization (word?) of Japanese culture after WWII. One of the more interesting things that I read at the exhibit was that shorter-limbed characters, which indicates an introverted character (think Hello, Kitty) are far more popular than long-limbed ones, which indicates an extroverted character (such as Mickey Mouse). Here are some images that I liked from the show.

Chinatsu Ban, "Yellow Elephant"


Kawashima "Fire"

Aya Takano(This was my favorite artist shown.)

"Penyo-henyo" Mr.

Yoshitomo Nara

Yanobe Kenji (This photo doesn't do this sculpture justice. Those are little soldiers on the ground, and on the man's stuck-out tongue is a queue of soldiers as well.)

(Images via Publicartfund.org, Kottke.org, Mocoloco.com, NYMag.com, Keikyu.co.jp, Cwo.zaq.ne.jp)