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Tadanori Yokoo's posters on exhibit.
Posterized!
The Track 16 Gallery brings an assortment of contemporary posters from Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, and the excellent placards make it friendly for those not so well-versed in poster culture and graphic design.
Currently on display at Santa Monica’s Track 16 Gallery at the Bergamot Station is the Asian Poster, an exhibit of contemporary posters from all over Asia, with Japan and Hong Kong dominating the scene. Inspiration for the exhibition came from the recent graphic design boom in Asia and recent museum exhibits like “Super Flat.” It also follows last year’s popular exhibit at the Track 16 Gallery, The Cuban Poster. The exhibit features a wide array of sights and is an invigorating display -- both for those of us with some design understanding, and those with a little understanding of the world but a lot more curiosity. For the latter group, well-written descriptions accompany many of the posters, some even having bits of interviews with the artists, shedding light for those of us with little expertise in the area.
Many different types of posters are on display, comprehensively surveying decades both old -- dating back to the Chinese communist revolution -- and new -- one refers specifically to the SARS outbreak. Some are commercial advertisements, some are promotional posters, and some are communist propaganda posters. Featuring an eclectic mix, it is definitely an eye-opener, with many designs and themes influenced by contemporary cultural, historic, and political events in the region.
To wit: One poster promotes a Japanese exercise video featuring a Japanese woman speaking English, but dubbed in Japanese. She’s also dressed like a poodle, and yes, there are poodles accompanying her in the video. And I know all this because the actual exercise video is looped, on a television set right above the poster. For Wong Kar-Wai fans, there is a movie poster of the classic Days of Being Wild, featuring international superstars Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, and Andy Lau, among others. In many of the posters, a hybrid of identity is present. Kashiwa Sato, a Superflat artist, bases his ideas and creations on the Shinto idea that all new things are good and better. This also explains him and fellow Superflat artists looking to create an identity that is contemporary and not “Oriental," one not devoid of Western/outside influences. “You can see Louis Vuitton next to Hello Kitty. We can accept such a mixture," he offers.
The exhibit also showcases the works of Tadanori Yokoo, whom New York graphic designer Milton Glaser calls “one of the great poster designers of our time and perhaps in all graphic design history.” Yokoo's colorful and intricate designs are unique, and while still Japanese, reveal a tint of Western influence. Yokoo himself said in an interview in 2003 with Tokion magazine, “Art is a kind of freedom that spectators and makers express together. If you converse with any art works, you could really be aware of another way of life that was not known to you until now.”
For those who prefer less of a graphic design approach to posters, there are also many other photography-based designs. An especially striking one is Malaysian Yasmin Ahmad’s series of photographs of a nude elderly Asian woman. The posters were designed for the Women Festival 2002-2003, and Ahmad wished to salute all the women of the world by showing “every scar, every wrinkle, every varicose vein on her body [bore] testimony to the courage of a woman who suffered, but survived with the utmost dignity, and became more beautiful as a result of it.”The series features the woman photographed nude against a black background, with boxed white text carrying strong words, the last message powerful and resonant: “Now, tell me. Which rich, self-important corporate hero did you want me to bow to?” and ending in finer print at the bottom: “Woman. Superhuman.”
Also on display is Katsumi Asaba’s Nissin Noodles advertisement from 1989, featuring a photograph of Arnold Schwarzenegger carrying two tea kettles, lifted as if they were the heaviest weights ever. Don’t ask me how it directly relates to instant noodles, but Schwarzenegger’s grandiose pose with the tea kettles speaks for itself.
Another photography-based poster, titled “Happiness Dance (Water Circle),” captures boats moving in a perfect circle, creating a beautiful ring in the clearest blue water. The artist Norito Shinmura, a fisherman’s son, believes “one good photograph” is more beautiful than trying to create something strictly on the computer.
“It took two days and 50 shots to get this photo of fishing ships to make a perfect circle in the sea. My father, sister, and other relatives steered their fishing boats.”
Even if you’re not a design or poster connoisseur, these posters convey a part of the culture and era in which it was created, which is not only representative of the artist, but of their countries and heritage as well. Ung Vai Meng’s two posters, titled “OS Macaenses” -- one features “Religion/Culture” and the other “Blood/Language" -- were created in 1997, the year of Hong Kong’s return to China, and two years before Macau was to be returned to China from the Portuguese.
Through the fusing of multiple images from the past to the present, from Portuguese, Chinese to peoples of mixed ancestry, the posters show the struggle of the Macanese -- in addition to the text that narrates their eventual “unavoidable exile” and “Diaspora” from being neither Portuguese nor Chinese.
The exhibit also has its share of communist propaganda posters, mostly from China, many with illustrations of Mao Zedong dating back to the period when the Communist Party first gained power. But there are also counteracting posters, including one with simply the Chinese characters for “Tian An Men” from Tiananmen Square in white script, with the Chinese characters for “six” and “four” written over it in dripping, bloody-red script -- for June 4th, the day of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. It is another simple, yet bold and resonating statement that conveys the brooding sensation and gore associated with that fatal day.
A small collection of posters from Shenzhen in China reflects the Chinese economic boom in recent years, and the increasing importance of design. Since the emphasis on design is recent, Chinese artist Leo Wang describes that their “design execution is not too professional. We don’t have enough experience. However, we aim to push ourselves to reach a new standard.”
The best thing about the exhibit is some of these posters are for sale! So if you happen to have two thousand dollars you’re dying to spend, my suggestion would be to try to snag the Nissin ad if it isn’t already sold -- after all, two thousand dollars is a small price to pay for having a picture of your muscular governor on your wall.
The Asian Poster is produced by Global Graphics with the Center for the Study for Political Graphics, and is on display at Bergamot Station’s Track 16 Gallery until July 23rd. Its hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is located at 2525 Michigan Ave., Building C-1 in Santa Monica, CA 90404. For more information, visit their Web site at www.track16.com.
Date Posted: 7/21/2005