This work was created in response to the incident in which OURA Nobuyuki’s Holding Perspective had become subject to censorship. A Picture to be Burnt is an etching work that has a conjugated structure with a part that is “unharmed” and the other part that had been halfly burnt and gone. The work is presented as a total of these elements, as it connotes the act of protesting against The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama. In this exhibition, the work would also be presented together with photographs of the burning procedure, its ashes, the letter and envelope that were sent to the museum, as well as their reply.
In contemporary art, works with political messages such as multiculturalism (i.e., ethnic issues) and gender related matters (i.e., sexual discrimination) have accelerated since the cold war. SHIMADA Yoshiko has been one of the pioneers of this trend in Japan, and among them, she has powerfully featured the negative history of Japan and critisized it through her work.
The motif of this work may not be easily recognized at first sight because of its missing face, however, is presumed the emperor of Showa in his Generalissimo uniform who remained raised to the purple for a long period; from before, during, and after the war. Despite voices of pointing him as a war criminal, he avoided becoming so. Because of its missing face, the image gains an ananomity of being a no one. This makes the issue of wartime responsibility subject to not just one particular person named the emperor, but instead all Japanese citizens. As it is a print, the “image of the emperor” could possibly be numerously multiplied, making it a metaphor of spreading the wartime responsibility to the general Japanese citizens. (ARAI Hiroyuki)
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