Wallworks
photo: Ira Schrank, Sixth Street Studio
MONUMENT FOR NOTHING III
(2009)
Makoto Aida
b. 1965, Niigata, Japan. Lives and works in Chiba, Japan.
Arata Yokoyama, Computer Assistant
Particle board, inkjet print, and acrylic
25 x 49 feet
Courtesy of the artist and Mizuma Art Gallery
Makoto Aida's contribution to Wallworks is part of an ongoing series of artworks that play with the idea of grand public art. Instead of creating a lasting outdoor memorial to an important figure or event, Aida's monuments are made of cheap, disposable materials, are displayed in contemporary art museums for abbreviated periods of time, and lionize banal things. Whereas Monument for Nothing I and II referenced Michelangelo's David and gothic cathedrals, respectively, Monument for Nothing III makes use of a Japanese convention, rather than a Western one. The kumade—a lucky charm, derived from a simple farming rake, meant to attract good fortune, is the vehicle through which Aida explores the cultural landscape of Tokyo. In an explosion of fluorescent color and schizophrenic disarray, symbols of Japanese excess branch out from the center of the kumade. Ten thousand yen notes, signs announcing sales, an overturned bowl of ramen, and vomit from immoderate drinking or eating express the materialistic, consumer-driven mentality overtaking the artist’s native Japan. To underscore the point the word “suicide,” written with jewel-encrusted pachinko flair, is centrally positioned over an animated image of a school girl with slash marks on her wrist, brazenly asserting that the high suicide rate among the Japanese young is due to a spiritual void caused by material excess and shallow values.
As with Monument for Nothing III, in which there is an inherent contradiction with a monument erected for no purpose, Aida's work is incongruous on many levels. In his subject matter, he treats darkly disturbing, graphically sexual and violent themes as well as irreverently humorous, absurdist ones. Formally, he juxtaposes traditional Japanese art forms such as woodblock prints and the influence of old masters like the ukiyo-e printmaker Katsushika Hokusai with contemporary artistic pursuits, such as anime and manga. Even the artist's statements about his art are at variance, when in the same conversation he will make two opposing remarks regarding whether or not his work is meant as a critique on contemporary Japanese society. By engaging in art as an investigation of his own psyche as well as that of society in general, and Japanese society in particular, Aida produces work that is, ultimately, a reflection of his thinking and how he views the world—as full of chaos and contradiction.
Aida has had solo exhibitions at IBID Projects in London, Lisa Dent Gallery in San Francisco, and Andrew Roth in New York. He has been included in such group shows as Berlin-Tokyo, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; The American Effect—Global Perspectives on the United States, 1990-2003, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan, International Center of Photography, New York.
— Thien Lam