Tetsuya Ishida - Self portrait of another 1973- 2005 - Museo Reina Sofia Madrid.


Tetsuya Ishida ( 1973- 2005)

Autorretrato de otro ( self portrait of another)






Bea and myself came across this exhibition by chance in The Palacio de Velaquez which is located in the Retiro park in Madrid.

An extensive exhibition by a young but disillusioned Japanese artist struggling to express and live in an all consuming Japan.

The prolific artist portrays feelings of his society in a sometimes super realistic style and other times it seems more deliberately illustrative. The message is always the same which the sense of being a bar code or a machine whos destiny is already mapped out suffocating all human emotion.
It´s highly critical and tragic with the eyes seemingly lost in a vacant stare sometimes buoyed in tears.

Working as a security guard at night he lived only to paint very rarely venturing from his apartment for social events. He either worked or painted even moving close to a large art supply store so he would not have to waste money on the commute.

In a way I felt bad  enjoying something that portrayed such sadness and despair. But the paintings and their technical execution I found incredibly inspiring. The painting above is quite flat in it´s composition pushing the participants together in a smothering performance similar to the act of a funeral procession in Japanese culture. This is not a human but rather a returned rejected ´model´from the factory 1996. 

Karòshi is the word used in Japan literally describing death by work. What is most tragic of all is that possibly the artist himself suffered the same end dying very young in suspicious circumstances. 







Due to the short lived but prolific life of the artist there are seventy paintings and sketches in this moving and poetic display curated through the Reina Sofia Museum.You can´t help feeling this sense of entrapment in a world that´s not his like the painting above titled ´The Soldier 1996´. To me it´s like a kid enclosed both in the uniform of ´The salary man´ and locked into the urbanization of it´s minions.


                                                                                


The above again struck me with a sense of lost childhood and shackled within a machine unable to think or fly by yourself. Entitled ´A person who can no longer fly 1996´. Tetsuya Ishida has become a cult figure in his native Japan with only ten years of a career portraying a Kafkan surrealism that stays with you long after the sun has set in the Retiro. 



Untitled 1996


Why does Japan work so hard? | CNBC Explains (youtube.com)

\\

STATISTIC – Japan has the worst productivity in the G7.

\\

VOCAB - Karoshi -- death by work, prolific – pro·lif·ic-- [prəˈlɪfɪk]-- of an artist, author, or composer) producing many works, pertenece --- it's part of the directorship of the Reina Sofia 




Comments