Tetsuya Ishida ( 1973- 2005)
Autorretrato de otro ( self portrait of another)
Karòshi - Along with this term I descovered the incredible work of Tetsuya Ishida in the Retiro park an number of years ago. The word literally defines - 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. It was an extensive exhibition by a young but disillusioned Japanese artist struggling to express and live in an all consuming Japan.
The prolific artist portrayals 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 who's destiny is already mapped out i a society where human emotion is suffocated.
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.
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)
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STATISTIC – Japan has the worst productivity in the G7.
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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
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