Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo is to host an exciting new exhibition in the IMAGINARY MUSEUM OF THE O-COLLECTION magical museum tour. This latest installment in the series is Room 8 "Amano, Kuribara & Morimoto - Alternative (Post) Modern 2".
An alternative (post) modern dream
The society that we are part of today is overflowing with all kinds of expression, whereas the things that are being expressed there are supposed to reflect to a greater or lesser extent the state of society. At the same time, this isn't simply a one-way affair, but it functions also in the opposite direction. In other words, we can surely speak of a bidirectional relationship in which the things expressed by society itself are being projected as well. Especially in the realm we call art, those with the biggest talent and potential have the biggest influence with society, and rather than just mirroring society, I believe they are foreseeing it beyond space and time, and sometimes even help create or reform it.
When I saw these artists' works for the first time, I suddenly began to dream of "a second society that mankind could possibly have created next to the one we live in." It's a society that shares the same history up to some point in the modern age, but then parted ways with ours to establish its own, different set of values. In that society, the hollowing of local communities, as we are experiencing it today, does not exist, but there are various medium-scale communities at work that each individual can have confidence in. It is a society in which human beings can live actively and free from nihilistic ideas, by sharing the same narratives that function as footholds for each other. I have come to call it an "alternative (post) modern society", referring to the possible existence of another society in the (post) modern world.
The society in which we are living today is a society that has lost its bottom, and with it the subsumptive quality it is originally supposed to have. It is a society that seems no longer trustworthy, except perhaps for rather dull persons. However, we can't simply isolate ourselves from society (although an increasing number of people are already doing just that), so living with a cynical attitude toward society is about all we can do. While we have realized that there are no more communities that provide us with footholds, we are stuck in a cycle of recursive infinite motion in search of some sort of "community" that bolsters our self-acceptance. We live separated and in a constant state of autophagia, each of us on his or her own island - a microcosm that can't be shared with others. There is no mutual exchange between the islands, and conflict is the only possible form of communication in this society. We are living in incidental times where we are finding ourselves constantly forced to look for ways and means to overcome this situation, while at once being well aware that it is a hopeless mission.
These artists' works as agents of this search through artistic endeavors in particular looked extremely captivating to me. The things they had created were all characterized by the same generosity, warmth and tenderness expressed in countless concrete details that can only be summarized as a "human touch". They formed a dazzlingly vivid, very real and concrete image of that alternative (post) modern idea in my - the observer's - mind, that sent me daydreaming of the actual possibility to establish such kind of society. Now would it be too shortsighted and optimistic to find the possibility to change society in the future in these works infectious enough to create such instant obsessions in the viewer? The answer, I suppose, will depend on whether those who witness the creations shown at this exhibition are able to share the plot of an alternative (post) modern society.
