ARAKI NOBUYOSHI - SHIKI IN

ARAKI NOBUYOSHI
SHIKI IN

Published by Aat Room and eyesebcia , 2005
Book size 36.4 x 22.5 cm
Pages 128 pages
Hardcover
Limited edition of 1000
Good condition
Rare book

The year 2005 marked the beginning of publications by Araki which featured his painted photo works. Although this marks the published introduction of his use of vibrant color on top of his black and white photographs, Araki has continuously explored (and perhaps unintentionally) confronted issues of censorship within Japanese society. Faced with prosecution due to the graphic nature of his imagery, Araki, although always having confronted the comfort zones of his viewers, began to blot out and scrape over the genitals in the image substituting the exposed area with hand-scribbled lines of black, using more and more frequently bright and vibrant colors. This application of colors within Shikiin (published in 2005) brilliantly captures this now established part of his repertoire. Included within the pages are 128 images; portraits of his models bound in Kinbaku, vibrantly transformed with the painted brush strokes of Araki's hand. This self censorship of his works added a transformative element to his photographs, presenting them as a visual response on both the laws of censorship, as well as referencing the sexual imagery based on Japanese traditions alongside Araki's own visual motifs of color, used to portray all that is living and the use of monochrome to connote notions of death.

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The year 2005 marked the beginning of Araki's publications that featured his painted photographic works. While this marked the published introduction of his use of bright colors in addition to his black and white photographs, Araki continually (and perhaps unintentionally) explored the issues of censorship within Japanese society. Facing prosecution due to the graphic nature of his images, Araki, while always challenging his viewers' comfort zones, began erasing and scratching out the genitals of the image, replacing the exposed area with hand-scrawled black lines, increasingly using bright, vibrant colors. This application of color within Shikiin (published in 2005) brilliantly captures this now established part of his repertoire. Included within the pages are 128 images; portraits of his Kinbaku-related sitters, vibrantly transformed with the painted brushstrokes of Araki's hand. This self-censorship of his works added a transformative element to his photographs, presenting them as a visual response to both censorship laws, as well as referencing sexual imagery based on Japanese traditions alongside Araki's own visual motifs of colour, used to represent everything that is alive and the use of monochrome to connote notions of death.