Mar 21

WIT Life #157: Bye Bye Kitty!!!

Art, Events, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WIT Life #157: Bye Bye Kitty!!!

WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the opening for the Japan Society’s newest exhibit, Bye Bye Kitty!!! The title refers to opposition towards the domination of Japan’s kawaii-ness, the idea of cuteness that has become Japan’s major export as represented by Hello Kitty.  It features 16 artists, many of them quite young and not household names, and their interpretation of this concept.  I was particularly drawn in by the intricacy of the works of 38-year old Manabu Ikeda, whose pen and ink masterpieces were incredibly detailed and required several minutes of close examination to take in all of their elements.

Equally interesting was the large-scale installation from 39-year old Chiharu Shiota, which depicted a wedding dress with blood literally being sucked from it.  Other thought-provoking works were 39-year old Motohiko Odani’s distorted Zen masks and 36-year old Kohei Nawa’s actual deer covered with plastic bubbles allowing you to see inside some of them.  The only appearance of the eponymous Kitty was in the exhibit’s final work, the photo shown here from the most famous of the group, 52-year old Yoshitomo Nara who was the focus of Asia Society Nobody’s Fool exhibit last year.

In work news, this weekend I had the opportunity to interpret for Yogamata Keiko Aikawa, who was in town for the NEWLIFE Expo.  During the course of the event she gave two lectures, which culminated in a two-hour meditation workshop held on the last day.  Participants came away with a greater sense of peace and a deep sense of respect for this spiritual legend, the first non-Indian woman to realize the ultimate state of samadhi (a spiritual state of consciousness).  I learned a lot and it was truly an honor to be able to work with her!