Japanese artist experiments with maestro's finest works

Susi Andrini, Contributor, Ubud, Bali

For many Indonesian art lovers, the name Yasumasa Morimura is not a familiar name. But in Japan, the artist has carved out a reputation as one of the most talented contemporary artists, expressing his art through photography instead of canvas and oil.

Looking into Morimura's 21 works recently on display at Gaya Fusion of Senses Gallery in Ubud, one may easily recognize the object of his works.

With his superb talent in using high-tech equipment including computer manipulation, Morimura liberally takes from maestros like Dutch master Vincent Van Gogh and his Sun Flower and Self- Portraits, from Leonardo da Vinci's Monalisa and the works of Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol.

Born in Osaka, Japan in l951, Morimura studied arts at Kyoto City University of Arts and graduated in l978.

Photography has long been regarded as documentary works rather than "pure fine arts". But, Morimura does not feel discouraged.

Borrowing masterpieces of famous artists, he continues experimenting to create new and, sometimes, shocking creations.

Morimura's photographic works clearly show his skill in doing things outside the recognized convention of modern arts -- blending his photographic skill and computer technology to create numerous distinguished works of art. Morimura also smartly attached and pasted his own image and then mixed it with the images of, among others, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Monalisa, Vincent van Gogh and others taken from several works of international masters.

Morimura, for example, reconstructing -- or more probably deconstructing Van Gogh's Sun Flower into his own Singing Sun Flower (l998) in which he flourished his own image onto the flowers. His face appears in each of the flower's petals. Here, Morimura exploits a montage technique. It took him months to make his works resemble the original masterpiece.

In Leonardo da Vinci's Monalisa, Morimura uses a bigger canvas measuring 290x200 cm in size. He successfully enlarged the original da Vinci work that was only put on 77x53 cm canvas.

In Portrait (Nine Faces, l998), Morimura puts his face on the nine doctors appearing in the original Rembrandt masterpiece. He uses digital printing techniques to produce amazing lighting and visual effects.

In his home country, the emergence of photographic artists like himself is a new phenomenon. It required quite a long time for Morimura to get a foothold in the Japanese contemporary arts world. Morimura's works received harsh criticism especially from academicians and modern artists who refused to call Morimura's creations works of art.

For curator Rifky Effendi, Morimura's works represent the triumph of information media technology. The artist is slithering into the world of images by provoking the established values through a manner of making arts, which is, not only full of humor, but also critical and clever.

"From that point, he seems starting to create a long debate on the world of meanings: between art and life, art and artists, Eastern and Western, masculinity and femininity, avant-garde and kitsch and finally between love and hate."

Co-curator Agung Hujatnikajennong added that through his specific manner of creating art, Morimura is attempting a kind of emancipation over the domination of the Western icons, both in a sense of high arts and pop culture.

Morimura's works are now on display at Galeri I See in Jakarta until Feb. 21 and finally the works will be shown in Makassar, South Sulawesi.