Harumi Yamaguchi
山口はるみ
“HARUMI GALS"
15 March - 18 April 2015
Opening Reception with South Island Art Night 15th March 5-10pm
AISHONANZUKA is pleased to present first solo exhibition with Harumi Yamaguchi in Hong Kong.
Yamaguchi was born in Matsue in the Shimane prefecture, and graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a degree in oil painting. After working for the publicity department of Seibu Department Stores, Yamaguchi begun her career as a freelance illustrator, participating in the advertising production for PARCO with its opening in 1969. Since 1972 Yamaguchi has depicted female figures using airbrush techniques, instantly establishing herself as an illustrator that symbolized the era.
The encounter between Yamaguchi and PARCO was an inevitable one. Tsuji Masuda whom served as the president of PARCO had established plans for creating a department store that functioned as a cultural facility, collectively combining platforms such as museums, theater, and publishing in addition to retail, and as a result had headhunted Yamaguchi for this endeavor. As could be seen in Masuda’s decision of appointing Eiko Ishioka for the art direction, Kazuko Koike as copywriter, and Harumi Yamaguchi for the illustration, PARCO had soon focused on ‘women’ as a major driving source behind Japanese society of 1970s and onward, further succeeding in diverting this power to the business sector. Yamaguchi’s female figures are far from notions of eroticism as portrayed allegedly through male eyes in the form of pin-ups. On the contrary, the women themselves appear to joyously celebrate their own sexuality and existence. Furthermore, the images of women partaking in boxing, baseball, and skateboarding which Yamaguchi had illustrated in the 70s, could be interpreted as an ironic gesture towards a male-dominant society at a time prior to the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act in 1985 an era when women were unable to equally advance into society.
In the catalog published in correspondence to “Women of the 70s PARCO Poster Exhibition 1969-1986” that took place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2001, Chizuko Ueno had critiqued Yamaguchi’s works stating, “while appearing to adhere to the scenario of male-tailored eroticism, Yamaguchi deconstructs male desire through her exaggerative depictions. As a consequence, the female body is idealized to a realm unreachable by male hands.” (‘The Idea of the Woman’)
Alberto Vargas, famous for his pin-ups for Esquire magazine and Playboy, is notably the international pioneer of airbrush illustrations. However, in the context of early ‘70s Japan there were no pre-eminent illustrators working with the airbrush medium with the exception Harumi Yamaguchi. It is certain that Yamaguchi’s achievements will continue to receive acclaim as an inaugural figure of super-real illustration that took Japan’s advertising industry of the 70s and 80s by storm.
This exhibition will feature a series of prominent pieces selected from a body of work centering upon Yamaguchi’s airbrush illustrations created for PARCO.
AISHONANZUKA 將會在香港展出Harumi Yamaguchi首個個人展覽。
Yamaguchi出生於日本島根縣松江市，並畢業於東京藝術大學主修油畫。曾於株式會社西武百貨店宣傳部門工作，並參與1969年PARCO購物中心開幕的廣告製作，遂開展其插畫事業。自1972年起Yamaguchi運用噴槍技巧描繪女性畫像，瞬即成就她作為插畫家的代表性時期。
Yamaguchi 與PARCO 的合作並非巧合，PARCO主席Tsuji Masuda在構思建築時，希望建構一所集藝術館，劇場，購物中心於一體的文化平台，故特意找到 Harumi Yamaguchi參與計劃。Tsuji Masuda聘任Eiko Ishioka為藝術總監，Kazuko Koike為編輯，Harumi Yamaguchi 負責插畫，由他的選擇中可見PARCO是以七十年代日本社會中的「女性」為主推動力，同時亦因此更成功拓展其商業勢力。Yamaguchi的畫像並非描繪一般男性眼中海報女郎的性感形態，相反地，畫中的女性是歡樂地展現自己的性感和存在。在Yamaguchi七十年代的作品中，是以女性拳擊、打籃球、踩滑板的畫面諷刺女性在1985年平等就業法正式通過前男性主導的社會無法得到公平對待。
在2001年東京都寫真美術館舉行的「PARCO七十年代海報的女性 1969 – 1986展覽」出版書冊中，Chizuko Ueno曾對Yamaguchi的作品評道：「性感畫面的出現都是以男性角度出發，但Yamaguchi的浮誇繪畫卻打破了男性的幻想。在她的影響下，女性身體被理想地塑造成男性難以觸碰的領域。」（《女性思想》）
Alberto Vargas是國際上以噴槍繪畫插圖的先鋒，在Esquire 雜誌以及Playboy中可見他繪畫的著名海報女郎。而七十年代早期，日本插畫家的噴畫作品內容並未能及Yamaguchi所畫的出色，Yamaguchi的插畫首創超現實的圖像，一直深受歡迎並帶領了日本七十及八十年代廣告業的新風潮。是次展覽將會展示一系列當時Yamaguchi為PARCO所繪畫的噴槍繪畫的精選插畫作品。
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