Shimon Minamikawa

Painting (Painting)

In Play , the image comes from a fashion magazine from the 1950’s (USA) whose theme is costume sportswear from the 19th century. The image was first used in a series involving playing cards which have subsequently gone on to be used in a series of performances. There is cultural contextual displacement and confusion which is presented in the work which embodies the sense of – Play – that was introduced into Shimon’s work.

Shimon Minamikawa

Painting (Painting)

The painting Index (Tokyo) includes an image of a protest march in Japan. There is some humor in this image and also cultural contextual confusion and displacement, embodied in the painting. The protest we can see on the clipping is against two things : 1)recently the Japanese government revised the constitution (some say illegally) so that the right to collective self-defense is possible; this basically re-militarizes Japan ending decades of pacifism and this sparked the largest public protests in recent years and 2) the protestors are also marching against re-starting nuclear power plants in Japan post-Fukushima.