Seen: Delon-kun Returns デロン君が帰ってきたゾーウ
Who: Nobuyoshi Araki 荒木経惟
Where: Art Space AM, Harajuku (map)
When: April 5 - May 22, 2019 (Open 1-7pm. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays)
Epitomizing Nobuyoshi Araki’s rising popularity in China the latest exhibition at Art Space AM ties in with a recent release by Hong Kong based art-object producers APPortfolio.
For this APPortfolio project sculptor Keith Wong created an edition of ceramic three-trunked elephants based on Araki’s character Delon-kun, a creature that was part of a larger family of underground doodles Araki often drew in the 1970s. Each Delon-kun arrives glazed either white or brown in a wooden box and, since this is at its core about a particular photographer, comes with a signed original Araki polaroid. (A 3min video about the project is on youtube, here.)
The photographic exhibition in Harajuku itself is a continuation of the photographer’s current output of still lifes- the 6x7 color photos include recent compositions of the elephant sculptures with Araki’s other figures while the two hundred and six Polaroids exhibited are a mix of recent and vintage images.