Yu Tsukada | Curry as Media and the Transformation of the Masses – “White and Black Beyond the Heat – Big Tetsu and Sachiko Kazuma, Two Eccentric Artists” (Part 2)
This article examines the changing image of the masses in postwar Japan through the works of Big Tetsu and Sachiko Kazuma.Summary
This article, the second part of a series based on the exhibition “White and Black Beyond the Heat – Big Tetsu and Sachiko Kazuma, Two Eccentric Artists” held at the Fujisawa City Art Space, explores the transformation of the masses in postwar Japanese society by comparing and contrasting Big Tetsu’s “Knife Man Mihei” and Sachiko Kazuma’s “Intersection of People Diplomacy.” It points out the difference between the fanatical masses depicted in the “Curry War” chapter of Big Tetsu’s work and the modern people absorbed in their smartphones and indifferent to their surroundings in Kazuma’s work. The article also discusses the shift in mass society theory since the 1980s and introduces Chizuko Ueno’s concept of a “mass society without models.” Ultimately, it concludes that the modern people depicted in Kazuma’s work are a contemporary caricature of the clustered masses of the 1980s and beyond.
(Source：artscape)