The highlight of my trip was searching for the artwork of Ken Kagami. He's a little known artist who has done much of the art for the band Deerhoof. Satomi and Ken have been good friends for a long time. I have always been a fan of Deerhoof and admired the artwork for the t-shirts, album covers, and festivals. His artwork is all very provocative. It is flippant towards art, while still having artistic content of its own. It's humorous, but takes itself very seriously. It's simple, but highly complex. He draws pictures of poop, penises, and vaginae.
We went to Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo to see some of his statues. When we got off of the train, M said, "Would there be a gallery here?" We weren't sure if we were in the right place. It was a quiet area with nothing special to see, but the directions we had seemed to be taking us in the right direction. We got to where the gallery should be and only found a big warehouse. So, we called the gallery and eventually discovered the gallery was inside the warehouse.
We got in an elevator and entered an extremely quiet, white space, like a sanctuary. We sheepishly asked how much the entrance fee was at the door, and they told us it was free. We looked at the other artist on display, but didn't see any of Kagami-san's art. We asked them if he was still displayed here, and to our great surprise, they said, "What do you want to see?"
"If you could please come this way to our viewing room."
We walked into a nice room with chairs, a glass table, many books, and a large flat screen TV on the wall. The only westerner there offered us some tea and water. He told us to sit down and wait as they brought out Ken Kagami's personal drawing portfolio containing all the original art for the Milk Man series, which eventually became a Deerhoof album name. I couldn't believe that I was sitting in front of all the original art and just browsing through it as I pleased. Can you imagine your favorite artist just putting all of his artwork in front of you and then saying, "Take a look?"
The westerner, Jeffrey Ian Rosen, was originally from Houston, Texas. He was living in Los Angeles and was working at a gallery until it flopped. He was out of a job and searching until he got a call from his friend in Tokyo. His friend was opening up a gallery and invited him to work there. And now Jeffrey lives and works in Tokyo at an independent gallery. Living the dream. Jeffrey's story inspired me to keep trying and to make all the friends that I can on the way.
We discussed, seriously, the virtues of Kagami's artwork that we appreciated. We talked about how the work was so aesthetically pleasing and draws you in so easily. However, many people, in the art world and outside, don't appreciate being drawn into what appear to be sophomoric poop and pee drawings.
Another topic that Kagami likes to tackle a lot is celebrity and brand name popularity. It's something that has been redone by all the great pop artists. His series, "Celebrity Penises" and "Celebrity Boobs" really ridicule the idea of celebrity while at the same time idolizing these celebrities in his own bizarre way. He knocks off brand names like "Guess" and replaces them with the Japanese word for ugly, "Buss," or takes a celebrity name like "Justin Timberlake," and simply switches two letters to make "Justim Tinberlake." The small change suddenly exposes that it's just a name, and almost makes the reader feel foolish for recognizing it.
Jeffrey and I discussed his obsession with sexual acts displayed through children's stuffed toys and plastic dolls. I told Jeffrey that I thought his artwork was easily disregarded due to the humorous twist, but that he was making a serious statement that is easily forgotten about children. Society regards people as sexual beings only after they reach an imaginary line that society has deemed acceptable. For most countries that is around 18 years old. However, we are constantly changing sexual beings from the day we are born. So, for instance, his Charlie Brown and Snoopy series, take all your favorite childhood characters and totally pervert them. It destroys your image of purity and asexuality from these characters and forces you to recognize a sexuality that is with all of us from the day we are born. Maybe you think that two stuffed toys 69'ing each other is something reserved for the most base of philistines, but in this case, I think it is misunderstood genius.
Another artist that deals with taboo sexuality is Nobuyoshi Araki. Again, someone that I have admired for a long time. However, just like Ken Kagami, if you are a fan, to the mass public, you're questionably perverse.
It was incredible to sit down in front of the original drawings and sculptures and be able to geek out about it for an hour. After that, Jeffrey told us that most of Kagami's art was in storage now, but that he owns a used clothing store. It's open most of the week and we could actually meet him there!
So, the next morning we journeyed to "The Strange Store."
Everything seemed too easy. Should you be able to just catch a bus and walk ten minutes to meet your idolized celebrity god? Here I was walking down the street to meet someone who had before felt so far away and disconnected from reality.
It was in an apartment complex on the third floor. We walked inside.
I asked in Japanese, "Excuse me, but are you Ken Kagami?"
"Hai."
He was there, and he was a really nice guy. He was just a guy with a t-shirt and a hat on. He sold clothes, drew pictures of poop, and lived life how he wanted. After leaving, I thought, "This is for me."
The store also sold hand-drawn merchandise for his graffiti crew "D.F.W." (Down for Whatever), featuring swirly poos wearing cool sunglasses.
I bought a 1 out of 50 special edition, hand silk-screened "Milkman" t-shirt.
On the back, Ken drew my penis.
This was one of the defining points of my life. It was in the store, shaking his hand, that I decided, "I can do this." I want to thank Ken Kagami for his inspiration.
You can click on my penis to follow his blog.
