Seen: Kurata Seiji Memorial Exhibition: “Eros Lost / Flash Up”
Who: Seiji Kurata
Where: Zen Foto Gallery, Roppongi, Tokyo (map)
When: July 3 (Fri) — August 1 (Sat), 2020 (Open 12-7pm. Closed Sun. & Mon.)
Frankly, the bulk of exhibition is un-socially-networkable. I mean, the pictures that make up the “Eros Lost” part, while at home on Tumblr in 2013, can’t be shown on any major platform today. If you’re at all familiar with Shashin-Jidai, the bonkers magazine in which they first appeared in- published in Japan’s decadent era of print*, the 1980s, you’ll understand why.
Shashin-Jidai was a porno-mag pretending to be a photo-mag- - when in fact it was a comedy magazine the entire time. Kurata’s nude work here is not some traditionally celebratory refinement of the human form but rather a series of comical, bizarrely outlandish set pieces where one finds plenty of oil and flesh and tatami but no concept of sin or bad taste. More than a pensive, chin-stroking nod these pictures- perhaps more so with Japanese viewers- elicit laughter above all else.
The pictures I have included above are details of Kurata’s FLASH UP series. Zen Foto’s publication of this series is fantastic (copies remain) but viewing the prints in person is an incredible experience. They’re brilliant.
Along with the show, Zen Foto’s founder, Mark Pearson, has written a wonderful piece about his time with Seiji Kurata:
Seiji Kurata — A Personal Reminiscence of His Later Years
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*Speaking of Shashin-Jidai, a very entertaining and well done movie about Akira Suei, the founder and publisher of the magazine, Dyanamite Graffitti, came out in 2018. The trailer (NSFW-ish) is here.